8th Anniversary Collaborative West Coast IPA
Other Half Brewing - Center Street

 

 

This was the second of two collaborative beers for Other Half’s 8th anniversary that I was able to get my hands on. Unlike the other one that I reviewed on here, this was influenced much more by who they paired up with as this felt like a West Coast IPA from the get-go because of the strong bitterness and strong feeling of hop oils. While more sharp and acrid than what I"m accustomed to from these guys, this was a lovely beer with a left coast feel that had it's rough edges smoothed out a bit!

Golden, nearly clear, and topped off with a small and fast-dissolving head, this looked like cider when held up to the light as there were a few streams of small bubbles rising up around the liquid. The nose was muted but contained lots of Mosaic and Simcoe dankness with some earthiness, pine, and Maris Otter in the nose. Lots of Sierra Nevada and Lagunitas in the taste as there was a nice undertone of resin. deep citrus pith, and left coast hops in the taste along with a bit of lager-like skunk and exotic Motueka that helped dial the harshness back a bit. Subtly sticky and full from the bread-like body, there were hints of lime and valencia oranges that complemented everything else nicely as they lingered in the aftertaste for quite a while.

Very little lacing was left behind but besides that, I enjoyed every attribute of this beer as the alcohol was spot-on and the carbonation light enough to stay behind the array of hops and flavors that fully emerged once as this warmed up. Dated 1/28 on the bottom of the can, this aged well and was just as good as anything that I've had from the left coast in recent years. Love both of these breweries and this collaboration between them was worthy to be included in Other Half's 8th anniversary lineup. The trippy label centered around their logo was just the icing on the cake!