“Conditions have to be perfect for the rare bay swell to enter Jervis Bay. Much easier to hunt are the waves of flavour in our Bay Swell IPA. Hints of passionfruit, pineapple and stonefruit are balanced by an undercurrent of bitterness, and mango shines through as the brew warms up a little. Surf report be damned, enjoy our Bay Swell IPA at any time.”

 Glassware: IPA

Appearance: Pours quite a deep amber with two fingers of khaki head. Reasonable retention and patchy lace as it subsides.

Aroma: As expected (from the deep amber complexion) there’s a distinctly sweet caramel malt backbone which is further emphasized by sweet tropical fruits and sappy pine resins. Subtle touches of boiled candy, toffee, weedy herbals and candied citrus. She definitely straddles that line between malty sweet and diacetyl but we feel they’ve balanced it well enough. Pretty damn fine aroma.

Flavour: OK, definitely no diacetyl! They’ve struck a magnificent balance here. Beautifully sweet and sugary but the tropical fruits, sappy pine resin and this subtle line of bitterness really pulls it in to line. Herbals, grapefruit and boiled candy develop late and form a kind of bittersweet finish which probably pulls up a bit short.

Mouthfeel: Smooth, gelatinous, mild bitterness. Medium body and Co2. Only 5.7% ABV so pretty light on for the style.

Overall: We dig these malty IPA’s, but only when they’re done right. And yes this one has been done right. Pretty similar to Ekim’s Viking IPA and Beerfarm’s IPA with their big and sweet malt body but generous hop profile. Not bad.