“Hāpi Sessions Vol. 1 Trillium X Garage Project The Hāpi Sessions – four collaborations, four breweries at the top of their game, four beers – each showcasing a different hop forward style in a playful ‘freestyle’ interpretation of one of each brewery’s flagship beers. Boston heavy hitters Trillium join us to create Aro Street – a big, juicy, hazy East Coast classic with a kiwi twist, creating a tropical fruit burst with specially selected US Mosaic, and harvest fresh Motueka from Freestyle Hop farm.”
Glassware: IPA glass.
Appearance: Turbid mango juice affair with a short white cap over the top. Steady reduction, settling to a wispy film with healthy lace clinging to the sides of the glass.
Aroma: Hot dam! It almost has this concentrated fruit juice character to it. Plenty of those botanicals, orange peel and spicy notes we get from all of the top American NEIPA’s. Hints of rotting leaves, dank pine resins, pithy grapefruit, apricot, rockmelon and pineapple. The malt offers doughy white bread and crusts. Trillium really showing their colours here.
Flavour: The progression of flavour is next level. It kicks off with fleshy stonefruits then the citrus jumps on board. It takes on more of a fruit juice angle through the mid. Some dankness there but the grapefruit and orange peel cuts through then moves in to an ultra dry, bitter, grassy and fruity finish. The length on this baby is incredible!
Mouthfeel: Dense and viscous yet really smooth with the assertive bitterness forming late in the swallow. Medium-full body and moderate co2.
Overall: We see this (and the other three releases under Hapi Sessions) as GP really flexing their muscles. A collab with the likes of Trillium further cements their position at the top of list of NZ breweries. Heck this could even be the best NEIPA in the southern hemisphere! Just watch them fight off the acquisitions now!