Whiplash are a Wicklow based brewing project – their Twitter bio says they specialise in “rubbish beers” but actually, they’re awful at rubbish beers because their output is consistently great. We’d go as far as to say they’ve consistently produced the best IPAs and DIPAs in Ireland over the last year or so.
Northern Lights is a beer Whiplash brewed for Hop City while visiting Northern Monk in Leeds. It’s a Micro IPA, which is a new one for us. You could call it a table beer, it’s basically a very low ABV beer, clocking in at 2.8%.
We’ve always been sceptical when it comes to beers below 4% as they’re usually lacking in flavour, body and, y’know, alcohol, often veering into pointless territory. So we went into this one thinking Whiplash might actually succeed in making a rubbish beer for once.
Wrong. So very, very wrong. It’s absolutely bursting full of flavour; think peach, apricot, grapefruit. A tropical fruit punch which hits you with bitterness levels to match. It’s surprisingly full bodied for the ABV and if you didn’t know this was 2.8%, you’d swear it was twice the strength.
Whiplash Northern Lights – Micro IPA. 440ml, 2.8%.
£3.60 takeout / £5.60 sit in. pic.twitter.com/nmeooHpqxl— Salt Horse (@salthorsebar) September 4, 2018
We’re not sure how Whiplash have managed to create such a stunning beer at such a sessionable level. They say they used a German vienna malt base, a heavy dose of flaked oats, wheat and a touch of caramalt before a couple of rounds of dry-hopping with Mosaic and Vic Secret but we reckon it’s more likely to have been some voodoo shit and/or wizardry. There’s no other explanation.
Without hesitation, the best low ABV beer we’ve ever tried.
