Stomping Ground – Hop Stomper IPA

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So here we are at the monthly zine beer review. Wonder why this zine took a little long to get out? Well this right here is the reason; I was delayed with my beer drinking and not by choice but because I had mumps and couldn’t drink for a week or so. It was tough, the last can of my Stomping Ground ‘Hop Stomper’ was staring at me each time I opened the fridge just asking to be drank.
 
There’s nothing overly special about the can but it’s not the worst I’ve ever seen. There are 4 bands of purple each a shade lighter than the previous as they move down the can before reaching a white band; capped off with black at either end. The Stomping Ground logo of what appears to be legs walking (or stomping?!) sits reasonably centrally with ‘Stomping’ above, ‘Ground’ below and then the ‘Hop Stomper’ IPA sub-title. The can tells me the beer is inspired by the tradition of stomping hops into bales. Seems like a weird inspiration and I’m not sure how the beer captures that.
 
Enough nonsense, you want to hear about the beer. Well, I was in Dan Murphy’s trying to get my trusty Colonial Pale Ale when a beer salesman convinced me to try this beer. It was delicious so I got got and bought some. I didn’t realise at the time, but this beer sits at 1.7% and a single can will hit you with 1.7 standard drinks. Perfect for the 18-21 year old alcoholic me, a bit intense now.  The thing is, you don’t notice the alcoholic content of the beer – it’s super drinkable then BAM! One beer in 30min and you got a buzz (well those of us that barely drink any more do).
 
A little about the flavour of the beer… it’s hoppy, fruity, delicious. That’s about it, it’s much more drinkable than a lot of hoppy IPA’s – particularly strong IPA’s – so for those wanting to get drunk this would be a great summer beer. It goes well when watching an Albert Einstein documentary on Netflix, too.
 
Not sure I’ll be a returning customer to this beer, especially if I plan to have multiple beers, but my experiences with Stomping Ground have been pretty good. Their Pale Ale in its can of green bands (why is pale ale always green?) will be my go-to Stomping Ground beer and is more to my soft palate.