Places & Spaces
Central Waters Brewing Co.

for me this was the best ipa i had on our recent trip to wisconsin, and one of the best i have had all summer, maybe all year or even beyond, a truly marvelous ipa, built on oats, oat cream ipa they call it, which gives this an awesome pillowy texture, grounded and dry earthy underlayer for the hops to blast off from, and a smoothness like no other. its crazy how it looks so light, so many of these hazy ones with high oat content are basically starch bombs, so thick and dense all the time, but this still looks kind of delicate to me, pale yellow and cloudy but not milky or gross, more refined than i would have thought possible, there has to be some malted oats in here too, wispy white soda bubble head on top fading back only slowly from the draft pour. the nose and taste drip nelson hops, i pick up on them right away, possibly supported by citra, but this is ripe melon, pineapple, sauvignon blanc, kiwi fruit, and key lime all day long, so fresh and pungent, so distinct, a pure expression of nelson for sure, and its as fresh and prominent in aroma as it is in flavor. the oats have a light taste but do so much for the texture of this, its smooth and long but also really light for what it is. amazing hop complexion, never oily and so clean for being so dry hopped, as it warms i get clementine, white tea, rose hip, and green olive in the most flattering sense. carbonation is gentle but enough, the bubbles are tiny but there are a lot of them, so this feels slow and mellow, and bitterness is well restrained but not invisible. one of the more unique hazy ipa types ive ever had, and honestly a near flawless brew top to bottom, great use of oats, great showcase of nelson, great drinkability. cant say enough about this, i hope this is the future of hazy ipa...