Herevana – Garage Project – 10

The first GP beers I wrote about were in early 2013 – Hops on Pointe and the truly legendary Red Rocks reserve. It’s been a long time. They once sent me a get well beer when I was having a knee surgery, that still brings me happiness thinking about it.

Things have moved on a bit since back then, and GP have re-brewed their 10, which was a festival beer, remember those?, and from all accounts it is unsurprisingly special. I shall find out. As an aside. Untappd suggest they’ve made 549 beers, I’ve ticked off 150 in the App. I’ve had a look and saw a handful that I know I’ve had but not logged. Still there’s quite a gap 🙂

Garage Project of course brew the Garage Project 10 and they do that in Wellington, 🇳🇿  New Zealand. It is labelled as a Triple but let’s go with the more obvious IIPA DIPA – Imperial / Double Hazy (NEIPA)  with an ABV of  10.0% – this is 3.5 standard drinks in NZ

The hop aroma leaps from the can like a startled Gazelle.

It is bright yet muddy looking pour of a beer, and the head, valiant, failed to muster more than a desultory effort, sits now lurking as just fleeting film.

The aroma in the glass is dense, there are hops that are bolder, and not being an expert I’m not going to call anything out.

What strikes you first is the thickly sweet wall of malt that you get, which is quickly parsed to a low bitterness that is part of the carry. There’s a warming glow from alcohol in this this, without any of that sharp tang that you can get. You then know that you’re drinking a beer that is at he higher end of the scale, and is most certainly is a sipper.

What’s also dense is that swathe of flavours, compressed and balanced in the middle of things.

There is no doubting that this is beer of immense thought and care, it is more than all the flavour that you could ask for or need, and it might, and it might be obvious to say, a bit much.

I like celebration beer, there would be no surprises in what you get, these are the beers the Brewer/s live for, the ones where they can cut loose.

Tell you what though, as this warms, and as there is less in the glass, there is some magic happening, the warm sweetness is beginning to billow a bit and the melange of flavours being to line up in some order that lets them dance for you. Minbending beer.

The Pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 9 on the arbitrary number scale. I found it hard to engage with. I didn’t find it hard to enjoy and really get on with. Whilst this is big beer in all the meaning of big it is, obviously, a bit overkill. I’m trying to word out why I both think that this is the loveliest beer and at the same time the most challenging. In sentences this is really nice, as a chapter it’s a bit wordy.

Music: Who hasn’t got time for ABBA – their new album Voyage.

Herevana beers are those I drink at home, I’m not at some beer festival, like, for instance, Beervana, but am just in my kitchen, usually, dining room table, sometimes, or outside, occasionally, where I can take an average picture and write in real time about the beer that I’ve invested in, both in a monetary and emotional way.

Philip himself.

A big celebration demands a big beer. 10: the name says it all. A huge, hazy IIPA brewed with pilsner malt, wheat, and oats, and lit up with ten different hop additions – no two the same.

Starting in the mash, continuing through the kettle, whirlpool, and multiple additions to the fermenter, everything from hop pellets to cryo, incognito, and aromatic hop extracts pack this beer to the brim.

It’s a party in a can.

Join us in celebrating ten years of Garage Project.

Brewers Notes

IIPA DIPA – Imperial / Double Hazy (NEIPA)

The “Imperial / Double New England India Pale Ale (NEIPA)”, also known as “Imperial / Double Hazy IPA” or Double Juicy IPA, is an strong IPA with intense fruit flavors and aromas, a soft body, and smooth mouthfeel, and often opaque with substantial haze. The term “Double / Imperial” is arbitrary and simply implies a stronger version of an NEIPA, generally based around the standard Hazy IPA with 8.0 to 9.5% ABV. The emphasis on late hopping, especially dry hopping, with hops with tropical fruit qualities lends the specific ‘juicy’ character for which this style is known. Appearance ranges from hazy, often opaque, straw to yellow and sometimes with an orange hue. The juicy effect refers to an impression of fruit juice or ripe fruit, not actual additive. Haziness comes from the dry hopping regime, starch haze, set pectins, or other techniques but not suspended yeast. Compared to Double IPA, the Imperial NEIPA has a fuller, softer mouthfeel, a more fruit-forward late hop expression, a more restrained perceived bitterness balance and a hazier appearance. The style also includes the “Triple Hazy IPA” or “Triple NEIPA”, a massively hoppy beer of at least 9.5% ABV with outrageous amounts of dry hopping flavor, malt flavor, alcohol and bitterness, without the big maltiness balance of an American barleywine. The Triple NEIPA may be similar to a Double NEIPA in hop character, but is differentiated from the style by a thickier, syrupy body and often accented by even more intense dry hopping that makes it a heavy sipping beer.