Perhaps the most anticipated UK beer release this year was Magic Rock's Unhuman Cannonball Triple IPA, which sold out in its entirety in less than a few hours. It seemsmost of the bottleshave been snaffled by bloggers and tickers. I luckily managed to get hold of a bottle from Ales By Mail and decided to indulge in a spot of beer and food pairing.But first, the beer.
As you can see the label is lovingly screen printed onto the bottle and surprisingly (given its 12% strength) its a 660ml bomber. I had no trouble polishing off the entire bottle by myself though.The beer pours super hazy mid amber with a pillowy head. Strong resinous pine on the nose, robust malt sweetness and rasping bitterness, juicy tropical fruits, tart citrus, some warming booze. On warming passion fruit comes over to the fore on the nose and distinctive watermelon notes in flavour. Perfect carbonation and medium body.
I went for the classic India Pale combination of curry, a vegetable rogan josh to be precise, with plenty of added corriander. The medium spicing really played off the hops to bring some tropical fruit flavours to the fore and the corriander seemed to help bring the bitterness to a more managable level. Tasted great with the lime pickle too! Curry and IPA are a much-touted pairing for a reason.If you missed out, its set to be an annual release so watch out for announcements next year! A fantastic first release of a super-strong IPA from the Magic Rock guys then, catapulting to second-place marginally behind Odell and Thornbridge's Pondhopper and tied for second with Moor's JJJ IPA. Estimable company indeed.
Magic Rock