Stockade Brewing Co ‘Berries & Cream’ Double NEIPA

Rating:

imageGlassware: Poured into a schooner glass.

Appearance: That ubiquitous Hazy golden look with a 15mm white fluffy head that fades slowly and eventually stops leaving a sudsy, roughly 10mm  carbonated head clinging to the glass.

Aroma: Very dominate strawberry, almost like strawberry jam you eat at buffet breakfast, with deeper aromas of a frosty fruit ice-block (pineapple, and sweet sugars). This is literal.

Flavour: Strawberry again straight up, with less tropical fruits, intermixed with booze, sweet caramels, vanilla, and lactose sugars give it that milky effect, like having ice cream. It’s very sweet. Any more sweetness and it would be cloying. We feel like a moment away from developing type 2 diabetes!

Mouthfeel: Given the Alc vol of 8.6% it’s light to moderate bodied, with moderate length on the palate. All your left with is a stickiness on the lips and lingering jam sweetness. Bitterness is light on with carbonation just a bit more in the mouth. Again it’s a tad creamy due to lactose sugar, but not velvety. It’s certainly balanced well in the mouth making it easy to take big gulps

Overall: It’s basically a hazy milkshake IPA. Very strawberry dominant. Our idea of a double berry NEIPA would be a turbid orange colour with some tinge of pink. This has none of that. Again it’s sweet but so are strawberries. Look it’s a nice brew…we just take umbrage at this hazy IPA vs NEIPA category. It’s like the XPA vs Pale ale debate. It’s craft beer semantics but it’s misleading. Enough of our rant. It’s worth a try.