Good Names for Good Beers

The Pale Ale. Anspach and Hobday are pretty straight with their beer names, which I think is fairly well reflected in their beer styles. Their experimental stuff tends to look backwards more often than it looks forward. Old Smoked styles, an classic take on the Gose, the "original" London Porter - they're able to put out lots of good stuff without having to dip into anything thats not quintessentially British, or at least European.

Compare them with Cheltenham's DEYA - Dust my broom? Invoice me for the microphone? One way mirror? - these could be chapter titles for the epic adventures of a renegade nightclub janitor. And the beers themselves explore a narrower spectrum - these three are all hazy takes on Pales or IPAs that find their difference in hop and hop schedule, rather than being their own individual styles.

I hadn't had much experience with obscurely named beers before I moved to London. I can still remember sitting down at The Culpeper with Max shortly after it opened in 2014 and going through the bottle selection (tenancy agreements can prevent even the best pubs from getting interesting stuff on tap). Brixton Effra Ale was an easy enough name to get behind, though I didn't fully understand it. Even Pressure Drop's Pale Fire held some meaning. But their Wu Gang Chops The Tree was a different breed - a hefeweizen actually, but you'd never have guessed it from the name. Nowadays that's the norm, but back then it was exciting - even dangerous.

Today I've got a Pressure Drop with a potentially ambiguous name, and a Left Handed Giant with a name that may explain why I sometimes lose at Counter-Strike. They're both hazy, but one's a Pale and the other is an IPA. Let's see how they compare.

Pressure Drop | It's Like a Jungle Sometimes

^{New England Pale Ale | Alc 5.2% | Canned on 16.2.2021}

Colour

Thick with haze, on the way to being a very Pale Amber.

Nose

Very fragrant. Warm stone fruit of the papaya/mango variety, pineapple, a mix of citrus and a back note of something vegetal, like raw kale.

Mouth

Medium-dry from the start to a lovely herbal finish. Its got the soft mouthfeel of an NEIPA, without any of the juice. The vegetal notes from the nose come in more dominantly than the tropical ones. On warming up, some fruit makes an early appearance, but otherwise steers clear.

8/10

Left Handed Giant | Slow Hands

^{Hazy IPA | Alc 6.5% | Canned on 19.1.2021}

Colour

Incredibly opaque, Pale Amber.

Nose

Green melon and Santa's Surprise: an empty milk glass and a clementine peel.

Mouth

Like a juicy over-ripe peach with the sweetness sucked out of it. Some bitter notes and some citrus notes, but very soft. There's alcohol warmth in the finish but it's quickly replaced by long-lingering hints of stone fruit.

7/10

So what's the difference between a Pale and an IPA when they're both done in the hazy New England style? If this tasting is anything to trust, then the suggestion would be that juicyness in the mouth is the leading factor. The nose on the Pressure Drop was huge, but in taste it had the hallmarks of a slightly less bitter American Pale Ale. The LHG had a tighter nose, but made a juicier splash in the mouth that stuck around long after the finish. Those specific differences in taste and aroma mostly come down to the hops. When they're added determines where you find them - early boil for bittering, mid-boil for flavour and late boil (or dry) for aroma. And the variety decides what the fruit-of-the-day is: Bru-1 in the Pressure Drop delivers the pineapple, Sabro in the LHG drops the creamy citrus on you.

And what makes both of these beers fall into the New England category? Aside from the obvious haze, I'd say it's down to that gentle, soft hop, tongue moisturising mouthfeel.

jay