The best beer of 2017 so far: Modus Operandi Zoo Feeder IPA

Modus Operandi Zoo Feeder IPA

This is my early contender for Beer of The Year.

The 500ml silver cans of Modus Operandi are commonly found in the Graham household fridge, with their Sonic Prayer IPA a constant presence in the official ‘fridge door’ zone.

So when I heard that Modus – one of my four or so Northern Beaches breweries – had a new IPA coming out, I needed to have it. NEED!

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What’s more, this beer has a celebrated history, as the last iteration of the Zoo Feeder IPA winning Best IPA in the Universe (or such). The NEED was now even stronger…

When the brewery dropped the list of where I could buy this delicious brew I was behind the eight ball. MIA. Unprepared. For some reason, I didn’t go straight to the Modus cellar door (or whatever you call a brewery door. Maybe brewery door? Yes) and instead drove to multiple bottleshops around the hood on some sort of crazed beer hunt.

Without success.

Thankfully, the interwebs delivered me a stockist, and when the selection of silver can delights turned up the beer was everything and more. In fact, we went through 3 x 4 packs at Graham HQ, which at $11.50 per 500ml can is a few Rubles. I’d buy more as well if I could track some down…

Fresh is best with IPA, and no doubt the fact I opened one within a week or so of canning date helped make this even better. Mmm fresh beer.

Style-wise this is halfway between an English IPA and a US west coast IPA. So darker, richer but hoppy too. Delicious!

The colour is undoubtedly more English IPA, in the light amber/light toffee realm. But the hops give it a more contemporary feel too, the herbal hints and bitter thrust giving a trans-Atlantic style of both creamy malt richness and freshness. Best of both worlds.

So often modern IPA gets a bad wrap, criticised as lacking in complexity to match the punch of hops. But this doesn’t. It is everything that I want in IPA (and more).

Delicious beer. 5 stars. 7.2%. Would I buy it (again)? In a heartbeat.