Beer 3 Ravens & Mr West Peak Hype

Right then, let's get the name out the way first. No, not the Peak Hype part, but the style tag that comes with it... TCDHWGSCBBMOCSNEIPA.

It's a tongue-in-cheek dig at where the beer industry currently sits but could also be viewed as something of a summary of the diverse beers that come out of 3 Ravens, all wrapped up in one. In full, this collab brewed for Mr West's second birthday is a "Triple Cryo Dry Hopped Wine Grape Skin Contact Barrel Blended Milkshake Oat Cream Sour New England India Pale Ale." Thus, in the mix you'll find everything from Cryo Hops to lactose to wine grape skins, oats and plenty of haze.

It's a combination that's created a liquid with a fairly deep orange murk not dissimilar to the juice options you're faced with at a hotel buffet when you've left it 'til the last ten minutes before the five-hour window closes. As my co-sampler suggests: "Three years ago, you'd look at that and say, 'No way am I drinking that!'."

How times have changed... Work your way past the visual sludge of warming buffet pineapple juice and you'll find aromas that are creamy, oaty, soft and NEIPA-y with fruits lurking within that touch on citrus and stone fruit. The biggest surprise comes on the palate, where a juicy tartness bordering on the sharp rips it a new one and may well cause you to emit an involuntary: "Ooh!" There's a drying bitterness that somehow makes its way into the picture too, a picture that's as full of allsorts as the name suggests.

James Smith