One Drop have collaborated with Duckpond Brewing, the Swedish outfit whose beers lean heavily towards fruited sours and hazy IPAs, also happen to be owned by Millencolin frontman Nikola Šar?evi?. The second gig I ever went to was in early 2000 at The Arena in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley. I eventually saw Millencolin so many times that the gigs mostly blur into one, but I do remember that first time seeing Erik Ohlsson starting the set with the opening riff from Olympic and my 13-year-old self charging into the sweaty, writhing mass of humanity about as happy as I had ever been up until that point. For a bloke who’s largely embarrassing taste in music has barely changed in 20 years, the confluence of beer and melodic Swedish punk rock is a truly wonderful thing. Life’s cool, man.
The first of the One Drop x Duckpond collabs is Chase The Crazy, an imperial fruited sour that’s an all berry affair dosed with raspberry, boysenberry and blackcurrant then spiced up with a bit of South Pacific vanilla. First impression is that it smells alarmingly similar to a raspberry splice ice cream. The red berry amalgam and the vanilla addition gives the impression this is going to be a sweet treat, but instead you’re served up a moderately tart and dry beer that oozes juicy, ripe berry flavour.
The second collab is a monster DDH TIPA called Duck For Cover. At just shy of 11 percent ABV, she’s loaded up with Nelson, Citra and BRU-1 that were first dry hopped during fermentation and again using One Drop’s Clean Fusion technique. With this hop combination, I found massive tropical and citrus aroma and flavour throughout. Chief amongst that was grapefruit, mango, pineapple, yellow peach and a bright floral note on the nose with dank and juicy paw paw, apricot nectar and hard candy coming through on the palate. For a big, tropical, hop forward beer, this is staunchly bitter with a really well-attenuated honeyed malt sweetness and a touch of alcohol warmth. Making a good TIPA is a tough assignment but this has been executed really well.
The third release will probably slip under the radar a little bit with all the talk around the two more hyped collaborations, but this is not only the best of the lot, it’s one of the most enjoyable IPAs I’ve had in the last few months. Roads of Creation is a DDH DIPA hopped with Cryo Citra and Simcoe, Nelson Sauvin and the Zamba proprietary hop pellets which, like the TIPA, has gone through the Clean Fusion double dry-hopping regime. The end product is a spotlessly clean and superlatively-brewed DIPA that is both brow-furrowingly complex and easy to drink. Aromas of canned pineapple, peach and mango jam, orange oil and lemonade sit atop a foundation of razor thin malt with a piney bitterness and waves of orange sherbet. Wowee! That’s good drinkin’.
Judd Owen
Published December 6, 2022 2022-12-06 00:00:00
