Catherine the Wompas IPA

Review Date 7/4/2021  By John Staradumsky

It’s Gigantic! The brewery that made this beer, that is: Gigantic Catherine the Wompas IPA. Since there is a pretty ferocious looking cat on the label, I am assuming this beer is named for the mythical wampus cat aka cattywampus of American lore. If memory serves, it is more a thing here in the south than out in the Pacific Northwest but, hey, does it really matter?

Actually, Gigantic did not brew this alone. It’s a collab beer. Did I mention that it’s a collab beer? It’s a collab beer. From the label:

We collaborated with our friends from De Garde Brewing on this beastly West Coast IPA loaded with zealous amounts of Columbus, Mosaic, Nelson and Simcoe hops resulting in a beer with intense citrus, berry and dank notes.

The De Garde brewery is from Tillamook, Oregon (Gigantic is located in Portland). The bottle my beer came in is refillable, forged from thick sturdy glass. You can only bring it back for re-use in Oregon, but I like this concept all the same. I will recycle it, as I always do with beer bottle and cans.

Gigantic Catherine the Wompas IPA has an alcohol content of 7.6% by volume according to the bottle. At that strength, this one straddles the line between IPA and double/Imperial IPA, but Gignatic calls in an IPA, and who am I to argue? I paid $6.49 for my half liter bottle from Craftshack, this is the only pricing I have available.

Gigantic Catherine the Wompas IPA pours to a slightly hazy color with a thick creamy head and a robust grapefruit, dank and tropical fruit nose. Taking a sip, the beer is medium in body, slightly dank and leafy green, bursting with citrusy grapefruit pith and peel, and quite bitter in the finish.

In many ways, this beer was like a spinach wrapped grapefruit, which may not sound appealing, but you like it all the same.

I would definitely buy it again.

And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.

*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.

(B)=Bottled

(D)=Draft

 

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