Pressure Drop – Welcome to the Internet
Pawing its way in at number 7 on my countdown, we have ‘Welcome to the Internet” by Pressure Drop, the Tottenham based outfit. Before I even begin heaping praise of the beer itself, I have to talk about that can design!!
Of a lover of hounds of all shapes and sizes, give me a beer can with a couple of pooches on the tin and it’s going in my basket. Similarly, having lived in the far east for 18 months in my early twenties and visiting Japan a couple of times, I have a frightful curiosity for “kawaii” culture, roughly translated to all things cute and to some extent, kitsch, (I’m talking Hello Kitty, Rilakkuma). I would say that Corgie and Frenchie pups uttering heart-warming phrases with, presumably, the Japanese translation alongside falls pretty neatly into this bracket. I’ll take two good sir!
Now to the amber ambrosia contained within, we have an 8.5% New England DIPA brewed solely with Mosaic hops. The brewer professes that “Mosaic is the future!” and when it’s used so capably, I think it certainly threatens Citra for my position of “Desert Island” hop (I assume I can bring a brewing kit and brewer with me?!).
The beer poured silky smooth retaining an inviting inch of cloudy froth that dissipated after the first few sips. The aroma was an all-American adventure – I had been engrossed in Ozark on Netflix around the time of consumption and this took me traipsing through a Missouri pine forest picking tart wild berries. Across the tongue, there were bright and zesty flavours of pineapple, grapefruit and peach tangoing exquisitely with subtle herbal spices and an undernote of dewy grass. This was all encased in a delightfully soft and quenchable mouthfeel with the mildest carbonation that really sealed the deal on certified banger status!
Whilst this was specifically labelled as a “New England” DIPA, I do question whether hazy IPAs are now so thoroughly entrenched in the UK craft scene that it would be more appropriate for brewers to emphasise when they are making a departure from the style to warn the consumer that crisp and crystalline contents are contained within?? Just a throw-away thought.
Digressions aside, this DIPA gave me everything the brewer promised and more. I don’t drink enough Pressure Drop nearly as often as I would like, probably as I don’t see them often in the North-West bottle shops I frequent and potentially due to a local bias that sees me snapping up Cloudwater and Track’s latest beer drops with a fervor that inadvertently leads to a neglect of many other excellent breweries. Note to self, be more adventurous and varied with my 2021 purchasing and/or get another Premier Hop box on the go which I find encourages me to select a real mix of styles and producers!!
Number 6 on the horizon.
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