Yikes. Pulp Wave is so easy to drink, I’m tempted to describe it as halfway between a fruited sour and a seltzer. Big passionfruit tartness up front, then a cruuuuuisy centre, with some residual notes of guava (minus the sweetness) sticking around at the end when all else has vanished into the ether. I know there are heaps of fruited sours that go down easy, but Pulp Wave sinks like a submarine with fly screens.
When it comes to General Hazy IPA and Extension Double IPA, I have to give a huge hats off to Five Barrel. We all love a good label design, and there’s something particularly fun about two labels that interact with each other (brings to mind these collab beers from Ballistic in 2020).
As for the drinking, these beers both bring the goods to the table. General pours like a light-coloured but opaque nectar, spraying its fruity aromas into the air like a mist. At first it seems like you’re drinking tropical punch – you know, the kind with orange rings floating on top – but after a bit you realise that, for all its array of citrus and stone fruit and whatever other fruits are squeezing their way into your senses, it’s not as sweet as punch generally is. It’s more like juice that’s just started to pick up some fizz, and has taken on a dry finish as a result.
Extension is also a multi-faceted number, but it takes this approach one step further (can’t blame it – it’s in the name) and bats you around the head with overripe pawpaw and caramel and orange zest and brown sugar and alcohol warmth and a grainy bitterness. By the time it’s done with you, you’re ready for someone to hose you down and give you a palate cleanser before round two.
Which brings us back to Pulp Wave…
Mick Wüst
Published May 4, 2022 2022-05-04 00:00:00
