If the previous double release to make its way around Australia from Deeds' brewery in Glen Iris featured beers from disparate parts of the beer spectrum, this time around the duo features far closer relatives. In the case of Seven Southern Seas, it's a West Coast-ish IPA transported to the hop fields of Australia.
The name suggests going on a journey, and that's certainly the case here. Despite featuring nothing but Aussie hops (Galaxy, Eclipse and Ella), first impressions rising from this lightly hazy, copper-coloured drop are of classic West Coast sweetened citrus rind aromas, but much else follows: peachy stone fruit on the nose, then something more obtusely herbal and neomexicanus. Then, as you try to nail down just what is swirling through the creamy caramel body, the bitterness hits like a torpedo to your hull – a reminder of just how much punch lurks within some modern Aussie hops if brewers are minded to use it.
You'll often see mango used to describe hop-derived aromas, but nothing compares to the real thing. Case in point: Mango Double Juice Train, in which a boozier version of Deeds' original hazy IPA features so much of the fruit it's like having a freshly cubed sliced slapped straight into your face. Indeed, the mango leaves room for little else to stake a claim for your affections (presumably it was soft and ripe enough to block your nostrils if we continue down the slapping path).
Were it not for the biting bitterness at the denouement I’d be tempted to move "Double" back a word in the title; the liquid even looks like mango flesh. It's as if the mango wandered into the brewery and declared: "Citra, Galaxy, Simcoe, lime – get outta town. This is my show."
James Smith
Published October 25, 2023 2023-10-25 00:00:00
