Kate and Simon at Smiling Samoyed are signing off for 2018 with a couple of limited releases that, in their own way, reflect trends from the past 12 months. In the one hand, you got a NEIPA, in the other a beer featuring flowers that's the so vivacious in colour it'll turn heads.
The former is Hop Bandit, a beer that landed a top ten spot in our final blind tasting of the year. Pale golden and hazy, it dips its ladle into the punch bowl and returns with tropical aromas of paw paw, mango and their ilk. It's a little more bitter and bitey on the palate than some, but as with these fruit bombs when fresh, it's likely to disappear too quickly for you to notice.
As for Hibiscus Saison, it pours a seriously vibrant and bright red – so vibrant, in fact, it's almost into sparkling shiraz territory. You'll pick up a sweet floral perfume on the nose, joined by some berry flavours and a little drying tang on the palate. A beer best served in a champagne flute, perhaps.
Published December 24, 2018 2018-12-24 00:00:00
