Victory Moving Parts IPA Batch #3

Many craft beer drinkers are obsessed with trying new beers. There is so much variety available now that you could probably go years without ever drinking the same beer twice (if you wanted to, not recommending that). This works well for small brewers, they can augment their flagship products with one-off test batches and brewery only releases that allow for experimentation and feedback as they expand. Larger craft brewers have a more difficult task, they tend to brew on larger scale and distribute over a wider area, plus many already have an extensive range of popular products. One strategy medium to large craft brewers are using to continually release new products is to brew a series of one-off, smaller batch, themed beers. Some breweries make single hop beers that use all the same ingredients and just change the hop variety while others make completely different beer styles for each release in the series. Somewhere in the middle is Victory Brewing Company’s Moving Parts IPA, where the only thing that stays constant is the IPA style. The third batch of Moving Parts features Tettnang Tettnang and Citra hops along with a Belgian style yeast. It is available for a limited time on draft and in 22 oz. bombers.

Victory Moving Parts Batch #3Victory Moving Parts Batch #3 pours a pale orange with a substantial white head. The scent is solidly hoppy, floral and woodsy. The taste is hop-forward, notes of pine, lemon and cut grass accompanied by a hit of bitterness, present but not mouth puckering. The malts are pretty mild, just a hint of cracked grain and caramel and enough body to balance the showcased hops. Their website says this is brewed with a Belgian style yeast, I get a little fruity ester flavor but not the “Belgian IPA” level I would expect. Moving Parts is light bodied, goes down smooth and isn’t overly boozy at 6.6% ABV. The ever changing IPA idea allows for variety and innovation, especially since they seem willing to change out yeast and malts along with the hops, and this is good enough that I will make an effort to sample some of the future releases in the series. Hoppy Boston score: 4.0/5

Previous Victory Reviews:

Victory Swing Saison, Victory Hop Ranch

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