Moosehead Derek’s Single Hop American IPA (6.1%)

Like many Canadian brewing industry veterans, I have both a bit of a soft spot and a certain amount of respect for Moosehead Breweries. It’s not just due to their storied history, or the fact that it remains a family-owned and independent business, or even that Moosehead Lager was one of the first Canadian beers to make a splash in the export market. No, mostly it’s because, unlike a lot of large, national and international breweries, when they want to, Moosehead’s brewers can turn out some really nice beers. Their Small Batch series has produced a few real winners, and I am reliably informed that they even used to tap pretty decent cask-conditioned ales at their Saint John Ale House a decade or so ago.

Which brings us to Derek’s Single Hop American IPA, brewed, according to the press release, “to celebrate Derek (Oland)’s incredible legacy, and to recognize every entrepreneur who has the courage to make their dream a reality.”

Said Derek Oland is, of course, part of the Moosehead-owning Oland family, the current patriarch and executive chairman, in fact, as well as the person who decided to forge boldly into the U.S. back in 1978, thereby establishing Moosehead Lager as the first legitimate Canadian entry into that highly competitive market. Celebrating his legacy is a fine idea, and one which makes me think of Old School IPAs, more Ballantine or 1980s Labatt IPA than hazy and fruity.

Alas.

The ‘single hop’ in this beer is El Dorado, known more for its candied stone fruit and pear aromas than its bracing bitterness, and its presence is immediately evident in the pineapple Lifesaver aroma of this hazy, light golden ale, with supporting notes of tinned peach and pear. On the palate, the beer offers more fruit up front, heavy on the candied pear notes, before settling into a drier, even softly bitter mid-palate with more of a pineapple, mango, and apricot character leading to an off-dry and mild to moderately bitter finish.

Better than many, perhaps even most of the boldly aromatic yet unapologetically non-bitter hazy IPAs crowding the shelves these days, I am still struck by the relative simplicity of this beer in both aroma and flavour, and disappointed that the brewery was not moved to craft something more in line with their chairman’s history and experience. An afternoon beer not to be served too cold, lest its aroma impact be lost to temperature.

72 ($4.88 - $5.29 in NS, NB, PEI)