Triple Crossing

The only nice thing about not being in the city center should be having less cement around you, but this neighborhood is at least as paved as any central neighborhood. Yes, there are some dirt areas trying to nourish some plant life, but the streets and the luxuriously wide sidewalks are all cemented and bricked and fake stoned, and they do not stop being little ovens after the sun goes down. Last week, when it was very windy, it was bearable, I must admit. Anyway, enough complaints, it’s time for a drink! This one impressed the guy at Hidden Beers when I pulled it out of the fridge and he waxed eloquent over its positive qualities. It’s an IPA, with no other qualifiers, from Triple Crossing in Virginia, very well made, very stable, very drinkable. It certainly looks to me like it has aspirations. Ready to fly into the sun, perhaps. Here comes Falcon Smash!

Once again, an abundance of foam in the first pour. It’s not quite completely white, and very bubbly. The beer itself is bright gold and just a little cloudy. It gives off a typical IPA aroma, slightly citrus and gruffly hoppy underneath. Most of the head vanishes in a minute or so, leaving a sort of crown around the edges of the glass. A fried egg of a beer, looking down on it. There’s a lot more forest in this IPA than tropics, tilting it towards more classic English styles with a touch of West Coast. It has a snap of citrus at first, but it gets rolled over with pine and climbing vines. Although smooth and light, it has a stickiness that hangs around the mouth, without any unpleasant aftertaste, just a sensation of just having swallowed something. While it looks like the perfect summertime beer, it has a deep almost bitter to it that lurks and clings, and might make it less refreshing than you want for a sidewalk drink. Inside, with the A/C wafting over you, you might just have a winner.

Supplier: Hidden Beers
Price: €9.99

PS. I learned about a week ago that Chinaski has shut its doors, so there goes another craft bar in town. Sure, they have a taproom in Valdemoro, but how often do I go there? Maybe I should look into it.