You will have to forgive us for the photo as this awesome new brewery in Mona Vale, in Sydney’s Northern Beaches has yet to bottle this signature brew of theirs. We took a trip there recently and filled up one of our many growlers with this delicious red IPA and decided we had to do a review on it.
So, we served it in an IPA glass and the gorgeous ruby red pour aroused a big, fluffy 2 finger head that slowly deconstructs and holds at about a 7-8mm crown. Thick, soapy lacing is left clinging to our glass. What a sight! And it only gets better as we give our glass a vigorous twirl and take in some of these brilliant aromas. We marvel in an expertly balanced combination of tropical fruity, resinous hops, grapefruit, passion fruit, pineapple, mango, lychee, caramelised sugars, toffee, peppery spice and subtle alcohol. Superb aroma. In the mouth it’s slightly sharp with a creamy texture. Medium carbonation and body. The flavour profile is just as good as the aroma as it follows on with a delicious balance of fruity hops and chewy caramel malts. A splash of passion fruit gets things underway as an assertive hop bitterness flows through the sugary sweetness on the front palate. Resinous hops and caramelised malts move forward through the mid and lead to a firm, dry finish with a muted alcohol warmth on the back end. Really good length on display here too. From memory this IPA was sitting at 7.2% ABV so a little sting from the booze is expectedly felt in the finish. What a magnificent beer this is, we wish we lived closer to the brewery so we could fill our growlers up every weekend! They’ve absolutely nailed this.