Trust me, anything with the word ‘Lazy’ in the title gets my attention.
Lazy Hiker Brewing Company is in North Carolina and I’m starting to think this neck of the woods is a pretty good source of some good craft beers. The history of the junction of North Carolina / South Carolina / Tennessee and Georgia is worth researching; a lot of immigrants settled there with a wide range of skills. After the Civil War the area was critical to the rebuilding of America; plenty of hardwood trees available and a ready workforce that easily harvested and shipped lumber all across the Eastern United States.
I think the background of the area speaks to surge of craft brews that come out of North Western North Carolina. The blue collar roots run deep, all the way back to Europe and particularly Scotland and Ireland where most of the immigrants that settled here came from.
Enough history lesson for the day. The Slack Pack IPA is exactly what you’d expect in an IPA: refreshing, a bit bitter, not too light on the alcohol, and pours out a nice golden color into your glass container of choice. The aroma is not overpowering, and speaks directly to the mix of hops – you get the flowery smell of the hops right off the top of the glass. The beer creates a great head in the glass, almost white, and against the opaque golden color it’s a designers dream.
The beer has an interesting touch of sweetness as you first bite into it. Not a beer you’d call sweet, but you can taste a touch of caramel as you first try it. Interestingly, subsequent sips and swallows seem to hide that – you don’t get any sweetness by the time you’re a third of the way into the 12 ounces in your glass. The bitterness of the 55 IBU’s is not overwhelming and combined with 6% ABV creates a nice lightweight brew so any perceived sweetness is quickly forgotten as you work your way into it.
Overall a refreshing IPA, interesting flavor profile, not something that will knock your socks off but not one you’ll turn down either. Lazy Hiker makes an interesting array of beers so I’ll spend some time trying a few more of theirs.
This is one that I’ll try again someday.
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