People say the parallel lines of vineyards make for a pleasant view, but I’ll take rows of hop bines over grape vines any day, and I guess the folk at Ballistic think the same way too. They’ve given a facelift to their series of Single Hop IPAs, with the tinnie labels now showing a hop bomb dropping between rows of rising hops. The series is designed to help you recognise and appreciate the nuances and characters of one particular hop at a time… but, if we’re being honest, we mostly just drink them because they’re stellar IPAs.
The first in the series to bear the shiny new label is the Nelson Sauvin IPA. This is a West Coast style IPA that oozes pine resin, but unlike many of the piney IPAs that hit Aussie shores in the early 2010s, the Nelson Sauvin also brings a fair whack of fruitiness. Sweet, sticky mango and paw paw join the piney character, but differently to how they might come through in what you’d generally call tropical IPAs; they’re restrained like they’re behind coloured glass, or as though they’re trapped in amber à la Jurassic Park.
Nelson Sauvin is a hop variety with a truckload of complexity, and you’ll find notes of citrus, spice and earthiness make themselves known before the bitterness comes along for the ride, and settles in for the long haul.
Mick Wust
Published October 29, 2019 2019-10-29 00:00:00
