SweetWater's Day Trip IPA is fine, but a little boring
SweetWater was one of the first craft breweries readily available to me as a broke graduate student. By virtue of countless $2.50 420s and Blues, the Atlanta-based beermaker -- bought out by a Canadian concern in 2020 -- has spent most of the last two decades inside my circle of trust.
Some of the recent returns have been uneven. The company's Gummies line of fruity, heavy pale ales was hit-and-miss. And maybe it's because I'm up in Wisconsin now, but the Blue doesn't hit the same way it once did (though it's still a solid Atlanta airport beer). Even so, SweetWater remains a brand I seek out. Or, at least, a brand I'm comfortable shrugging toward and grabbing a six pack of once overwhelmed at my local Woodman's.
Thus enters Day Trip IPA to my life. SweetWater, as a consequence of being born in the late 1990s, is well versed in pale ales. Let's see how this one turns out.
Day Trip IPA: B-
Cracking the can unleashes a wave of bitter hops backed by some slightly sour malt. It's clear from the get-go that this isn't a hazy New England ale or West Coast joint. It's a throwback to the salad days of the late 00s where tongue-burning pale ales were the staple that invited all the new local microbreweries into the pool.
Fortunately, the first sip is milder than the abrasive smell suggests. This isn't a face-melter IPA. It's got some softness to it thanks to that heavier-than-expected malt load. It does clock in bitter, but it's not going to tie you into knots with a big IBU count. Instead, those hops turn the volume up toward the end to temper things and remind you what we were all drinking 15 years ago.
That rounds off each sip, which isn't the dry finish I'd prefer but one I can live with. You're getting a bit of a journey here, from some lemon citrus up front to that hoppy conclusion. It may work better with more carbonation -- there was a bit of a flat feeling to my can, even a month-plus before its best by date -- but as is it's a totally fine, upper-middle class pale ale.
That's nice. Not nice enough to stand out in a crowded field or even with SweetWater's best stuff. But, nice.
Would I drink it instead of a Hamm's?
This a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I'm drinking to my baseline cheap beer. That's the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm's. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I drink SweetWater's Day Trip IPA over a cold can of Hamm's?
I'd mix one in here and there. Day Trip is a totally fine pale ale and one you won't regret plucking out of a cooler. But it's also probably not one you'll actively seek out.
This is part of FTW's Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.
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