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NEIPAs and Sour Stuff!

I snuck off for a beer while the wife got her nails done tonight at my favourite little local bottle shop. This bottle shop is special for two reasons; they stock a fantastic range of craft beers, and they let you bring a meal in to nibble on while you drink your beer of choice.

I was really happy to see that they had just started stocking beers from a Melbourne brewer called Hop Nation Brewing Co.

Hop Nation have this to say about themselves:

With a name like Hop Nation, hops are a natural focus but a nod to their winemaking roots was always inevitable, and Sam and Dunc have no shortage of barrel-aged brews in the works. Our small batch beers are made using quality, natural ingredients with no fining or pasteurization and minimal filtration.

These guys have a great reputation in Melbourne, and I've been wanting to write up a review on their stuff for ages. So now was the perfect opportunity.

First up was an NEIPA!

Hop Nation Jedi Juice - NEIPA

There isn't much that I don't love about this beer, it has lots of citrus notes and hops in the aroma, is hoppy, bitter and fruity that is well balanced and quite powerful.

I'm a huge fan of this beer. So much so that I don't feel the need to go into what's good about it any further. It's definitely ranking high on my list of favourites.

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The second beer I tried was something that I'd never encountered before, a Mango Gose...

According to Wikipedia Gose is:

Gose is a top-fermented beer that originated in Goslar, Germany. It is brewed with at least 50% of the grain bill being malted wheat. Dominant flavours in gose include a lemon sourness, an herbal characteristic, and a strong saltiness (the result of either local water sources or added salt).[1] Gose beers typically do not have prominent hop bitterness, flavours, or aroma. The beers typically have a moderate alcohol content of 4 to 5% ABV.

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The Punch - Mango Gose

So that explains the sourness of this beer. Gose is meant to be sour. Thankfully, the sourness in this beer wasn't too pronounced. Otherwise I would have handed it right back.

This beer is lacking in much of an aroma, but you can detect some fruits. On the palate, you certainly get stronger fruit flavours, including the mango mentioned in the name.

It's a strange beer. The lack of hops and bitterness seems a little odd. I'm not a huge fan, my wife was though, and she normally hates beer. So I suppose that says something about this beer - it doesn't really taste like beer.

So while this was a well crafted beer, it's really not for me. I'll stick to my beers that taste like beer.

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The Beer Data

Beer	Type	Origin	ABV	Rating
Jedi Juice	NEIPA	Footscray, Vic	7.1%	4.5
The Punch	Gose	Footscray, Vic	4.0%	3.5

_{All ratings are out of 5}

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