I got the alert on the 6th of July, straight from my Taco Mac app:

SPECIAL BEER RELEASE ALERT! Swing by your local Taco Mac all day as we tap the keg to one of their newest brews SweetWater 420 Strain G13, a super sticky super-hybrid that's ready to rip!

“Oh wow!” I thought, I hope they still have this one the next time I stop by. They did, on the 12th of July, and I ordered one right up after my Rogue Combat Wombat (Rogue was beer of the month). Sweetwater 420 Strain G13 is a new year-round offering from Sweetwater, and they say this about it:

This aromatic super-hybrid sticky IPA is first and foremost a phenomenally delicious and drinkable beer, with the added bonus of an olfactory experience that mimics that of the legendary G13 cannabis strain. The IPA base brew has a great body, good head and nice amount of haze at a pleasurable 6% ABV. To work with the malt bill, the brewers added some of their dankest hops, Columbus and Simcoe, plus two dry hop additions. To achieve the aroma, our brewers found the perfect botanically-sourced, strain specific terpenes and married them with propriety natural hemp flavor, both perfectly complementing the hops in the IPA.

This was doubly interesting because Sweetwater 420 Strain G13 is being released just about the same time as New Belgium The Hemperor HPA, though neither can lay claim to be the original “hemp beer”. Frederick Brewing was making Hempen Ale back in the 90s and is the first such beer that I can recall. I do not recall that beer being as “robust” with hemp flavor as either The Hemperor or Sweetwater 420 Strain G13.

Sweetwater 420 Strain G13 has an alcohol content of 6% by volume, with 48 IBUs. This is a little less potent than the Hemperor, which weighs in at 7% ABV. The G13 was running $6 a pint at Taco Mac.
My mug of Sweetwater 420 Strain G13 arrived a surprisingly bright but hazy orange color with an intense bitter green herbal aroma, a medium maltiness, and permeating green herbal “dank” notes, juicy citrus, all wrapped up with an intense bitterness.

This is pretty damned good beer my friends, and compares favorably to The Hemperor. The hemp and hop notes work very well together (the plants are related after all). Do I have a favorite? I can’t say that I do. Both beers are unique in there own way, though very similar of course. The Sweetwater 420 Strain G13 is local for me however, and better priced, too. Though draft for now, Sweetwater says it is coming this month (August as I type) in cans and bottles. The Hemperor is much more dear on tap, though, at $7.50 a pint.

But be careful. Enough of these beers, and you may just get a pot belly.

Update 9/19/2019: Just enjoyed a glass of Sweetwater 420 Strain G13 IPA, 16 ounces to be exact from a can I picked up at Kroger for $1.99. Target sells it in six-packs of bottles for $9.49 with your Red Card, too. The beer still wallops your palate every time with those "dank" herbal aromas, and I like it a lot for that.

From the can label:

We took an already dank IPA and married its hops with strain specific terpenes and natural hemp-type flavor. The result is an aromatic super-hybrid sticky IPA that's ready to rip.

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