Double Dry Hopped Hop Showers w/ Galaxy
Other Half Brewing - Center Street

 

 

 

 

 

Eggshell white to light tan head, crests over a finger, good retention and about as solid a sheet of lacing as I have seen in some time. Resin and tar tend to dominate the nose, albeit when first poured it was just about all melon and pineapple, rounds it out with unprocessed grains and white grapefruit pith, not displaying much breadth. Medium-bodied and not as heavy as expected, in the same vein not all that dry to me, pacing through the palate better for it. That graininess more biscuit here, dankness down a notch. Finding the fruit still melon-led, then pineapple, guava of moderate juiciness. White citrus adds plenty of punch. Clean finish without a lot of undesirable aftertaste. Preferred it closer to fridge temp than room temp. (Canned 9/23/20)

 

 

 

Poured from a can (23Sep2020) into a Teku

L: pours a dark dirty orange with a very thick and foamy slightly off-white head. Leaves thick lacing as the head fades, and with each sip

S: presents a fairly standard NEIPA dank/overripe tropical fruit nose but isn’t in your face, with a bit of citrusy bitterness accompanying it. Get some passionfruit, papaya, orange, grapefruit. Sweeter aroma immediately after pouring out of the can, danker notes coming through more as it sits in the glass

T: the citrus bitterness takes a bit more of a lead here, cutting through the tropical fruit from the nose. Orange at first, with the richer/danker papaya/passionfruit coming closely behind. There’s a slightly earthy character to the swallow I like, quite prominent in the finish. The review below mentioned dry chocolate, and I can certainly see that drying character from a block of dark chocolate along with a more vegetal nature (not nearly to the level of bad galaxy, to be clear!). Medium/long finish

F: medium+ body, medium+ carbonation, fairly smooth, slight bitterness, easy to drink

O: a great IPA, overshadowed by the bar OH has set for themselves. Solid galaxy character on the nose and swallow, smooth and delicious. A beer that doesn’t have me jumping up and down, but I certainly don’t mind having a can (or two) of

 

Picked this up last week at Other Half, as I wanted to give this and the Citra iteration a go. Love Hop Showers as it was the first beer that I ever had from these guys and I though it was interesting how they gave it a go featuring Galaxy. Sure, the Amarillo and Citra base was here but this was quite dank for something that was much more smooth and unassuming in it's original take!

This poured similar to most beers from Other Half as it was dank, apricot in hue, and topped off by a soft, fluffy head. It's been ages since I saw one that took forever to settle but this one seemed to last for ages as it left a deep rings near the top of my pint glass with a good amount of splotchy suds the rest of the way down. Lots of dank Galaxy hops in the nose with some dew, weed, and deep vegetables as the taste was also quite heavy-handed on the palate. The funny thing was that the liquid itself didn't feel that way as this was slick and had some underlying notes of deep citrus and earthiness. A bit of vegetable soup and deep forest rounded out the taste as this was easy to quaff but a lot to take in, with a soft residue of smoothness left on my teeth once I finished this off.

The booze was spot-on as I felt a bit on my breathe and a slight warming effect take hold before during my session. Canned on 9/23, this was super-fresh without any variation as some weed and dry chocolate almost had this feeling like something out of rural California. Lovers of Galaxy will find this fun and somewhat familiar as it felt like an Other Half beer, while being a bit more edgy and raw than their typical fare. Fun stuff with a nice sense of outdoorsy heft and vigor that left me wanting more...