At Last Hazy IPA

 

Hamilton’s Merit Brewing is a venue that I’ve long heard great things about and, had the pandemic not scuttled my summer travel plans, is almost certainly a place whose door I’d have darkened in the flesh. Instead, I placed an order for a box of 500mL bottles. Among the bottles that showed up at my home is At Last Hazy IPA. The 6.5% ale came in a bottle with a generic but pretty Merit label and an info tag. The beer inside was bright gold and hazy as heck, with a very sudsy layer of bright white head.

At Last has a sharp tropical fruit nose—mango and passionfruit. The flavour is sweet and fruity, trending toward a lightly floral hop finish.

The hazy IPA market in Ontario is, in a word, bustling. Still, At Last managed to stand out above the horde by demonstrating an elegant and balanced flavour and an extremely smooth texture. Nothing about this beer made it unique—rather, it was just well put together stuff that ticked all of the hazy IPA boxes in an above average fashion. Drinking this hazer has got me amped to try the saison and imperial stout in my Merit order.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.