Hop Nation might be a brewery first and foremost but given the founders met while making wine, we shouldn't be too surpirsed that they love booze in just about any format. There's their Site side which is all about wine and mixed ferments, Dart's focus on spirits and then the lineup of 'Ray Seltzers, named for theis spiritual home in Footscray.
Five in total make up the year-round lineup, with Raspberry Lemonade coming across like a pub classic, where a berry tang is joined by an upfront sweetness and zest. Lemon & Lime is possibly the most obviously soft drink like of the bunch, reminding me of the lemonade and lime cordial drink (without the green tinge) I'd gorge on as a kid with my grandad as he enjoyed his bitter lemon (whoever I got my fondness for beer from, it wasn't Bill Rutherford). Black Cherry has an upfront sweetness with a mix of fruited tang, while Strawberry & Kiwi fruit doesn't just sit inside the most coulourful can, but is awash with a unique combination where the two fruits continually bounce back and forth together. And Watermelon & Mint – apparently the toughest one to create – is the bolshiest, with the sweet fruit character taking it furthest into fruity soft drink territory.
They're all there to be drained without draining your grey matter, they're crisp and fruity, their rise still baffles me, we don't have a means of indicating their appearance via the colour scheme on this page, and they'll help Hop Nation achieve a core range of 100† within a year.
James Smith
† Not strictly true.
Note: there may be other hard seltzers released by Hop Nation, but we won't be writing about them. We're happy to let readers know which breweries are playing in this space, but we're a beer website and need to focus our attention on the diverse array of beers being released.
Published May 13, 2020 2020-05-13 00:00:00
