When Lost Palms’ marketing legend Bakes went skipping around the US and Canada earlier this year, they spent some time mingling with brewers – as you well might expect. Maybe it was all just a ploy to write a holiday off as a work trip. But if it was, Bakes isn’t the only one who benefits, since said mingling led to a couple of new collab beers.*
The first is Collect Call, a West Coast IPA that Lost Palms lined up with their new friends in sunny San Diego, the sleek Seek Beer Co, along with an old friend, beer meme celebrity Wort Wrangler. Cool to see that Californians have heard of this “West Coast IPA” style of beer.
Stuffed to the brim with Chinook, Simcoe, Mosaic and Citra Cryo hops, Collect Call sorta straddles the classic bitterness bombs and more modern West Coast IPAs. It’s clearer than the water at Coronado Beach, serves up huge aromas of savoury dankness and fresh pine forest, and there’s a potent bitterness that sneaks up and attacks you like Cato from The Pink Panther (if that reference can be removed from the racist overtones in those movies). But it’s also pulling that Cali IPA vibe of paler malt and tropical fruit notes – the more I drank, the more pineapple and mango showed up on the nose – and I even got the impression of chewy tutti frutti lollies in the background of the palate.
While this does indeed tick the “modern IPA” box, at the end of the day, Collect Call wins over an enjoyer of classic West Coasts like me. It’s bright and full-bodied: even the bubbles seem to move through it slower than usual. It’s dry: even the tropical and confectionery flavours somehow deliver while only bringing a rumour of actual sweetness. It’s bitter: it settles into quite an earthy bitterness, like I licked the underside of a rock.
The other partnership Lost Palms formed was on the other side of the continent, with Ottawa brewery Dominion City up in the Great White North. That team-up gave birth to a hazy IPA rocking Riwaka, Cashmere and Simcoe hops.
Alongside the wafts of stonefruit and citrus peel and tropicals – familiar in a hazy – I tasted something that I didn’t expect in Palm City, causing me to pause and think. It took me a moment to put my finger on it, but I eventually realised it was pine. I always get a bit discombobulated when I taste pine in a hazy (“What kind of fruit juice is this???”), but there you go. There was plenty of it, too; that Simcoe’s pulling its weight. Really rounds out the tropical fruit.
Coincidentally, I found this one to give some fruit candy vibes despite it being a fairly dry beer, too. Maybe Bakes has a signature secret ingredient they add to the beer.
Mick Wüst
\Well, more than a couple: they also made a collab WCIPA at Seek Beer called Way Down Yonder, and an Aussie XPA at Dominion City… but they’re all the way across the Pacific. Collect Call and Palm City are the two collabs made over here.
Collect Call and Palm City have already been launched at the Lost Palms taproom, but if you’re in Melbourne, you can still catch their Melbourne launch event at Beermash on July 1.
Published May 28, 2024 2024-05-28 00:00:00
