Category Archives: IPA – New England / Hazy Double

4 - Good (buy), Badlands Brewing, Beer Reviews, Canada, IPA - New England / Hazy Double

Badlands DIPA January (2025)

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Brewery: Badlands Brewing
Country: Canada
ABV: 8.2%
Style: IPA – New England / Hazy Double
Other Notes: Hops – Nelson and Superdelic

Brewer Description: (from Untappd) The monthly DIPA series is our neutral, hop ready canvas to play around with all things DIPA. The goal for the series is not only to bring you at least one DIPA per month, but also to allow us to push our base DIPA recipe in any number of directions with the goal of ultimately tweaking, refining and improving every DIPA in our lineup.

This month January is riding shotgun with Evolve, so we had to pump it up to a 10lbs/bbl hop charge of Nelson and superdelic. We taste tropical gooseberry, pineapple and some characteristic dank New Zealand lush hop expression.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.14

Intro: A 473ml can, canned on 19th December 2024. Poured into a winebar glass.
Appearance: A hazy pale milky yellow colour with a two finger white head that had good retention, and left nice lacing.
Aroma: Tropical, pineapple, melon, citrus zest, grapefruit peel, green gooseberry, with notes of white wine grapes.
Taste: Tropical fruit, pineapple, gooseberry, white wine grapes, grapefruit peel.
Mouthfeel: Medium to full bodied with soft to moderate carbonation.
Overall: Pretty good aroma and flavours, but more so, is that I’m now drawn to the Superdelic hop, and want more of that.

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), Beer Reviews, IPA - New England / Hazy Double, Japan, Uchu Brewing

Uchu Fractal Enlightenment

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Brewery: Uchu Brewing
Country: Japan
ABV: 8.5%
Style: IPA – New England / Hazy Double

Brewer Description: (from Untappd) TDH DIPA. Hops – Citra & HBC1019.

My rating: 3+
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.8

Intro: A 350ml can, with a best before date of 26th July 2024. Poured into whatever glass was available at the hotel in Osaka.
Appearance: A hazy orange yellow colour with a thin white head that dissipated fairly quickly, while leaving only sparse lacing.
Aroma: Tropical fruit juicy, mango, melon, coconut, notes of grass, with a splash of citrus peel.
Taste: Mango, orange peel, grapefruit zest, a lasting moderately bitter finish, with a touch of booze.
Mouthfeel: Medium to full bodied with moderate to soft carbonation.
Overall: Good aroma, but take away the booziness from the taste would have helped it.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, IPA - New England / Hazy Double, Japan, West Coast Brewing

West Coast Freestyle Sandbox Vol.5

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Brewery: West Coast Brewing
Country: Japan
ABV: 8.5%
Style: IPA – New England / Hazy Double
Other Notes: Hops – Freestyle Nelson Sauvin, Freestyle Rakau and Freestyle Motueka

Brewer Description: (from website Google translated to English) Run to the sandy beach with excitement! Hop Dude and his friends were allowed to use a gift from New Zealand produced in 2023, and once again they began their creations on the vast Mochimune beach. There is only one rule I have with the Freestyle guys, and that is to only use hops from “Freestyle Hops.” Freely and grandly, it takes trial and error to combine them to your own perfection.

The 5th installment of the series, which continues to have fun no matter if it’s cold or has sand on your face, goes by in the blink of an eye. Recently at WCB, the lot of hops used (Freestyle Hops) was switched to a fresh new inventory of the 2023 edition, which made Hop Dude and others very happy.

Aromas of pineapple, mango, papaya, and tropical fruits. Similar flavors include peach and a hint of orange. A pleasant drink with a mellow sweetness and a slight bitterness.

No matter how cold the winter is, let’s still play! With ideas from Hop Dude and others, new combinations of Hazy will continue to be enshrined in Sunayama.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.28
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.1

Intro: A 500ml can, canned on 11th December 2023. Poured into a winebar glass.
Appearance: A hazy milky orange colour, with an almost two finger white head that had good retention and left nice lacing.
Aroma: Juicy, citrus peel, orange rind, tropical fruits, papaya, mango, with light melon and grassy notes.
Taste: Juicy, tropical, mango, papaya, citrus pith, orange rind, light melon, and a touch of grass.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: Good juicy aroma and flavours. Enjoyed it as much as Freestyle Sandbox Vol.4. Still wish we could get these within 1 month of the canned on dates… 2 months is pushing it, and probably doesn’t do it justice, and also makes me reluctant to buy more than one can, just to give it a try, especially since I feel they’re currently doing some of the better IPAs in Asia.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, IPA - New England / Hazy Double, Japan, West Coast Brewing

West Coast The Alchemist’s Shadow: Boss 04

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Brewery: West Coast Brewing
Country: Japan
ABV: 8.5%
Style: IPA – New England / Hazy Double
Other Notes: Hazy Double IPA. Hops – Wai-iti, Cashmere & Moutere

Brewer Description: (from website) Everyone has a Dark Side? The Alchemist’s Shadow is the Dark Soul of our Full Hop Alchemist, bound to serve the Nemesis and The Darkness. Our band of heroes must defeat and free the Shadow from the Nemesis’ grasp to weaken him and more importantly to obtain the final sigil (enough gatekeeping already?). In phase 1 The Shadow has potent peach/grape/lemongrass abilities and should be tanked by a Hop Dude with high Hop Burn Resistance. At 75% he becomes Full Bodied (resistant to physical attacks), and equips a more yeast-derived (maybe reduce pitch?) magic attack, with watermelon and lychee tank debuffs and far more heat than any of the previous bosses. It’s a race to the finish after 15%–if you’re feeling the chalkiness/sweetness you might need MORE DOTS (or drop a healer for more DPS) to push through the enrage and get him down. Epix and sigils on the other end, in addition to yet another WCB hazy trip that we hope you love as much as we had fun cooking it up!

My rating: 4-
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.98
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.9

Intro: A 500ml can, canned on 31st October 2023. Poured into a winebar glass.
Appearance: A hazy orange colour with an almost two finger beige white head that good retention and left nice lacing.
Aroma: Juicy, orange juice, citrus rind, tropical mango notes, and a splash of toasted coconut.
Taste: Melon, sweet mandarin, orange zest, citrus rind, a touch of mango, and a slight booze throughout.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate to soft carbonation.
Overall: Good aroma, while the flavours were balanced albeit a touch boozy at times.

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), Beer Reviews, IPA - New England / Hazy Double, Japan, West Coast Brewing

West Coast Full Hop Alchemist v.32

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Brewery: West Coast Brewing
Country: Japan
ABV: 8.5%
Style: IPA – New England / Hazy Double
Other Notes: Hazy Double IPA. Hops – Enigma, Sultana & Sultana Lupulin

Brewer Description: (from website) Word on the street is that our Alchemist just sits in his hop closet juggling massive bags of Big Boi IPA hops all day—not (entirely) accurate. The combos gon’ get real Hop Dudes. V32 is about to hit taps and shelves (and your squeaky clean glass… fingers crossed) and is a bold blend of two hops that are not as familiar to modern IPA savants—Enigma and Sultana. Full disclosure: it’s a little sweeter than most of our FHA offerings, and a touch out of balance (missed the mark just a touch?), likely due to a lighter body and slightly warmer mash temp (the jury is out, but adjustments are in order). It is however also absolutely delicious, loaded with fantastic FLAVORS of the lychee / white grape and overripe mango persuasions, with a subtle yet solid strawberry candy-like component. In a word V32 is very tropical, but brings all kinds of fascinating sensory in a hazy quite unlike anything we have cooked up to date.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.94
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.8

Intro: A 500ml can, canned on 6th November 2023. Poured into a winebar glass.
Appearance: A hazy darkish orange colour with a two finger white head that had good retention and left nice lacing.
Aroma: Grassy, orange rind, citrus zest, mango, and a touch dank.
Taste: Sweet, maybe on the verge of being too much for me. Mango, mandarin, candied grapefruit zest, and notes of citrus bitterness that helps with the sweetness a bit.
Mouthfeel: Sticky, medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: Generally, it was on the overly sweet side for me, but luckily there was some citrus rind and zesty bits that helped balance the sweetness.