Naming limited releases is a challenge. How to represent the liquid well, be relevant and timely in market, avoid IP theft, and communicate everything about a fleeting spark of canned creativity in milliseconds is the stuff that’s either an afterthought, or squeezed out of a team that costs millions, with charts, spreadsheets and the like. What’s more, you're probably doing so with the pressure of incubating siblings waiting for next weekend’s glorious release.
In this space, Otherside keep nomenclature lean. This is what it is, and does.
That said, Citra Dip Hop rolls off the tongue with a beautiful meter, and that’s before it’s hit the glass. Initially deceptively smooth, CDH announces with pomelo and a sherbety dried mango thing before a shift to more familiar West Coast territory where bitterness draws down through dryness, a scant gnome of brix remaining. So, basically, more West Coast juicy action from Otherside, although this one’s Dipped.
More terse titles arrive with The Fog, a collab with Jandakot’s Liquor Shed. The en pointe brume pours with a plush cohesive tropicalness through which underripe nectarine and Sabro-coco flit effortlessly. Midway through the glass there was a strong urge to find a cocktail umbrella, fruit garnish and swizzle stick.
Which leaves Redliner, perhaps Otherside’s most anticipated annual release. Well at least for the brew team, and why bother mucking around with names when you can tweak the seasonal alternate, Headliner?
Pouring a mocha cream-crested red brick, 2022’s custodian comes on a touch sweeter than last year, and juicier too. It’s not a term normally associated the Red realm, however Redliner feels generous yet nibbles on the tongue before the shift into dryness, one anchored by a moderately bitter ballast. There’s also mango, white peach and strawberry jam, a reminder that there’s hop action lurking beneath the juicy malt.
Guy Southern
Published May 27, 2022 2022-05-27 00:00:00
