Hazy IPNA

The beer

Passionfruit and tropical hop, a little grain-sweet hiding under the haze. The nose is the fruit. The palate is juicy and soft, more fruit than pine, bitterness modest, body light. Lighter than the full-strength hazy it sits beside, and the difference reads as weight, not as a missing flavor.

Then a short hop snap, and a little sweetness that stays on after the snap. That sweetness is part of the softness. It is not a dry West Coast bite, and it is not trying to be. A tumbler, cold. Let the beer warm and the fruit goes slack. The snap was brief on purpose. Drink it while the passionfruit is still bright.

Haze can hide a thin beer. Here the grain sweetness and the passionfruit occupy the same soft middle, and the pine a hazy IPA often performs is simply not there. The bitterness is only that snap, and the snap does not stay. Tropical hop, then fruit, then a little sweetness, then you are done. Cold is what keeps that order from slumping into one sweet note. Grain-sweet under tropical hop is the middle, soft on purpose, and gone once that short snap has had its say. Bright while it lasts.