Hop Tart
Holgate Brewhouse / Keatings Hotel

Having tried now over 80 APAs (craft brewing's second most common style), my question is: what does this bottle add.
And curiously, it adds quite a bit.
While not among my Top Ten, Hop Tart is the only effort I know to combine sour with an APA base.
I assume they do this by adding some brett-like bacteria to the yeast... but that is a novice's guess.
What I am certain of is this very refreshing beer helps solve the problem in this hot climate of beer too often being too bland or too hoppy. Hop Tart is neither. It is balanced and, most important, balanced in its use of the sour... which typically gets over-used until the brewer becomes more of a master of this volatile substance.

So Mates, Congratulations on a job well done !
My advice: try to find an importer who can distribution in Illinois.

 

On-tap served in a pint glass at Wishbeer, Bangkok.

Clear golden color with white foamy head, some sticky lace appear once the head dissipated.

Quite inviting aroma, so juicy, tropical, sweet raspberry, cherry, tart, sour, lime, lactic, floral, and light bready malt.

Not that tart and sour in the taste considering the aroma, it is balanced out by some sweet bready malt and hop character of tropical fruits and some bitterness. The end is juiciness and tartness to wrap up and linger in the aftertaste.

Medium body with some crisp and moderate carbonation through the palate, refreshing with a dry finish. Pale Ale + Sour Ale = Delicious, this should be the equation.

Light gold with a slight haze, moderate small bubbled carbonation and a half finger of white head.

Smells of acidic juice, violet and lilac flowers.

Tastes of big lemon juice notes, and very purple, floral, and slightly jammy flavours.

Very light body, heavily carbonated with pop rock and fizz.

Got on wish beer, drinking in Chiang Mai, Nov 19th, 2016. Its more of a sour beer than a pale ale, bridging the styles.

Holgate Hop Tart immediately caught my eye with its label containing a hop flower in a fairly radical colour scheme: Bright pink/purple and light blue. Plus I don’t mind this whole meshing of styles between sour beers and Pale Ales/IPAs - it gives us something new but isn’t a silly trend like craft beers that have fruits added to them. In any case the marketing and label design worked for me on this, and Holgate are alright (at times), so here we are: Review #712... FYI... not that it really matters.

Poured from a 330ml bottle into a Sierra Nevada US pint glass.

A: Pale straw hazed body with a thin white cappuccino head on top. Not bad, quite noticeably paler than most Pale Ales (which as I explained to a lady yesterday was named for its use of “pale malts” not for being “pale in colour”... I got the impression she didn’t believe me, stupid lady). 7/10.

S: More tangy than sour on the nose, it has that charming candied lemon and orange starburst fragrance that you find in certain Pale Ales and IPAs. Slight cracked pepper spiciness and a hint a lychee as well. It’s definitely got the aroma of a hop-driven brew, which I will definitely drink to: Cheers! 8/10.

T: Sourness hits right up along the front of the tongue - where the sweeter taste-buds usually hang out - as such there is very little/if any sweetness in this brew. Following that is a grainy note (which I generally find in Australian Lagers and hate with a passion), some lemon, hints of stonefruit, and not much else. It’s surprising how much the Lactobacillus (the sour element) takes over the flavour profile. I suspect it has something to do with it being added to the wort before the boil - the sourness has time to take over the malt components of this brew. 6/10.

M: Mid to light bodied with a flat but dense carbonation - this one got flat real quick - doesn’t bother me, however just noting. 6/10.

D: Not a great deal going on with this brew apart from sourness, which whilst not being intense does manage to push aside the other critical flavours one would normally find in a beer: Sweet, and to a lesser extent, bitter. Apart from being one-dimensional there’s not much else to say, it could be better, we know Holgate have brewed winners here-and-there, this is not one of those beers. Might be better ice-cold on a hot summers day, however my blog isn’t named “Doc’s Beerz that Beez Good on a Hot Summaz Day” if you want to read that blog go create it yourself... weirdo. 6/10.

Food match: Something fish related... with strips of something potato related.

From bottle, pours a pale straw yellow colour with a small white head.
Aroma grapefruit, passionfruit, citrus, lemon.
Taste lemon, citrus, sour, pineapple. This is not to bad.