Over last weekend, I made a return visit to Greenbar Distillery to test out two new hops infused liquers that will be coming out on the market. Both will fly under the FruitLab banner with the first ready to buy now and the second named Grand Hops coming later.
The first has been dosed with Bravo and Citra hops and was wicked, sickly sweet. To me it was more simple syrup or candy, than hops. I can see how it could add to a cocktail, in fact the Hop Drop cocktail that was being poured was quite nice, though I could have used a bit more fizz to it.
The cloudy and unfiltered, Grand Hops version dials down the sweet and ramps up the bitterness which is very earthy and tree bark-y. More ABV heat shows up here since the sugar isn’t there to smooth that over. The bitter aftertaste was a bit much in conjunction with the sweet. And the California Love cocktail played up the liquer to a detrimental effect to me.
To compare and contrast, Greenbar also had a Simcoe ice tea and Citra sparkling soda to try. And to be frank, I would have bought either of them before the alcoholic cousins. Both the tea and the soda added a balancing note to the hops used and were very refreshing and very aromatic. A little spritz of gin and I would have had a quick and easy cocktail that would have worked wonders for me.
Maybe a cocktail pro would find standout uses for these new products separately, but, for me, I would blend the two together to tone down the sweet and create a more balanced bottle for mixing.
