Recently the Mass Brew Brothers ran a tournament style blind tasting of local IPAs, with 4 regional tastings feeding into a final bracket. You can find the full results of each region and the finals HERE. The results were surprising to many people, beers from top-rated breweries like Trillium and Tree House were bounced early while beers for many lesser-known breweries did very well. I wasn’t surprised, I think that there is a plethora of stellar beer being produced in the state and lots of breweries make IPAs that could advance far in a bracket like this. The reactions from people reading the results were also very interesting. While many people viewed the results as an opportunity to seek out some great new beers too many others lashed out at having their preconceptions challenged, assuming there was something wrong with the bracket set-up or the people evaluating the beers. I think it is a great lesson for all beer drinkers, there is a ton of awesome beer being brewed locally, check out some different places, keep an open mind and try tasting blind to see how much your preconceptions about different breweries are clouding your judgment. Anyways, *Spoiler Alert* the winner of the whole tournament was Pulp Daddy, a New England Style DIPA from Greater Good Brewing in Worcester. Greater Good Pulp Daddy is available year-round on draft and in 16 oz. cans. You can even find it at bottle shops, no wait in line required.
Greater Good Pulp Daddy pours murky light orange with a solid white head. The aroma features a huge burst of hops, tons of citrus and tropical fruit. The hops also lead the flavor, notes of mango, grapefruit, kiwi, and pineapple along with a soft bitterness. The malts add some balance along with a hint of bread dough and crackers. Pulp Daddy is medium bodied and very smooth, at 8% ABV it isn’t a small beer but it isn’t boozy overkill either. The finish is crisp with plenty of lingering hops. This is a stellar DIPA, I am not surprised that it won the whole bracket. One other note: I drank this beer almost a month post-canning (stored it cold), and it was still stellar, a good lesson for those who think 2-week old beer needs to be poured out. Hoppy Boston score: 4.75/5.
Previous Greater Good Reviews:
Hoppy Boston 
