I’ve got a rather interesting beer to review today. Hammerton, over the New Year period created a beer especially for hospitality workers and gave it out for free to all customers. Naturally, as a pub manager, this included a case for myself and the team. Named ‘Staffie’, which for those who don’t know, is a drink you get after finishing your shift. They’ve brewed this beer as a non-profit non-resale beer which is quite a lovely gesture. They’ve gone for a New England IPA at fairly punchy 6.9% for a free beer. Regardless of the gesture I will, as always, be impartial in my review!

The pour on the beer is a really interesting burnt orange colour, with a large off-white head. Very tropical aroma with lots of grapefruit, pineapple and papaya coming through. The body is light, juicy and fruity. Bold flavours of clementines and pineapples but with a decent hoppy bitter bite to the finish.

A quick note on the can art: This might be one of the best can design I’ve seen. All sorts of different characters with vibrant popping colours. Certainly a can I’ll be keep and repurposing that is for sure.

While the beer is free, Hammerton haven’t pumped out a mediocre product. I mean, it would be hard to put a subpar beer past pub workers! The added oats make it smooth and very easy drinking and it certainly doesn’t taste remotely like an almost 7% ABV beer. At it’s core it is a classic New England IPA but has got a certain boost to the overall flavour that makes it a cracking little beer. Thank you Hammerton brewery for the very lovely gesture. The tinnies went down a treat with the team.

Score: 8/10

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Additional Information:

• Hops: Not Available
• Malt: Not Available
• IBU: Not Available
• ABV: 6.9%
• Gluten Free: No
• Vegan: Yes!