Hard Day Northwest IPA
Red Truck Beer Company Ltd.

 

 

 

solid entry level ipa, but does not excel in any area besides perhaps affordability when on sale. fairly high drinkability and seems well balanced, but perhaps largely because it has significantly less flavour and abv than many other IPAs - I guess that's what some refer to as a "session IPA"? If it's on sale I'd definitely get it again, but otherwise it's hard to justify choosing it over the other IPAs. I rarely comment on art, but the way the painting is printed on the cans looks brilliant, and different from any can art i've seen before.

355ml can - it's not often that I appreciate the marketing babble on the product, but I gotta give credit where credit is due - this is a good one. Look it up, if you want to know, you lazy-ass so-and-sos!

This beer pours a mostly clear, medium golden yellow colour, with three zaftig fingers of puffy, loosely rocky, and somewhat bubbly eggshell white head, which leaves some decent layered flock of seagulls pattern lace around the glass as it quickly blows off.

It smells of bready and crackery pale mat, muddled domestic citrus rind, a faint earthy yeastiness, and some prominent leafy, weedy, and piney green hoppiness. The taste is grainy and bready caramel malt, orange and white grapefruit rind, a bit of sour otherness, soaked sidewalks (if I ever had the occasion to sample them), and more edgy earthy, musty, and dank-o-rific piney hop bitters.

The carbonation is fairly benign in its tongue-baiting frothiness, the body an average middleweight, and mostly smooth, the hard day not contributing too much of a salve to that particular cause. It finishes trending dry, the hops and extra point and change of booze keeping those home fires lit, in more ways than one.

Overall - I will always appreciate an old-school west-coast IPA, because that's what I cut my teeth on, and those eastern variants are fine, but generally leave me cold, relatively speaking. Good on this value brew from Lotusland for succeeding in recreating pretty much the real deal.

Clear pale golden brew with plenty of foam in the Stella goblet. Almost watery but suitably sudsy on the tongue. Clean and refreshing with a mellow malt flavor to start. On the lighter side of the flavor wheel, but well balanced in every way. Flavors of peach, melon, and wheat with a mild bitterness in the aftertaste.

Overall this is a very friendly and quaffable IPA. This would be one to keep in the fridge for visitors to admire your good taste while leaving your stock of fancier stuff alone. From the 12 oz can. Dated 7/31/20, so all the more remarkable to taste so good after nine months in the can.

 

Can:

Hop profile is fine but uninspired. Depth of flavour is decent at best. Balanced but not horribly bold.

A forgettable stab at the most oversaturated style in the world. Not bad but not a beer I'd buy again.

C / AVERAGE

 

12oz can poured into 14oz teku. Date code smeared on the bottom, and thus, illegible. Poured a beautiful, clean, clear coppery-amber color with three-quarters of an inch of white head that had good retention and moderate lacing.

The aroma had a soft malt base, with a hint of citrus and pine hops over the top.

Similar on the tongue, with the hops being a bit brighter.

The body was nicely on the full side of medium, smooth, and had a medium finish.

Drinkability was fine, no issues drinking it, but I also wasn't left craving another.

Overall, a nice, solid example of the style. Worth a shot of you see it.