18 Hours From Brooklyn
Toppling Goliath Brewing Company

 

 

18 Hours From Brooklyn

Toppling Goliath Brewing Co./Other Half

IPA - Imperial / Double

The multitude of hops, including Saaz!! Has many layers of complexity. Orange citrus zest, tropical candy and earthy pine all seem to roll on forever. The malt base is actually pretty heavy and flavorful, with a rich honey golden grain effect. Sip it.

 

Pours a cloudy amber brew with long-lasting foam in the big Stout glass. Moderate but distinct acidity with the usual astringent aftertaste of these New Englanders. Fruity with citrus peel. A little hot with alcohol and what seems like hop oils to me. The orange candy intensity is quite unrelieved.

Overall this is a better than average hazy IPA. I don't know, however, why you would use this overdose of hops to make a beer mure murky and less drinkable.The back of the throat suffers after half a glass. From the 16 oz can purchased at the big box store. Packaged 06/06/22.

Pours a hazy dark orange with a 3F head and moderate lacing.

Smells of slightly dank floral, piney hops with some citrus and melon.

Tastes of sweet malt, orange, pineapple, mango and cantaloup with a slightly bitter finish.

Medium body with light carbonation. Slightly lush and syrupy mouthfeel.

This is a very juicy, complex and tasty brew. It is neither too sweet nor too bitter.

From an outdated 16 oz can with a Best By date of 10/1/22. Sampled Nov 19, 2022. No wonder it was on clearance.

The appearance is an opaque, hazy, sedimentary looking orange amber under a boisterous white head. Lacing.

The aroma expresses orange, tangerine, and nectarine notes with a cardboard and bready malt base.

Medium or better mouthfeel.

The taste was a letdown but it may be due to the age of the can. Sweet then orange juice characters and a big bitter finale. Probably would have been better a few weeks before I tried it.

Packaged on 6-3-22 - best by 10-01-22. 4 months? That's asking a lot of distributors and buyers, and since I bought it ( w/out checking) on 10-27 the turnover is not as quick as the breweries collaborating on this (Other Half Brewing) would like.
It pours a thick, opaque golden amber with an impressive 1 inch head of craggy, clotted creamy white foam. That head hung around till the end with lots of lacy cling.
The aroma is a welcome change from the expected tangerine and grapefruit blast giving off more subtle, spicy noble hop notes of cilantro and lemon grass, crushed raisins and spruce tips mingling with sweet toasted malt richness.
The flavor is more beer-like than most of these hazy Pale Ales - they aren't IPA's.... but I digress. Hints of wheat and honey, solid medium mouth feel but not "fluffy" or soft, though bittering hops seems timid as per usual with this style.
This is why I keep trying these Hazy concoctions - sometimes they pleasantly surprise.
The finish is long and mildly bitter- pepper and a nutty grain aftertaste that offers a chewy complexity to savor along with a faint tickle of alcohol that had been hiding in plain sight.

 

 

 

Pours a orangeish yellow with a good amount of head retention. Loads of tangerine and peach on the nose. Maybe some mango as well. Getting syrupy pineapple, orange zest, sticky pine, maybe a hint of red onion. It's got some nice peppery resiny bitterness. It's got a good bicoastal profile that kind of feels like a modernized Two Hearted. I like this but I don't know how many of these I can drink.

 

 

 

 

12oz can from Half Time. Thick pour, looks like pear nectar. Light fruity, tropical aroma. Taste is sweet and passion fruit, some sourish, sake-like notes also. Refreshing.

 

 

 

a ipa loaded with hops great hop taste in every sip - a hoppy beer to remember

Super smooth with perfect amount of hops.

 

Exactly as expected from a toppling Goliath IPA, very similar to some of their other beers.

 

Canned 6/3/22

Appearance: Pours a nearly completely hazy (20% clarity), medium orange color with a ton of visible sediment floating in the glass. (4.25)

Aroma: Strong aromas of orange citrus, pineapple, citrus flower, white grape, lychee, some light, green melon. (4.25)

Flavor: Orange, grapefruit citrus upfront. Citrus flower too. Then strong flavors of white peach, pineapple, lychee, white grape. More citrus flower. Then slightly piney and grapefruit and vinous juice flavor on the finish. (4.25)

Feel: Medium-bodied. Decent to strong carbonation. A smooth, slightly creamy mouthfeel. A light pine bitterness lingers, but still soft on the palate. (4.25)

Compared to Toppling Goliath Citroid 7/29/22: Pours a lighter color with less sediment in the glass. More citrus flower, lychee, white grape. Less tropical orange and canteloupe. Dryer, cleaner, and more refined. Winner: This one.

Compared to Burley Oak Citralaxy 8/31/22: Pours a darker, hazier color. Stronger head and aromas. More juicy citrus, citrus flower, white peach, and vinous notes. Less citrus rind, pine, earthy blueberry. Juicier, sweeter, more flavorful. Winner: Toppling Goliath

Compared to Hop Butcher Green Fly 9/8/22: Pours a darker, clearer color. Stronger aromas. More citrus rind, pineapple rind, white grape, floral notes. Less pineapple sap and peach/papaya. Stronger flavors, slightly sweeter.

Compared to TG Soul Hunter 10/22: Pours a slightly brighter and clearer color. More tropical and bright berry aromas. Less citrus rind. Less bitter. Juicier and sweeter.

Compared to Toppling Goliath Radiant Haze 10/2022: Pours slighter darker. Similar aromas. Similar flavors, but more juicy pineapple and vinous berries. Less orange flower and pine. Less pine. Juicier and sweeter as well with less bitterness.

Compared to Eagle Park Demon Haze 10/2022: Pours slightly darker, more juicy aromas. More orange, pineapple, and vinous berry. Less grapefruit and tropical peach. Similar juiciness.

Overall: A very nice collab here. This one showcases the Citra from Toppling Goliath and balances it with some Australian hops to give it the lychee, and white peach & grape flavor. Even a touch of pine bitterness. The body is soft, yet clean. Glad to see these two breweries doing some stuff together. This is one of their best and stands up to time. I wish they would brew this one fresh again. (Rating: 4.30+)

Canned on: 06-03-22

A - Dark, opaque golden tan color with a very rocky, dense head floating on top. There's tons of lacing clinging to the sides of the glass.

S - Loads of fruit aroma on this one: Mango, tropical fruit, berry, passionfruit, citrus, and sweet grapefruit jump out of the glass.

T - Mango, tropical fruit, passionfruit, peach, some berry, juicy floral, and ends balanced with a slight nod towards the piney bitter side with lingering spicy citrus and tropical fruit on the palate (with a layer of juicy floral underneath).

M - Big medium body and ends with a little bit of wetness that quickly gets sucked up into a dry finish.

O - This is a really enjoyable big IPA.

This is a fantastic collaboration beer! I agree with the review that states that this tastes a lot like other TG hazy IPAs, and not sure what is different here, but still, really fantastic!

 

Pours the ubiquitous hazy orange color so many hazies gravitate toward, with a delightfully creamy white head that is gripping my glass for all it’s worth. Dank citrus notes dominate the nose, with (glancing at the “Hazy IPA Brewer’s Dictionary”) ripe tangerine, grapefruit, loads of pineapple, and a literal truckload of lychee.

The lychee is forward on the taste, and is delicious, balanced by the tangerine, grapefruit, and especially the pineapple, with a medium mouthfeel that edges toward creamy, making this an especially drinkable hazy - yet I wonder one thing:

Why the need for a “collab” when this is strikingly similar to other TG hazies? This is delicious, and worthy of your consideration if you’re itching to drink an excellent hazy (IMHO), but there’s nothing “special” here. It’s another hazy in a veritable sea of hazies, and I’d expect a collab from two world-class breweries to step a bit outside the proverbial box.

 

 

When I say this beer's look and feel are unremarkable, that's praise. IPAs are for drinking, not looking at or feeling, so a bog-standard IPA look and feel means no marks off, 100% A+. Smell and taste are more relevant, and here I think there's something quietly special about the beer. Nothing overt, but Toppling Goliath's made an almost unbelievably balanced mixture of aromas and flavors. Not too sweet, not overly hoppy, not sour or too citrusy, but in a good zone all around. The balance is not a special thing or a sweet spot, it doesn't draw attention to itself, but overall this is the sort of beer that rewards both savoring it and leaving it in the background of your attention, and that's a deceptive sort of quality - few beers do it well enough.

 

 

When everything stands out, then nothing stands out. And this is the white noise that residents of Brooklyn adapt in order to focus on what's good in life. And that's the focus of Toppling Goliath and Other Half when they embark upon a collaborative ale that's the hoppy equivalent of the kitchen sink approach.

Backed with Idaho 7, Citra, Saaz, Simcoe, Nelson Sauvin and Mosaic varieties of hops, 18 Hours From Brooklyn gets going on its hoppy journey by first pouring with a pale and slightly muddy gold. As a dense haze coats the glass, the rife and radiant bouquet of bruised citrus, tropical fruit, dank herb, peppery grasses, muddled spruce and toasted cereal create a cornucopia of hops on the nose. Sweeter and richer on the tongue, the beer lays a dense layer of cereal, grain, malt and cream on the early palate.

One by one, the hops spring to life and dominate the cereal with the citrusy flavors of lime, orange, white grapefruit, lime and lemon balm; and then a tropical taste of pineapple, mango, papaya, passionfruit and pawpaw- all of the slightly over ripened varieties. With additional flavors of coconut, black currant, plum, apricot and nectarine, the fruit flavors are endless. All lead to a spicy bitterness of fresh spruce, juniper, cannabis, mossy grassiness and an earthen rye-like grit all give the finish a "dirty" hop bite with lemon pepper, verbena and black tea in tow.

Full bodied, spicy and warm with vodka-like heat, the beer finishes on the drier and spicier side of malty-dry with a medium-long linger of muddled fruit peels and earthy hemp. Balanced with hints of coconut and eucalyptus, this beer has new flavors to explore along its long and adventurous journey.