Hazy Rotation - Motueka, Waimea, Amarillo, And Centennial
Great North Aleworks

16 oz can into IPA glass. 5/30/19.
Look is a nice hazy yellow. Smell is citrus with orange. Taste follows and nice juicy taste and stays sweet through out. Feel is light to medium. Overall a very nice IPA that I would drink again.

 

Can from a Lazy Dog
Hazy lemon yellow with a frothy white head that persists. Spicy light mint earthy citrus tropical and pine. Light sweet bready maltiness to bring it all together. Pretty tasty beer.

Having enjoyed at least one previous Hazy Rotation, I decided to go for broke and pick up a well-priced four-pack of this bad boy, since it features a cool hop bill. Blending newer hops from the Southern Hemisphere (New Zealand, in particular) with some West Coast US stand-by varietals, this seems to want to straddle the line between old and new with aplomb. Let's see how close I am to being right with that assumption, and how close the brewery is to succeeding at choosing an interesting and cohesive hop profile!

Pours a deep golden color with some straw-yellow highlights if held to light. I was expecting this one to be straight-up hazed over, but it is actually more along the line of "intensely-translucent," since I can still see the silhouettes of my fingers grasping my glass when I hold it to light, but I'll just give them the points here since the head retention is nice and the lace is well-defined and nicely-tiered!

The nose is floral and citrusy upfront, mostly the Centennial and Motueka doing some heavy-lifting and giving off elements of key lime, rose hips, and crushed flower petals along with some fresh-cut grassiness and grapefruit zest. It's not an overwhelming nose by any means, but I enjoy the deft interplay between the similar hops here.

Although Amarillo and Centennial are both well-known for their use in West Coast pale ales, they combine to give off a juicier impression here for sure. Motueka and Waimea are both intense hops, as well, but for different reasons... I associate Motueka pretty heavily with lime and light spicy notes, but Waimea seems to be a bittering variety that some brewers have nevertheless had good results with when it comes to aromatics. It's described as citrusy, of course, but one of the specific descriptors is "tangelo." I have noted tangelo-like elements in some beers, and the fruit itself is the result of a cross between (typically) a tangerine and a kind of grapefruit called a pomelo. Long story short, this is pretty heavy on that deep citrusy flavor, especially toward the mid-palate where it works super-well with the slightly-chewy pale malt backbone. The finish is even juicier, with some light mango undertones and more mandarin orange/tangerine citricness. Definitely has a heavier body to it than I expected, however. With its rather syrupy disposition, I would not give this high marks for feel, and it definitely doesn't really drink like a New England IPA, but whatever. Quality is quality, and I can tell it when I taste it whether or not something is gonna be a good drink at the end of the day. This, therefore, gets a thumbs-up.