Windjammer IPA
Green Beacon Brewing Co

 

$11 AUD per Schooner at the brewery:

Fine. A bit too sweet with an underdeveloped hop profile, but not undrinkable.

C / AVERAGE

 

Poured from a 375ml can into a tulip glass. Can packaged on 16/11/2018
Look: Pours a kind of earthy yellow. Hazy. Cannot see my fingers on the other side of the glass at all. The head started at about an inch, with lots of tight forming bubbles. Fell back to a thin film of head.
Smell: Quite rich, with piney hops straight up and then a little orange/citrus. A little sweetness in there, maybe honey/biscuityness.
Taste: straight away there is a little of the orangey hop that quickly turns into a generic bitterness, not too aggressive, or too subtle. As it opens up the piney flavours present in the smell come forward more, Pine, orange, a little sweetness then finishing with the bitterness that seems to taste a little more piney as you have more.
Feel: little prickly bubbles on the front of the tongue, but really fills the mouth, the bitterness hits the back of the palate, and lingers there for a while. Decent length.
Overall: a good IPA, the smell hits you as soon as you open the can, and the taste follows along the same route.

 

 

 

 

 

Back to ye newee Green Beacon Shipping Co. (what with all their nautical brew names it feels like I’m buying a shipping container instead of a can of beer). I did feel I had neglected them in their much attended infancy whilst enjoying many a brew and am now rectifying this with multiple reviews - I may even have them all reviewed by the end of April! What a treat that would be! So I guess the question on everyone’s chapped lips is “where can I find a USDA approved organic lip gloss that will keep my lips moist during the driest of days?” The answer is: “you’re at the wrong blog, go to: fuckmylipsarechapped.wordpress.com”.

Poured from a 375ml can into a nonic pint.

A: Nice lightly hazed, like something called a “freshman” at something Americans call “college” (which is actually university) entering something called a “frat house”, with an amber body and a thin off-white head. Tasty. 8/10.

S: Hops all over the place with tropical/fruity/bubble-gum/piney notes - bold and assertive, and most importantly as juicy as any US-brewed IPA I’ve ever tried. Granted - the beer is a lot fresher when it is brewed 3 suburbs away from where you live, however this is still an impressive and stalwart aroma for an IPA. 9/10.

T: Strained fresh orange and pineapple juice hits upfront, leads into a spicy/piney hop centre, hits you with a sweet juicy fruit chewing gum and lychee mid to late palate and washes it down with a medium grassy hop bitter finish. It’s west coast meets east coast by way of Australia and it’s as good as an IPA can ever get (without being as perfectly crafted as Deschutes Fresh Squeezed or Victory DirtWolf of course!). 9/10.

M: Borderline medium bodied with a bit of the old hop resins and a light but dense carbonation. 7/10.

D: Not sure if it’s due to the can or the whole proximity to the brewery thing but this IPA is a taste of what a real fresh American IPA can be like and there is no higher praise to any Aussie brewer than: “you really can play with the big boys over in the states”. This IPA is a perfect example of where Green Beacon is going and it is upwards and onwards, forever twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom! Ahem, anyway this is a cracker of an IPA (and much cheaper than Pirate Life’s IIPA, I know it’s not the same style but similar nonethefuck) get it peeps. 9/10.

Food match: You better make it spicy Thai, Indonesian or Vietnamese.

Pours amber with a large head.
Nose shows piny, herbal and spicy hops. A nice hit of sweet clean malt underneath.
Flavours include more pine and spicy hops along with heavy sweet malt.