What happened to Galaxy?

Interesting article about the history of Citra.
https://vinepair.com/articles/citra-hop-ipa-beer/

 

Obviously tastes are subjective, but those beers you mentioned were some of the worst hoppy beers I’ve had in recent memory. Insanely scallion/green onion forward. Abrasive. DDH Double Wishfulfillment (all Galaxy DIPA) was an absolute abomination. I do enjoy some of their other hoppy beers but it was Tired Hands and their awful Galaxy-forward beers that got me noticing how flawed the recent crops had been. I did notice that it wasn’t quite as good for a while but never before has I experienced such a pronounced onion flavor in a beer before where none was used.

 

Thats an interesting take. I had shared each can with someone so maybe I got the better half of the can everytime?? I hate raw onions and barely tolerate onions cooked. That said, my notes do not lead me to believe I tasted anything similar to an onion flavor in any of those. Otherwise, we would be in agreement.

 

Yeah maybe that could be part of it. I had traded some of these cans and also had given some to friends. They were all disappointed by them as well. That said, I’ve seen people give those same beers positive reviews on Untappd and whatnot so it’s probably just a personal preference thing. It’s not like they were unanimously panned by everyone. Maybe I’m getting notes that you aren’t or vice versa. I just couldn’t pick up that peachy/mango note that Galaxy-hopped beers used to feature in the past.

Tastes do change so it very well could just be me.

 

See that is interesting take because me personally, I never noticed or made any comments about these brews being peachy or containing any mango flavors. The last batch of Cozy by Little Log Cabin was back in March of 2020. Taste notes indicate a soft and creamy dank and resinous beer with a dry finish. Wish Fulfillment back in April of 2020 taste notes similar but without the soft and creamy characteristics. DDH Wish Fulfillment from back in April 2021, I got lazy and noted it as good beer only, LOL!

Maybe Tom can comment on the dates of when he last had the galaxy hopped brews from THBC.

 

Yeah, it’s kind of a tough flavor for me to describe. It’s not onion “spot-on”, it’s just a general vegetal astringency. It’s a lot like licking a 9-volt battery (yes, I was that knucklehead in middle school who did the dare). Pencil shavings, cardboard wouldn’t be too far off either.

These beers were over a fairly spread out period of a several weeks to months. They seem to take great pride in their hop selections (but let’s be honest, they’ve always been well known for their self-promotion/pretentiousness ) and they have said that their Galaxy crop hails from “the great state of Victoria”, but doesn’t necessarily mean that Victoria is excluded from poor Galaxy selections.

The other Galaxy-heavy beers that I’ve had by THBC that were disappointments (including the ones mentioned earlier):

• DDH WeedEater (Galaxy)
• DDH HopHands (Galaxy)
• DDH Extra Extra Knuckle (Galaxy)

It seems as though it’s only when they go heavy-handed on the Galaxy, because I’ve had several of their beers where Galaxy were used but ended up being quite good (DDH Alien Church [Citra & Galaxy], DDH Oblivex [Galaxy]).

And lastly, let me also point out that many of their Southern Hemisphere hop selections haven’t been all that amazing either (Vic Secret, Engima, Motueka to name a few...”Premeditation” was a hot mess)

To end on a positive note, all of their Riwaka beers have been amazing and their Citra and Simcoe beers have been consistently good as well, so I guess you gotta take the bad with the good sometimes.

 

Very interesting. For me Galaxy always showed a bit orange sherbet type character, maybe some peach or mango candies. TH Green always exemplified this and to be honest the past few batches I’ve had over the past year or so have been hit or miss. Not sure if this is part of palate shift or just a coincidence.

I’ll do my best, but going off my Untappd notes
-LLC Cozy 2/28/21
-DDH wish fulfillment 3/3/22
-DDH double wish fulfillment 4/17/21
-DDH weedeater 3/4/21
-DDH HopHands Galaxy 2/5/21

and I was wrong about DDH extra extra knuckle btw. Apparently I did I enjoy it lol (just not as much as regular extra extra knuckle)

 

DDH WeedEater (galaxy): Cannot comment on this one past the little bit I tried recently. Never had the base beer before.

DDH HopHands (Galaxy): Never dove into the HopHands variants because I always thought regular HopHands was average. I dont dislike HopHands but dont make any special trips to get any. Cant really comment on this one either.

I know mosaic gets nasty quick, within 3-4 months, which may have been the case with your DDH Extra Extra Knuckle (Galaxy). Unless you drank that one quickly.

 

Batch variations might still be a thing with Tree House or at least it was through 2019 when I was on the hunt to try every IPA made from them. Plus, Tree House beers fall off a cliff at about 3 months from canning date. Did an experiment with regular Julius and WOW!! there were obvious differences in taste and color!

 

I have a can of Tired Hands DDH Double Wish Fulfillment (Galaxy DIPA) in my refrigerator. I will discuss this beer in the upcoming NBW thread and I will tag @tzieser and @jts211.

Cheers!