With regular One Drop sampler Judd Owen seeing out much of the Southern Hemisphere winter quaffing Saison Dupont in Europe (not in any way jealous of the utter bastard), the baton has been passed. And takes the shape of one newbie and a couple of returning hits.
Starting with the newbie and you have the Botany brewers blending elements of German pilsner with Californian IPA, put through the motions of their Clean Fusion hopping regime. It's called Cali Dream but could just as easily be Cali Cream, amirite? I'm not sure I’ve ever seen a pilsner land in a glass and form a head that seems to undulate like a waterbed (which is not only a saucy enticement to dive into said glass but also to revisit the wonderful Licorice Pizza). Equally, I'm not sure I’ve had a pilsner serve up such a vibrant explosion of juicy hops: the ripest of Jaffa oranges and sweet limes smothered by a whipped berry cream.
It leans more into West Coast than anything overtly German or pilsner like – it’s almost as pillowy as an oat cream FFS – and forms yet another entry into One Drop's catalogue marked "How to extract every last drop of goodness from hops."
With Dark Lager, we head back into more traditional territory as the name suggests. Teak-hued liquid with a light brown head ticks the requisite boxes: dark chocolate; rich black coffee; roast-tinged, dry bitter finish; dusting of cocoa. Indeed, there's enough of all that for the beer to pass as a stout.
We first wrote about Dark Cherry back in 2020, when Mick Wüst described the imperial fruit sour as having balance that "rivals that of a man riding a twelve-foot unicycle". If you can't be arsed to follow the link to his detailed writeup, just know the dense, blood-like body is crowned by a head that reminds me of Una Stubbs' cheeks when playing Aunt Sally in Worzel Gummidge, with the experience encompassing sticky-sweet-sour cherry jus and parma violet aromas which are just as forthcoming to taste
James Smith
Published June 24, 2023 2023-06-24 00:00:00
