Freedom Units Triple NEIPA by Hawkers Beer

For this week’s beer we head down to Melbourne (figuratively of course) for Hawkers Beer’s brilliant Freedom Units Triple NEIPA.

I’ve meant to write about this one for a little while now.  To be honest it was probably hurt by the fact that I had it just after the staggeringly good Sunrise Valley Hazy and was a bit reluctant to go straight back to the hazy well so to speak.  And, while I still maintain Sunrise Valley is the best I’ve ever had, Freedom Units is still an excellent beer that very very much deserves it’s own post.

Being a triple NEIPA, Freedom Units boasts a serious smack of hoppiness.  It’s still a hazy NEIPA with the fruity and juicy notes you’d expect.  And those notes and aspects are really good.  But the hops certainly aren’t going to let you forget they’re there.  The can suggests there is a hectogallon of hops involved (a hootin-hollerin hectogallon to be exact).  I don’t know if that’s a real measurement or not.  I would have gone with ‘crap-ton’ myself, but ‘hootin-hollerin hectogallon’ works too.

The hops are intense and awesome.  They definitely have the lead role, but aren’t the only thing going on.  As mentioned above, the NEIPA aspects are still there and surprisingly balanced.  It does have itself a bit of a kick as well (as you would expect from any beer with the word ‘triple’ in the title). It clocks in at 10.5% for an impressive 3.1 standard drinks in a single standard can. While there are definitely a lot of BIG elements to this beer, it never feels over the top or taken too far.

I feel like, as per usual, I’m really not doing this justice with my descriptions.  But it is a brilliant brilliant beer.  There seems to be several really good NEIPA’s and hazy’s floating around at the moment.  Freedom Units is right at the top of the list.  If you see one, just get it.