Danger Zone Double Oat Cream IPA by Mountain Culture Beer Co

This week’s beer comes from the Blue Mountains and Katoomba’s Mountain Culture Beer Co.  I’ve had a number of excellent beers from Mountain Culture (specifically the Double Red IPA and the brilliant Be Kind Rewind).  And this one is right up there. It’s one of their excellent limited releases: Danger Zone Double Oat Cream IPA.

Right up front, I’ll concede that Oat Creams aren’t for everyone.  They don’t always work and it seems like every craft brewer is trying to do one.  When I recommended this particular beer to a friend they described a Double Oat Cream IPA as ‘hipster AF’.  And to be fair, I did feel my jeans getting skinnier with each sip.  But all that rubbishing of hipsters aside, this is a damn good beer.

First up it’s got that sweet initial hit that’s typical of an oat cream.  But the initial sweetness has zero time to linger as it’s IMMEDIATELY followed onto your palate with a peppery hoppiness.  That hoppiness not only balances out the sweetness.  It pulls the overall flavour of the beer back down towards the bitier end of the spectrum.  And with all of that flavour happening somehow they sneak in a extremely punchy 8%.  This is a seriously big beer on a number of levels.

As with many of the beers that feature on this blog, this isn’t an everyday type beer.  I won’t go so far as to say you wouldn’t have more than one in a night. Because I have.  But it’s still definitely in the realm of a special treat beer.  And yes, the beer variety is indeed quite hipstery.  But definitely don’t let that deter you.  If you like a well made IPA of any sort, try this one. Danger Zone is just a straight up good beer.