Back in the summer of 2011, I found myself bar-hopping through Vancouver, Canada with a couple buddies. I found the city to be beautiful and inviting, awash with delightful food, cocktails and beer. Near the end of our week-long excursion of rafting, hiking, eating and drinking, I found myself at a fantastic little gastropub called Chill Winston, elbow deep in shellfish and pork belly. I reached for the cool pint glass I had just ordered, and took a long pull of the frothy beverage within. “Oh bliss, bliss and heaven… Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh… And then, a bird of rarest-spun heaven metal, or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now.”
This was an inspired beer. This was a beer of depth and majesty. A beer that stood out amongst the crowd, whose quality shone brighter than the sun on Bayshore Boulevard in mid-August.
So, perhaps that’s a touch of hyperbole, but trust me that this beer was good enough to stand out in my memory, even amongst the thousands of beers I’ve tried since. Being that I live 3,100 miles from Vancouver, I had resigned myself to the belief that I may never get to drink that delightful brew again.
Imagine my delight when I saw the beer hit distribution right here in Florida!
Driftwood Fat Tug displays a beautiful fruity bouquet of grapefruit, melon, mango, passion fruit and orange zest. It has a supportive malt backbone, whose sugars help provide the 7% ABV. Clicking in at more than 80 IBUs, it provides the bitterness to which all hop-heads will gravitate. A remarkable beer. It’s an IPA that will stand out from the rest of the hoppy brews on any draft wall. It’s certainly something that I will be ordering upon my next visit to any bar that has it on.