Ireland has big ties to the Americas, so it's fitting that this celebration of new world hops hails from a place as famously Irish as Galway.
More than 32 million Americans have full or partial Irish heritage, which is around 10% if the population of the USA. Irishness is a big part of American culture, especially in the North East where the majority of immigrant families remain to this day.
In this excellent IPA, Galway Bay have taken hops that have become popular with brewing around the world in Amarilo, Azacca and Summit; all of which are popular in brewing IPAs and pales in the modern craft beer era.
The nose is prominently hoppy, as you would expect with so many varieties. It's also dry hopped a lot with Galway Bay adding more every 10 minutes of the boil to get it to 100IBU, making a thick and juicy body that oozes bitter fruitiness.
The initial bitter taste hardly lasts a moment before being replaced by subtle but sweet tropical fruit notes, with an a slight dank taste running all the way through the flavour profile.
Into the aftertaste, the bitterness returns a little but not excessively, certainly not enough to overpower the citrus flavours; just enough to balance it along with a dry and crisp finish.
The white wrap along with stark bold lettering makes it stand out, and the splash of colour in the circle in the middle of the can helps to create some intrigue around it.
I'm not sure what it represents, it could be a touch of Irish flag colours, it could be reminiscent of the terrain of Oregon, it could even be related to hops with the green and yellow, but it's quite pleasing to look at.
It bears a lot of information on the side including a bit of a beer bio which is good for adding some context to the beer which I think is important in these days of IPA plenty.
This one is pretty much unavailable in the UK now, although there are some of the Strata version on Honest Brew which uses Strata, Idaho 7 and El Dorado hops.
You can add your name to the waitlist here.
