Beachwood Thrillseeker
Beachwood BBQ & Brewing
Long Beach, CA
7.1% | India Pale Ale
Minus the luxurious hair, I often feel like the hop on the Thrillseeker label. This is really a nontrivial IPA: piercingly bitter, huge layerings of pine and pithy grapefruit and tropical fruit, and a tongue-numbing quality that takes a few sips to adjust to. I’ve been digging Julian Shrago’s work since he was pouring homebrews at Woodshop events down in SoCal. He’s since added two awards as a Great American Beer Festival Brewer of the Year to his résumé.
This is Beachwood doing one of the things it does particularly well: enough crystalline sugar qualities here from the malts to keep this focused, but the hop onslaught leads. Mango. Bitter grapefruit. Lemon custard. This hit my palate with massive bitterness when first poured from the fridge—and that doesn’t change—but a bit of time to warm opens up some cushioned aromatics and, overall, a beautifully dense hop thrill.