CORONADO BREWING COMPANY BIGGER BOAT HAZY IPA - A Review

By Daver.

Look at that can, just look at it! I love sharks, JAWS is one of my favorite movies, read the book over and over, and I enjoy a lot of Coronado Brewing’s brews, so grabbing this beer was inevitable. The can describes this brew: “Hazy IPA brewed with raspberries, blueberries, vanilla and lactose.” Sounds like it’d be like a breakfast yogurt, doesn’t it? I like yogurt. I like creamy beers. 7% ABV, that’s appealing. Imagine a yogurt with 7% alcohol per volume. That’s a good morning! Here’s hoping I didn’t make a mistake out of fanboy enthusiasm by choosing this hazy IPA.


(drinks) 

Hope is stupid.

This IPA, it’s not creamy. It’s not creamy at all. It’s quite tangy, not just from hops but also the berries. The raspberries, blackberries, easy to taste like you picked them fresh from the vine. Only without any sweetness. You don’t detect any vanilla till the end. I’m not thrilled about the color of the body, it’s an unhealthy, thick, cloudy orange. That’s fitting, because it has an after taste like an orange rind. Not zest, the rind. You can smell a little citrus from this too, and the missing sweetness of the berries. Not gone, just redirected from gustatory to olfactory senses. Overall, it’s all just shy of bitter, thankfully. The foaminess is light, so pouring it won’t generally force you to pause and resume.


Funnily enough, letting it warm up a little mellows it out to an easier drinking 
beer. The rind becomes zest, and it gets much further from bitter. It feels creamier, even. The lactose and vanilla finally become more, I don’t know, visible? Upfront? Anyway, you get my meaning. Hell, it almost becomes a different beer that I’m drinking. Or the 7% ABV is kicking in. I’ll lean into the former, some beers just are better when warm.


As a rule, I prefer my beer to be cold. I pull these cans and bottles out of the fridge and pour them cold. And on a hot summer day, I desperately need my beer to be cold. I wish this beer were as good cold as it is warmed up some. Maybe that means it’s a good beer for the beach when the ice is low, or for the winter when you’re already cold everywhere else and would like something that’s not cold. Whatever you choose, as long as you drink responsibly while choosing.


OK, hope isn’t stupid.


I don’t regret picking up the shark beer. It’s not what I thought it would be, but it’s not so bad when that happens. Especially with 7% ABV!