Brewing a big hazy IPA is the ultimate test in balance. When the ABV starts pushing up over 7 percent, it’s an extremely fine line for a style that relies so much less on bitterness to balance out the sweetness that inevitably comes from having to add all that extra malt. But if there’s two breweries you could trust to walk that tightrope, One Drop and Bracket are at the head of the pack.
Simply called DIPA, this bad boy is a collaboration between two of the hottest Sydney brewers of the last 18 months. Although Sydney’s inner west gets all the focus, the quality beer coming out of the city’s south cannot be denied. In fact, with both breweries picking up golds at the 2022 AIBAs in the hazy/juicy double IPA category, what we have here could be some of the finest juice in the country.
The DPIA starts with a thick, golden haze under a huge, fluffy off-white head. Centred around Idaho 7 hops, it delivers a massively tropical barrage of pineapple, mandarin peel, stonefruit and a faint earthiness. On the palate is something that I think of as a hop bag character. Essentially, a full out assault of various fresh hop compounds that feels and tastes like being suffocated with a foil bag of hop pellets. The body is as soft as expected with just a mild malt sweetness layered on a bit of sherbet. The bitterness is low, but not to the beer’s detriment. One Drop and Bracket, together in harmony.
What a time to be alive.
Judd Owen
Published August 19, 2022 2022-08-19 00:00:00