Whole Punch: Hawaiian Punch
Hitchhiker Brewing Company

 

 

Poured from a 16 oz can into a Dogfish Head tulip

L: Golden amber pour.. with big fluffy white head. Nice retention and lacing.

S: Tart and fruity. Hawaiian punch and citrus.

T.F: Sweet/mildly tart. Lactose and fruit. Grapefruit, orange, and hawaiian punch. Papaya and Hibiscus. Medium bodied... fairly smooth. Modest bitterness at the finish with lingering punch.

O: A decent enough milkshake.. and the little bit of tartness works with the flavor. Not world beater, but a solid pool-side brew.

The beer looks unappetizing. It is a brown-red color. The red isn't beer red. It looks more like someone bleed a bit into the beer. There are chunks of fruit that float around too. Those do no help. The head is pinkish. On the nose, it is fruit punch like but with a very strong alcohol smell. Its is fusel alcohols and not a clean alcohol smell. Taste wise, the alcoholic off flavors are still there. The IPA base isn't bad per se. The fruit punch character doesn't mesh well with it though. Why they added vanilla is beyond me. What does it contribute? It doesn't belong in the beer. The fruit punch itself is a stretch. It is a good mixture of sweetness and bitter though. the hops have a piney taste which is nice. the feel is good thanks to the lactose. The carbonation is good as well. Overall, this beer is bad. They through shit into the recipe without thinking about it and they brewed it in such a way as to have fusel alcohol. Not good.

Really strange lactose milkshake IPA. Has a lot of weird hops going against the sweetness of the vanilla and the hibiscus doesn't help just makes it more bitter. Breweries stop using hibiscus!

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to JLindros.

A - Poured into a Kate the Great tulip a nice slightly hazy ruby red grapefruit juice hue with a thin head.

S - Aromas of nice light fruits but super bitter finish.

T - Taste is similar to the nose with loads of grapefruit bitterness. Too much generic bitterness.

M - Mouthfeel is lightly carbonated, crisp finish.

O - Overall this was a rather underwhelming. Super generic bitterness.

Serving Type: can

 

Crowler

Light fizzy head, pink color murky

Nose armpit dank onion but also weird pineapple fruity thing, don't even know

Taste more weird vegetal pine onion, weird fruit, lactose like reprocessed powdered milk, little pineapple dank rind, spicy pine late, cereal wheat grain

Mouth is med bod light carb

Overall wtf is this?!

 

Beautiful orange-pink color. The smell of various citrus is obvious - particularly orange and mango. This has a refreshing juicy taste with a hop bite that is really the perfect amount. One of the best tropical IPAs I've had. Definitely worth picking up when available from Hitchhiker.

16 oz can

Pours cloudy opaque pinkish orange. Head is pillowy and coarse, slowly dissipates to a sudsy lacing.

Smells of fresh fruit juice, biscuit, and piney and grapefruit hops.

Tastes of pineapple, mango, grapefruit and orange juice over cereal and biscuit malt, finishes with citrus and piney hoppiness. A little bit of lactose sweetness in the finish.

Body is full and creamy with stinging carbonation on the tongue.

There's a lot of welcome fresh juice sweetness here that adds some nice and memorable refreshing pop to this beer. Under that is an above average NEIPA that's not quite fantastic. Still delicious and worth grabbing while available, I've just had one or two tropical IPAs that surpassed this.