Hop Wave 2
Equilibrium Brewery

 

 

 

Damn this was great all around. I can see why they call it "Hop Wave". All sorts of tropical citrus and berry flavors come through on waves. Smooth with medium light carbonation. Most ipa lovers will find this a delight.

 

 

Poured into a 13 oz Teku glass given to me by @jzeilinger . Pours a bright hazy orange with a 2 finger sticky white head that leaves a few thick streaks of lace with excellent retention. 4.25

Aroma is peach, mandarin, bubblegum, mango, and apricot. 4

Taste follows peach, mandarin, mango, and apricot slightly sweet, but well balanced. 4.25

Mouthfeel is above average for sure, not sticky or dry, soft gentle carbonation, and at 8.5% it goes down rather easy, but loaded with flavor. 4.5

Overall this what I expect from Equilibrium, a tad sweet, but overall an enjoyable beer experience. 4.25

 

 

 

**
11/29/20

Can, from DC, to snifter.

Look: yellow orange color, big creamy beige head. Excellent retention.

Aroma: mostly citrus, hints of pine, palm and tropical fruit.

Taste: more tropical fruit in taste, pineapple, guava, some pine, leaves and hairspray in finish.

Feel: light medium body. creamy, but not as much as expected. easy sipper.

Very good. There are some aspects of this that are fabulous, but also a few holes.

**

Drank from a 1 pint can purchased at Fort Point Market, Boston, MA
NOV0620
Served in a tulip

A thin, flimsy, off-white crown topped the somewhat murky looking, mustard yellow body. The head quickly dropped to a small collar. Patches of lacing trickled down the sides of the glass.

The aroma was really fruity and bold. Big tropical fruit presence. Mango was quite prominent. Peach notes came through strong as well. Touch of guava too. Quite sweet overall. Citrus notes were also apparent. Orange and tangerine flesh perhaps. Hint of dankness. Later, I picked up a subtle woody note that was reminiscent of cedar.

The flavor profile similar to the nose but more citrus forward. Loads of peach and mango on the front end. Really punchy and sweet. A touch cloying perhaps. Melon notes appeared in the center. Citrus came through as the beer moved along the palate. Nice mix of juicy and sweet citrus flesh and candied citrus peel. Touch of dankness. The citrus peel turned more pithy and bitter on the finish. Slightly resiny.

Nice fluffy mouthfeel. Medium-light bodied for the style. The liquid contained a finely beaded, fairly aggressive effervescence that was lively and sprightly on the palate.

Hop Wave 2 is another solid DIPA by Equilibrium, but I think it might have been better if they chose to forgo the lactose. While lactose can occasionally be a nice addition to a hoppy beer, this brewery seems to include it far too often and the beers wind up being overly sweet.

 

 

 

Can. Love me some Equilibrium. They brew relatively underrated, super-turbid hop nukes. Just as good, if not better than your Trillium/Tree House/Vitamin Sean offerings. Also they'll stand toe-to-toe with the NY haze factories Other Half, Singlecut, & Finback. This one pours about a little less opaque than most of the Equilibrium brews I have had. Still, we are talking about a 7.6 on the Haze-o-meter™. Big, fluffy head. Took a sniff and thought I caught a bunch of lactose in the nose. Sure enough, there it is once I more closely inspected the label. So it's a rich NEIPA hop aroma with lactose. Flavor is dense with hop fruit flavors. I get a ton of guava, mango, peach and honeydew melon. Lactose ain't shy either. It definitely has it's own little unique flavor (in the small scope of the flavor spectrum for New England IPAs). Soft carb and really soft bitterness. Pillowy feel. ABV hidden incredibly well. The lactose sticks to the tongue and brings the drinkability down. I am digging the flavor though. They played pretty well with the lactose; it can be a dealbreaker. Hop profile has a Julius vibe. Another sturdy offering from these New Yorkers.