Great Southern Trendkiller by Woolshed Brewery

It doesn’t matter where you’re reading this from, these are trying times.  And there’s not a whole lot anyone can do about it except for sitting at home, waiting for all this craziness to pass, and trying to find at least little flecks of happiness where we can.  For me, one of my flecks of happiness is still delicious beers.  And the Great Southern Trendkiller from Woolshed Brewing most definitely put a smile on my face.  Super hoppy, super complex, and a Pantera album namecheck, what more do you want?

The Great Southern Trendkiller is nominally a double black IPA.  And that is probably what I would categorise it as if I had to.  But it’s almost as if they decided to just make a really cool, hoppy, complex beer, and the black IPA was just the closest genre to what came out. 

As the words ‘double’ and ‘IPA’ (yes, I know the second one is an acronym) in a beer’s name suggest, this beer is HOPPY.  The can suggests a healthy 100 IBU (and a more than respectable 7.2%). But I would not have questioned it if there were an extra 30 or 40 added to that number.  And in my opinion, hoppiness is the defining feature of this beer.  However, that’s most definitely not the only thing going on here.  The malts add multiple layers of complexity that give colour (both literally and figuratively) to the hoppy soul of this beer.

While both are nominally black IPA’s, this is definitely a different kind of beer to the equally awesome Frederick from New England Brewing that I wrote about a little ways back.  But the Great Southern Trendkiller is every bit as in-your-face, unrelenting, and awesome as the Pantera album from which it gets its name. 

Woolshed are doing some great beers down in the Riverlands.  So far, I’ve only had two (this one and Blackberry Bambalam) and both are very unique and simply fantastic.  During this time of uncertainty and isolation I’m going to be I’m going to be doing my best to get my hands on as many of their other offerings as I can track down. And I would definitely suggest lovers of craft beer do the same.