GrowHop Series - Galaxy IPA
Phillips Brewing & Malting Co.

 

341ml bottle, a refugee from one of the current Phillips Hopboxes. As if I have to tell you, this is brewed with Australian-bred Galaxy hops, and no other.

This beer pours a slightly hazy, medium copper amber colour, with three fingers of puffy, densely foamy, and somewhat creamy ecru head, which leaves a band of gear chain lace around the glass as it slowly ebbs away.

It smells of mildly dank pine resin, sharp orange and tangelo citrus rind, some indistinct cold melon notes, spearmint, a touch of passion fruit and gooseberry tropicals, and grainy, doughy caramel malt. The taste is bready, doughy, and lightly pastry-like caramel malt, wet pine needles, still edgy citrus pith astringencies, mixed tropical berry fruit, and a further leafy, earthy, and herbal hop bitterness.

The bubbles are fairly sturdy in their plainly supportive frothiness, the body a solid middleweight, and mostly smooth, as these particular hops seem to have better things to do than mess around here. It finishes off-dry, both the malt sweetness and hop fruitiness leaning and stretching in that direction.

Another enjoyable and pleasantly quaffable single-hopped IPA from this showcase series from Phillips. It helps, I suppose, that the hop in question is so versatile, taking on aromatic and flavour roles that normally require a heady blend. Something tells me that this one might follow in Kaleidoscope's footsteps, and attain full-time production status.