Northern Hemisphere IPA
Brouhaha Brewery

Over to the Northside of Brisbane, which apparently includes Maleny, for this review in the battle of IPAs of Brouhaha Brewery Northern Hemisphere IPA. DISCLAIMER: I now live on the Northside of Brisbane, however I claim no bias in the much heated battles Brisbanites have “between North and Southside which is better?” due to living equally on both sides and being originally from Canberra anyhow. So let’s take a look at the hop bill for this one: Well... erm... there’s no info anywhere on the label or the interweb, so we’ll just have to believe Brouhaha on this. While I’m at it though I might take a stab at guessing what’s in this brew and maybe the brewers can get back to me if I’m right: Citra, Mosaic, Amarillo and Columbus are my guesses.

Poured from a 375ml can into a nonic pint.

A: Clear amber body with a nice cream-coloured and sticky cappuccino foam head that slowly drops back leaving faint lattice-work lace on the side of the glass. Looks much nicer than the Slipstream brew (sorry SBC team). Still, filtered IPAs? Nah mate. 8/10.

S: Interesting turn in the much vaunted “battle of the IPAs” - this aroma is much more muted than Slipstream’s IPA. Aroma is more of a figgy-jammy character [FIGJAM] with a sweet fruit fragrance from ripe fig and orange blossom honey, and a hit of piney character in the centre which leads to a tangerine note in the background. This definitely has Mosaic hops fingerprints all over it. Smells fresh, but less fresh than Slipstream’s IPA [canned on: 06/11/17 aha, that’s why then]. 7/10.

T: Hmmm, tangerine forward and all over here, with a honey biscuit and caramel malt centre, light floral/piney character and a slight grassy hop finish. Much more subdued in flavour and attitude from the Slipstream brew, however that was a part of Slipstreams problem - it was too busy. This has fewer hop voices in harmony, and again from Brouhaha’s DIPA - they seem to know how to hide alcohol, with this 6.8% ABV being quite sly. 8/10.

M: Mid to light bodied with a thin, watery carbonation and very light hop resins - neither brews win this battle. 6/10.

D: Out of the 2 brews (this Brouhaha & Slipstream Southern Hemisphere IPA) I feel that the Brouhaha brew is the one that I would more likely return to - it may have less hop character, but that lessor hop character works better. 7/10.

Food match: Probably biased because I had it for dinner tonight: Greek cuisine.