If you brew it; I will come. More or less describes my relationship with stupid-strong IPA. So when I “Quadruple” on a label, it isn’t a question of if, merely a question of when. This 12.1% ABV barrel-aged, mixed ferment monster is from Garage Project’s Wild Workshop brewery — the barrel program that just last year produced a trophy-winning spontaneously fermented Gueuze. Huge hoppy IPA is far from the Wild Workshop’s typical jam, but they have put their own sauvage signature on this one. Inoculated with a special mixed culture of yeast and bacteria grown from yuzu blossom and peel, it is rested in ex-wine barrels before dry hopping (Citra and Strata). The deeply pungent aroma presents a dynamic vectoring of hop driven citrus and tart barrel funk, with distinct lychee and strawberry fruit leather (fruit roll-ups in NZ). The palate on the other hand is remarkably calm, considering the forces at work. The funk holds back and lets the hop flavours work, with more strawberry and now blueberry piling in. The mixed culture ensures a robustly-fermented malt base, which rounds out much drier than the huge ABV would suggest and allows those mixed berry flavours to mingle with the delicate thread of funk in the incredibly long finish. This is a fascinatingly singular IPA, and it’s going to be a similarly singular crowd who truly appreciates it. As a devotee to the West Coast style I’m sure at least part of this one is lost on me. But dammit they brewed it, and I came.
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