Night Shift The 87

Breweries can find themselves in a tough position when they brew a “flagship” beer for a while and then decide to change the recipe. The need to change the recipe can happen for a number of reasons, a new brewer who wants to make a mark, changing tastes of a customer base, issues with availability of ingredients, or a recipe that starts to feel stale after many batches. When this change is made inevitably some customers love the current recipe and end up disappointed. One option is to just brew an entirely new beer and phase out the old one, but breweries can form attachments to a beer name or artwork and not want to abandon it. An interesting recent example was The 87, the flagship DIPA from Night Shift Brewing which is named the after their address in Everett. Night Shift recently revamped the recipe of The 87 allowing them to take advantage of some newer hop varieties and positioning the beer as a true version of the low bitterness and fruity New England style IPA. The newest iteration of Night Shift The 87 is available year round on draft and in 16 oz. cans.

Night Shift The 87Night Shift The 87 pours a hazy light orange with a small white head. The aroma features a huge burst of citrus and tropical fruit from the hops. The hops also lead the flavor, notes of grapefruit, tangerine and papaya with minimal bitterness, very much a NEDIPA. This is balanced by a solid malt backbone, hints of crackers and bread dough. The 87 is medium bodied and drinks very easy for a DIPA with 8.0% ABV. The finish is crisp with some lingering fruity hops. This beer is stellar, I thought the original version of the 87 was pretty good but this beer is a big improvement over what I remember. There are so many stellar local DIPAs and this needs to be in the conversation when you talk about the best. Hoppy Boston score: 4.75/5.

Previous Night Shift Reviews:

Night Shift Bennington, Night Shift WhirlpoolNight Shift AwakeNight Shift SantilliNight Shift MaracuyaNight Shift Mainer WeisseNight Shift Thunder Moon, Night Shift Morph IPA, Night Shift Ever Weisse, Night Shift Grove, Night Shift JoJo, Night Shift Taza Stout, Night Shift Simcoenation

 

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