Amundsen
• • • Best IPA • • •
Robyn Gilmour
Saturday 22 October 2022
This article is from
Beer52 Awards 2022
issue 84
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Stating that a beer is the best example of its style makes for a bold claim, never mind when that style has defined the craft beer movement and still holds the potential to shape its future. But far from making educated guesses about where the style is headed, this award is allocated on the basis of our own community’s ratings over the last year, a marker that we feel is only right to celebrate and take stock of.
Speaking to our beer buyer, James Caley, he suggests that feedback over the last 12 months speaks clearly to the hoppy-and-hazies remaining unphased by whispers of a migration back towards bitterness. With this proving the most popular style of IPA over the last year, it was decided that a beer reflecting this would be essential to any award winner. From there, selection was easy; Amundsen has stolen the hearts of our members this year, consistently landing in the top three best rated for IPAs.
Hopbliminal Messages was brewed using one of Amundsen’s earliest NEIPA recipes, and has stood the test of time, embodying everything that a New England IPA should. With heavy hitting aromas tickling the nose from the moment the can cracks, and tropical notes proving all the juicier for being unencumbered by bitterness, this hazy champion is well rounded and easy to drink, just as Amundsen’s CEO, Geoffrey Jansen Van Vuuren, thinks an IPA should be.
“We’ve taken sexy American hop varieties and used them in the right places to lower bitterness and accentuate aroma” says Geoffrey. “We wanted drinkers to think hoppy thoughts when they smelled and drank this beer, so a fitting name was Hopbliminal Messages, with the artwork on the can mirroring that idea”.
A word of warning to the vegans among us; as is the case in many NEIPAs, the creamy sweetness of this beer’s mouthfeel is built using lactose sugar.
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