Other Half, based in Brooklyn with an outpost in DC, has been pumping out some pretty solid hazy IPAs lately. It seems every few weeks, I'm seeing fresh drops of high-powered beers with weird names and cool labels. They usually come in 4-packs of 16oz cans. Here's one, that just showed up to Irving Wines and Spirits in Mt. Pleasant, and I had to try.
It's a 10.00% ABV quadruple-hopped triple IPA called "4th Anniversary is a Zombie". Now, yeah, I get it. "Quadruple dry-hopped Triple India Pale Ale." It's a lot. All these suffixes and prefixes sometimes seem a bit too much. In fact, some of the guys I used to work with at the wine & spirits store and I used to joke about the increase in such beers...there's always a "bourbon barrel aged cinnamon mocha lactose pastry stout" or "triple dry hopped oak-aged cold India pale lager" or some other wild combination. It became a trope in the industry.
Pours orange juice-like into the glass. Leaves a sticky foam on the glass. It's not a light nose, nothing significant. It's made with Citra, Galaxy, Enigma, El Dorado, Mosaic, and Citra Cryo hops, so lots of stuff in here.
It's somewhat...flat. It's soft, juicy, with a decent resinous quality, owing to the strong showing of hops. The flavor and presentation is mild, however, and there's nothing aggressive about this beer. This tracks, I think, with Other Half's other offerings...strong,. hop-heavy beers toned down in terms of texture. It's delicious, don't get me wrong, with a short finish and refreshing "juice" at the end. And, like a lot of their stuff, doesn't taste like 10.00% ABV.
I enjoyed trying it, although it was $6.75 for a single 16oz can...so $27 for a 4pk, therefore expensive. But nice if you like juicy, soft, but boozy IPAs.
