While there are exceptions that prove the rule, there's a fair bet in 2023 that if you come across a hazy IPA / NEIPA, you'll find something on the fruity and sweet side, while crystal clear West Coast IPAs are often deeper and danker. KAIJU!'s Hypermeta IPA – a Dan Murphy's exclusive complete with new kaiju on the cans: the feminine Floramotharadon – pours hazy and certainly suggests it's going to fall into the fruity, sweet camp: "tropical flavours of guava, pineapple, mango, and melon" are foreshadowed. Yet I reckon the inclusion of "meta" in its name is equally worthy of attention, hinting at their core IPA Metamorphosis.
So, while there are fruity elements to be found – grapefruit rind and a supporting citrus sponge sweetness elicited from the orangey Eclipse and tropical El Dorado hops – it feels like their companions, Columbus and Simcoe, are doing plenty of the work here, adding dank, piney characteristics from the off. There's a clean, faintly resinous edge to the bitterness in a beer that's very much an East Coast hazy dragged way out west. Or, perhaps, just the sort of hazy IPA you'd expect from such a brewery.
James Smith
Published May 15, 2023 2023-05-15 00:00:00
