Salted Caramel Hazy IIIPA by Hope Brewery
This week we mark the first ever guest post on Corylovesbeer.com. Friend of the blog (and author) Weeksy is off on a 6-month sojourn to Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. He is putting his time out there to good use by drinking and writing about fancy beer (unsurprisingly shipped in). Without further ado, all words from this point on are Weeksy’s. Enjoy.
Many many many years ago I bought a belt as part of a costume for a cowboy dress up night, and that novelty belt ended up being my go to going out/disco belt for many years to come. The Salted Caramel Hazy IIIPA may be the Cowboy Belt of Beers ©️
I think unconsciously the extra two I’s in the IIIPA made me think the caramel was going to be very strong and overpowering, like I would be drinking a Werthers original. In fact the caramel was an after taste, almost an afterthought that complimented an excellent hoppy well balanced beer. The marketing is obvious “how ridiculous is this for a beer?! Come try it” but it’s not a ridiculous beer at all.
The beer could be great without the caramel, but works with it. A beer I thought I’d look forward to seeing the bottom of the car has instead left me looking around to see if perhaps I miscounted and I actually have two instead of one
The metrics: A breakfast beer?
Yes please.
How many family members would drink this?
Your dad who loves beer, and your mum who doesn’t would both enjoy this. My housemate who only drinks wheat beer loved it. And she would have had more except I didn’t give her more than a mouthful.
How many can you drink before going back to a beer that sponsors the NRL?
A few. Maybe not a session beer, but it’s certainly got 3 or 4 before you might want to revert back to a beer that’s easier to drink. Then again, after 4 beers, you might be thinking completely differently to before 4 beers. (Editors note: 20 minutes after submitting this post, Weeksy wrote back to acknowledge that this is an 11% beer and that 3 or 4 might ‘put you into bed or get you into trouble’, but also wishing to point out that it was the easiest strong beer he has ever had)
Overall, surprisingly good. Not just good for what I was expecting, but a really good beer.
If they were inclined, they could reduced the caramel by 50%, repackage the can with an old bloke wearing a slouch hat or a young bloke with a mullet on it, and sell this to the commercial beer fans. And I mean that in a good way.
I’ll be back for more