Truck Chaser Bomb Pop Double IPA
Truck Chaser Bomb Pop (8.1% ABV)
Wild Leap Brew Co. (LaGrange, Georgia)
Double IPA
This beer got a ton of hype on social media and definitely caught my attention with its ice cream truck label and bold claim that it combines lime, cherry and raspberry with the juiciness of a hazy IPA. While this beer didn't disappoint, it also didn't blow me away.
Truck Chaser Bomb Pop pours a nice, hazy orange with very little head. When I cracked it open, I wondered if it was flat because there was no sound of carbonation - just the hollow crack of a beer can opening.
The aroma is what you'd expect from a hazy, juicy IPA - very sweet and some light citrus notes. There's not much of a bite to it.
This beer sips pretty complexly, if that's even an accurate way to describe things. The flavor that hits me first is the limeade tang of a popsicle - tart but super sweet, with a sugary bitterness that sticks in the back of your throat. You can get undertones of a cherry sweetness as well, and on a slightly larger sip it reminds me of the cherry limeade they encourage you to make a Firehouse Subs - a good balance of tart and sweet, without letting the cherry flavor overtake you or turn this beer into cough medicine.
All that to its credit, the raspberry gets lost for me. Just like in a Bomb Pop, I feel like these flavors best serve each other when they're enjoyed separately, and I don't think the beer offers quite enough demarcation between the flavors. (Then again, could we ever really tell the difference between the cherry and raspberry in the popsicle itself? I only remember recognizing the lime, and then the fruitiness of the other two flavors. *shrug*)
Underneath the popsicle flavors, you also have a bit of a dry hoppiness. It comes through on the larger sips, mostly contrasting with the sweetness and drying out your tongue just a bit. I also notice that this beer is best enjoyed on small sips, which allow you to parse out more of the flavors rather than get overwhelmed by a dry mouth feeling. That being said, the mouthfeel is pretty nice. It's definitely thinner than other milkshake IPAs I have had, but it's smooth and has a medium body to it.
Overall, I enjoyed this beer and if it wasn't so difficult to get my hands on it (Storytime - My Atlanta-based brother pre-ordered two 4-packs of this beer - one for me and one for him - and when he went to pick them up, someone had literally ripped one of the 4-packs off of his preorder, which was sitting on a supposedly employee-access-only shelf. That's how crazy people were when this beer came out.) I'd get some more and share with others. But since it was a limited run and seemed super popular/ sold out pretty quickly, I think I'm going to instead just wait for the next beer in the Truck Chaser series and enjoy that one.
Overall rating: 3.75/5