No.7 West Coast Double IPA
Harbour Brewing Company

 

So, cards on table. I'm a huge fan of Stone IPA. It's probably one of my all time favourite beers. You've got that spikey, piney, resinous aroma - but what really seals the deal with that beer is the chewy malt backbone. I wish I could find more Westies which lean into their malts. Stone, as far as I am concerned, is a perfect West Coast IPA and the yardstick by which I measure every other Westie I drink.

This beer, like Stone IPA, looks like a glass full of tree sap. It's a picture. And, as you'd expect from how it looks, that caramel malt is in abundance. I really need more IPA's like this in my life. Those straw coloured Westies just don't land the same. But this is not a perfect surrogate. Compared with Stone it is lacking that aggressively piney hoppiness on the taste/aroma, and it's nowhere near as bitter nor as dank. But, all round, this is a fantastic West Coast double. Nary a Friday goes by where I don't settle down and savour at least one of these.

Great effort.

Canned in a big old tallboy crafty craft can and purchased as part of a delivery from ASDA’s online service
Pours a fairly clear amber body with nice white head
Aroma is glucose and lime
Flavour is glucose abd tannins