Typically, when we're taking on multiple beers at once, we'll approach them lowest ABV first. But given Lights & Music, the triple IPA first brewed by Range and Garage Project for the former's third birthday, is Australia's top-rated beer on Untappd at time of writing, we may as well start at the top.
Now, you're not going to approach a 10 percent-plus triple IPA from this pair expecting anything less than a beer ready to flex its muscles into every nook and cranny of your eagerly waiting mush. And whether you've made Light & Music's acquaintance on one of its previous visits or not, you're not going to walk away feeling vol.3 has let its predecessors down. It pretty much looks like a few bines' worth of Galaxy, Citra and Motueka hop cones have been plucked and freshly-squeezed into your glass, where a somewhat sticky, sweetly boozy malt gazpacho was ready and waiting to capture their ripe mango, stonefruit, pineapple and passionfruit goo. To be honest, such is the density of the fruit mélange, you could cite another half dozen varieties and not be wrong. In short, a fruitful party in one's mouth.
Tips & Tricks is an IPA whose creation also involved the crew at Perth’s Besk Bar, who enjoy a close relationship with both breweries. They've made sure this beer too is appropriately trans-Tasman, with Nelson Sauvin and Motueka joined by Galaxy and Citra LUPOMAX. It pours a particularly pale yellow and on the thick side for an IPA without any lactose. Once tipped into your head, it brings wave after wave of sweet honeydew, passionfruit, lychee and white grapes in a quite sensational manner.
Which leaves Fush & Chups, an imperial stout inspired by the New Zealand treat chocolate fish. As well as throwing a whole heap of those chocolates into the beer, it was also conditioned with Tahitian vanilla and oak chips (does the name make sense now?). Having never tried the chocolate, I can’t say how accurately they’ve recreated them, but assuming they taste something like a chocolate Big M with added raspberry and marshmallow, then the collaborators have certainly hit the mark with this impressively drinkable and rich 10.8 percenter.
James Smith & Will Ziebell
Published August 12, 2022 2022-08-12 00:00:00
