Loop Hike
New Trail Brewing Company

 

A tad more than a finger's worth of crisp bone white froth with decent retention... The color is an exceedingly pale hazy yellow... Big fragrent nose highlight by pine needles... Does a 180 on the palate as the flavor profile is dominated by sweet, almost cloying, tropical fruits... The mouthfeel is uber juicy and on the fuller side of medium bodied... Very enjoyable and drinkable... Another rock solid offering form New Trail...

 

 

 

 

I have been relegated to drinking just one (1) beer a day due to my current USPS job, which requires that I work 6 days/week, 10.5 hours/day. I CAN do it & have adjusted nicely (sort of), but I find that it is usually one upon returning home & then off to bed to reChArNge for the next night. Yes, I am working the night shift, but I actually enjoy it! I CAN run a couple/few errands during the day, if I am so motivated & inclined + I really like many of my fellow night shifters where the day people are less so.

I was recently staring into the abysss, I mean, watching a little TV, when I happened to realize that I had a subsCANtial amount of New Trail CANs in abeyance & decided to revisit them for yet CANother brewery horizontal. This shall be the twenty-third & last (phew!) of this newest set.

From the CAN: "Loop Hike Hazy Double India Pale Ale"; "Keep Cold[,] Drink Fresh".

As I beCAN with a Crack! of the vent, I marveled at just how extensive this horizontal beCANe. I started with the lowest-ABV beer among them (Dark Skies: Little Bear (5.0%)) on 24 August 2020 & ended up here, watching the formation of two-plus fingers of dense, foamy, rocky, eggshell-white head with very good retention. Color was a deeply-hazy/lightly-cloudy Yellow-Gold (SRM = 4 - 5). Nose was predominantly pine-minty underlain by tropical fruit salad. I have to admit that I am rather tired of NEIPAs & tropical fruit-flavored IPAs, but I CANtinue to be intrigued by what New Trail is producing. As such, I CANtinued with my first sip of this last beer. Mouthfeel was big, thick & full with a slickness borne of the inCANsion of oats. CANpared to the previous Double Broken Heels, this one's alcohol was much more hidden, rendering it rather dangerous, given its ABV. The taste was at once both cool & fruity, tough to adequately describe, but definitely unique in my exbeerience.

Their use of Centennial hops made me nostalgic for the late-1990s when the five (5) Cs were the driving force behind many/most AIPAs & ADIPAs. I CAN remember Cousin Colby ChANdler of Ballast Point laying Sculpin in Beta on me & being really impressed by its tropical fruitiness. Little did I know that such was the CANming wave of the future. 8=(

I was really digging on the way the cool mintiness was bringing an edge to the much softer, rounded fruitiness & giving the beer a uniquely drinkable quality. Unfortunately, it was dangerously drinkable as a result & going down WAY too quickly! It was like cruising along, glancing down at the speed-o & realizing that you're at 110-per! Eeek. I took a book break to pull out one of the many graphic novels that I am currently reading to take my lead foot off of the gas & slow down.

Finish was cool, dry, minty & with just a hint of tropical fruit sweetness. I was enamored of it in the main, but now I wish that they could dumb it down/reduce the ABV for a more relaxed quaff. It was a bit of a sneaky pete as it CANurrently sCANds. YMMV.

It's a pour from a pint can into a clear pint glass. The lack of a head makes this possible. Not much carbonation and no glass lace from this one. It's an orange hued thick amber. Some yeast and danky hops contribute to a less than inspiring aroma. Something with such little aroma rarely delivers this much flavor. True to almost all New Trail hazies, Loop Hike is a wonderful combination of malts, yeast as a flavor, hops and softening agents. At 9.2 ABV, this, dare I say, rivals Crusher from The Alchemist.

 

 

Undated* can into pint glass. Pours a murky burnt orange with a coarse off-white head. Initial impression is semi-seweet grapefruit, mango, orange, pine and grassiness. Mouthfeel is refreshing, not sticky. Alcohol is well hidden. Finish has a touch of sweetness and is slightly astringent. Overall, a good DIPA from the folks at New Trail - but not my favorite.

* Why they insist on this is utterly beyond me. Especially since IPAs - their specialty - are time-sensitive. But I buy their stuff anyway because it's so good.

L: opaque orange color with 1 finger head. Leaves nice lacing as it goes down.
S: tropical fruit, hoppy, and dank
T: follows the nose. However This beer is fairly unique to a standard hazy because you can clearly taste hints of pine along
With fruit. I am a huge fan of the pine notes.
F: fairly thick mouthfeel but that’s to be expected
O: another quality DIPA from New Trail. Well done and I will buy again

 

 

Poured from a 16 oz can into a Dogfish Head tulip

L: Completely hazed out medium golden pour with thick fluffy white head. Great retention and lacing.

S: Dank and citrusy. Tropical fruits and juice.

T.F: Semi-sweet grapefruit juice... tangerine and guava. Mango, tropicals, and stone fruit. Modest bitterness... dank and juicy. Medium to thick bodied. Sticky/oily on the tongue. Smooth carbonation. Hides its 'big boy' ABV.

O: Another stellar Imperial NEIPA from 'New Trail'. Damned if I can tell them apart but they're all pretty good.