25 August 2016 - Best Beer HQ
Good George Coffee IPA Beer Review
When it’s too early in the day for a beer, I like to drink coffee. So I had high hopes when I came across this collaboration between Good George Brewing (the best thing to come out of Hamilton since Helen Clark) and Rocket Coffee.
“I’ll be able to drink it at breakfast,” I told my long-suffering wife. “Because it’s got coffee in it.” She rolled her eyes and this beer has been sitting proudly in my fridge ever since, waiting for the day when I’d feel like a beer that’ll simultaneously hype me up like a cup of coffee would and chill me out like beer usually does.
That day is today. So let’s see if this beer is a good collaboration like David Bowie and Freddie Mercury (“Under Pressure”), or a bad one like David Bowie and Mick Jagger (“Dancing in the Street”).
ABV: 6%
Blurb on the can: We thought we were obsessive about brewing. Then we met the guys from Rocket Coffee. They treat espresso like we treat beer (i.e. with a passion bordering on the romantic). So we got together, cos [sic] there’s nothing like making friends with another crazy to make you both feel normal.
Now take a sip of our coffee IPA collaboration, and tell us we don’t make beautiful babies.
Tastes like: This is the coffee/beer hybrid I’ve been wanting. Unlike the disappointing Boundary Road coffee oatmeal stout that I reviewed recently, this beer doesn’t taste like I’m drinking average beer out of a dirty coffee mug. Instead, it tastes like a happy hybrid of hops and coffee beans.
It’s a good combination – sweetly tart and refreshing like any good IPA, with a coffee bean bitterness and a smoothly dry, roasted coffee finish. The coffee aroma is subtle but present, alongside notes of pine and citrus fruit.
I drank it straight from the can – as God intended – and when I was done, I must admit that I didn’t want another one. It’s a “one and done” kind of a beer, but that in no way implies that this isn’t another worthy craft beer by Hamilton’s finest.
The verdict: Rocket Coffee and Good George Brewing do indeed make beautiful babies. This coffee IPA is a mighty fine collaboration that works well, marrying some of the finer things I like about IPAs with the pleasures of coffee.
However, it definitely will not be for everyone. Beer purists and non-coffee drinkers needn’t bother.
Everyone else should give it a go before this limited release disappears from shelves.
Movie/beer pairing: While it wasn’t quite the success that many people hoped it would be, Grindhouse, the 2007 collaboration between directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, is a gloriously epic throwback to B-movies and exploitation flicks that you can throw back a couple of beers to.
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