For their 2024 collab, Hobart Brewing Co and the Tasmanian members of the Pink Boots Society decided to use the Pink Boots hop blend in a West Coast pilsner. Now, if you know much about the style – which we wrote about earlier in the year – they aim to combine elements of traditional European pilsners with more extravagant new world hops, added late in the brewing process to extract as much flavour and aroma. So, in short, you should expect Tickled Pink to offer plenty on that front.
The latest Pink Boots hop blend – made up of US varieties Ahtanum, El Dorado, HBC 638 and Idaho 7 – has the potential to deliver everything from peppery and spicy through citrus to bubblegum like characteristics. And deliver it does – in spades. Indeed, there's such a vibrant mélange of aromas swarming the olfactory system it took me a while to work out what my brain was trying to tell me. Then it came clear as day: Jelly Babies, specifically the original dusted ones I grew up with in the UK. Seriously, try this beer and tell me you can't smell a freshly opened bag of Jelly Babies.
The hop oils, softer side of the pilsner malts, and nigh-on-six percent booze provide a suitable pillowy landing (although presumably Jelly Babies would survive a fall onto concrete anyway). Once sipped, it takes more of a ripe stone fruit turn, while even the bitterness manages to be both fun and juicy to the point my palate was very much tickled pink indeed.
James Smith
Published September 20, 2024 2024-09-20 00:00:00
