DDH Pillow
Highland Park Brewery

On tap at Highland Park Brewery

A: Pours hazy golden yellow with a frothy off white head that settles to a light layer and laces nicely.

S: Bright fresh green grassy, lively citrus, ripe tropical and stone fruit, a little resinous pine, biscuity malt, and caramel sweetness.

T: Lush mix of citrus, tropical, and stone fruit, lemon lime, peach, passion fruit, pineapple, blueberry, mango, tangerine, and guava, a little resinous pine, green grassy notes, biscuity malt, and caramel sweetness.

M: Fittingly pillow soft, medium body, mild carbonation. Dangerously drinkable.

O: Coming out swinging my first time here with their 3x GABF gold winner, and it didn't disappoint. Great hops handled perfectly, easy to see how it picked up its hardware.

its hard enough to win any medal for a beer at gabf, let along gold three times in a row, let alone in a style as competitive as this, really quite a testament to how good it really is, and its crazy to me that this is just citra and mosaic, one of about a billion beers relying on those hops, so its especially impressive that this is as distinctive as it is, they use cryo of each as well which i think is a big part of the magic, higher saturation point, early onset, more pungent fruitiness, really a nice beer overall and i think quite a lot more original on the palate than it sounds on paper. starchy looking yellow with enough density apparent for it to be obvious that its a double new england type, frothy lasting average height white head on it, sudsy and creamy, not dull or messy, soft looking, pillowy indeed! the nose and taste are killer, and there really isnt a falloff from smell to taste. up front key lime, pineapple and pineapple candy, white coconut, honeysuckle, green melon, raw waxy wildflower honey, modest grain sweetness, a little herbal dankness, subtle green grape and even pear, way more fruit layers than i generally expect from these two varietals, lots and lots of nuance. its sort of crystalline and intense early, oily in the middle, intense but never harsh or vegetal, fairly low bitterness but it isnt zero, definitely a resinous thing to it, tropical and kind of peachy as it warms, the malt is pale and earthy and slightly raw even, but its balanced in a modern well, the hops have plenty of structural support, and the carbonation is north of medium, right where it needs to be. some nice linger here, weedy late, poached pear, white peach, apricot, mango. delicious overall and at a very high quality level, unexpectedly dynamic, worthy of the recognition it has received, this is double dry hopping done right!

On tap at Fluid State Beer Garden in Ventura. It’s a beautiful dark gold or orange with little foam. Slight carbonation with just a little orange and nectarine on the nose. Taste is apricot. It’s a pretty warm day here and this beer came out really cold…glorious!

 

 

On tap downtown LA. Really nice IPA. Hazy, juicy. Very nice all around.

 

 

You know what, Raul is going to go there - he doesn’t think a lot about pillows. I mean, unless I’m at the Crazy 8 Motel where you can rent a room by 30 minute intervals, and where they have mirrors on the ceiling, I’m not thinking about what I put my head down on. But here, in this Highland Park offering, it peaks my thoughts Einstein style. Yeah, this Pillow is a good one. Remember the Sobakawa pillow that seemed to be the rage back in the day? Let’s say it’s that. Your dream pillow. But unlike that dream I never had the pleasure of feeling, I can taste this one.