The Age of HOPocalypse

Is the Rapture upon us?

With so many earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis in recent times there will be plenty of doomsday merchants trying to sell their wares, I’m sure.

In the beer world however, this day seems to have dawned. Friday 8 June, Ponsonby’s Golden Dawn was host to The Four Horsemen’s beer launch of HOPocalypse. The Four Horsemen being made up of Luke Nicholas & Kelly Ryan of Epic, Joseph Wood of Liberty and Steve Plowman of Hallertau and HOPocalypse being a beer that lays waste to all other beers before it.

Maybe that’s a little melodramatic, but with a name like HOPocalypse it just begs dramatizing. I was one of the privileged few Aucklanders to get a taste of the beer before the keg ran out (I believe they opened it at 4pm and by about 6pm the beer was gone).

I can imagine that the comic book reference in the title hasn’t been lost on everyone because as Phil Cook noted in his Rex Attitude review there is a certain overlap between geeks of all pop cultures. Marvel’s Apocalypse lives by a philosophy of ‘Only the strong shall survive’ and this can probably be applied to the Four Horsemen’s brew regarding other beers or maybe even your taste buds.

After a glass of HOPocalypse the huge lasting bitterness made any following beers seem a little lackluster. Even when falling back to a Hallertau Statesman (a reliably tasty drop), I found little of the floral and zesty notes that I am so fond of. In fact I was at the bottom of that following beer before my taste buds had recovered enough to tell me what I was drinking.

So if you fancy your taste buds as the X-Men of your mouth, you should put them up against the HOPocalypse, because the reward of this victory is definitely worth it.

3 comments to “The Age of HOPocalypse”

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  1. Mike - 11 Jul, 2011

    I went to Golden Dawn and tasted 4 horsemen, it had a strong grapefruit note which is not to my taste. To me It is like a stronger flavoured “Mash Up”. My usual preference is Belgian dark ales so poles apart from that.

  2. Tony Chandler - 14 Jul, 2011

    It certainly seemed like the Apocalypse when the power went out. An interesting beer for sure. I swear those hops were still squeezing my tastebuds a couple of hours later.
    Most enjoyable though but I agree it sure made The Statesman (a beer I really enjoy) taste a bit strange

  3. billofbeer - 14 Jul, 2011

    Yeah it took me a little while to figure that out, Golden Dawn normally has a bit of a ‘mood lighting’ atmosphere to it.
    Those hops certainly lingered, I couldn’t bring myself to drink beer at the Warriors game at Mt Smart afterward

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