Free Wave

The beer

Tangerine and grapefruit come with a floral hop note, bright before they are bitter. The aroma is citrus and flower. Pine is not in that first breath. It shows up in the mouth, beside juicy citrus and a broader tropical fruit line. The hops change jobs between the nose and the palate, from flower to pine, and the fruit stays generous while they do it.

The close does not stay juicy. It dries, turns bitter, and leaves grapefruit peel. That peel lingers. Floral hops in the aroma, pine in the middle, peel at the end: the same hop family, three different moments. The bitterness is what keeps the tropical fruit from reading as juice. It is real, and it does not apologize.

The likeness sits in the pine and that lingering peel. The fruit is the greeting. The finish is the stricter part, dry and still grapefruit when the sweetness is gone. A hazy IPA that keeps its bitterness is rarer than one that keeps its juice. This one keeps both, and the peel is what you remember.

Grapefruit does the same job in two registers. In the aroma it is fruit, next to tangerine and a floral hop. Pine is the step between those two. It is what makes the peel make sense after the juice.