A beer that reeks of hops but drinks like a champagne? How very on-brand for a brewery that’s spent the majority of its life in a former wine storage shed. Perhaps Laguna is haunted by the ghost of brut wines past...
Brut IPAs in Australia vary wildly, so it’s hard to know exactly what the style is “supposed to be like”. Murray’s rendition seems to hit all the right descriptors, though. High carbonation shoots the hop aromas right up your nose, giving you a buzz of pine and mandarin cut through with a touch of yeast. As the bubbles bounce across your tongue, more pine and citrus come through, along with a touch of stonefruit sweetness. The requisite dryness takes over at the end, leaving your palate light and fresh.
While you could pair this with all kinds of fancy foods that you’d match with a good sparkling white wine, don’t forget that a sparkling white also pairs excellently with a Sunday arvo barbie in the sun.
Mick Wust
Published August 1, 2019 2019-08-01 00:00:00
