Take your taste buds on a world tour with the truly international Travel Notes IPA
“Drink local” is a common approach from beer lovers keen to support the breweries close to home. It also helps ensure you get the beer fresh and, as any discerning hophead knows, fresh is best.
But craft beer is a truly global phenomenon and even a beer brewed down the road is likely to incorporate ingredients from faraway lands. It’s this breaking down of beer boundaries that is celebrated in Travel Notes –a fruit IPA created that strives to fit a whole world of beer into a 440ml can.
Cross-border collaboration
Of course, an international IPA requires international relations, and the brewing expertise comes from both sides of the atlantic, with UK’s Northern Monk Brew Co teaming up US-based Fieldwork Brew Co. A third, and slightly more unusual collaborator is Lonely Planet (yes, the guidebook people), which makes more sense when you peel off the label to learn that the beer showcases some of the many flavours profiled in their new “Global Beer Tour” book which combines travel notes with tasting notes. Some people won’t like having a product push accompany their pint, but it sounds pretty awesome. And it’s hardly in-your-face marketing, quite the opposite. You actually have to pull off the label to even know about it and I’m guessing some people can resist the “Peel here” in the corner (I’m not one of them).
Before we get to the tasting tour, we need to talk about that label. It’s amazing. In fact, it’s probably more impressive than the beer. I could easily have made this the first Craft Brews and Running Shoes dedicated label review. The stunning technicolour can coating features imagery from some of the world’s most iconic destinations, from Myanmar to Antarctica, on to the Taj Mahal and, particularly impressive for this Swiss resident, the mighty Matterhorn mountain.
When you peel it away, the back of the label reveals more information about the Travel Notes concept. In summary, five ingredients, five continents – one international IPA. Nice, right? So, all aboard for a truly international IPA…
Travel Notes tasting notes
First stop, Europe. The deep caramel colour in the glass comes from the malted barley and wheat sourced from the UK and Germany. These European contributions give Travel Notes its biscuit backbone, smooth mouthfeel and honey sweetness.
The sweetness becomes borderline sickly as we take our next stop in Africa, where the mango flavours come from. I like fruit IPAs, but mango can be a bit sweet and I feel that’s a little bit the case with Travel Notes. From here, we should bounce over to South America for the acai berry blast but I sadly didn’t get this on tasting at all. I can only assume it’s been swallowed in the mire of mango.
Next stop is Oceania, with hops from Australia and New Zealand. These promise some pepper notes and this did come through in perfectly pleasant way. I suspect this is where Travel Notes’ real fruitiness is coming from too, rather than the actual fruit adjuncts.
Then, familiar territory for any IPA fan, the bitter kick of North American hops, kicking in to cut through the sweetness with a citrus chop. The sharp finish is excellent and is what stops the sweetness of the beer overpowering the whole experience.
There you have it, round the world in 80 sips. Though it’s not quite a tour de force, I think you’ll be satisfied with the Travel Notes taste adventure. It’s a solid fruit IPA though if you haven’t got a sweet tooth it probably won’t be a beer you’ll write home about.
That said, Travel Notes is worth buying for the label art alone. The can will look great on Instagram, which is how people choose their travel destinations nowadays anyway, isn’t it?