WOLF OF THE WILLOWS LATITUDE 37.8
Taking a class in how to sew I proved to myself you can teach an old dog new tricks. A little education was all that was needed. Perhaps it's been a while since you talked with a mate. Maybe you never have. Either way, it's never too late to learn. Crack one of the 'educational aids' from this box with a friend and give it a go.
Origin – Mordialloc, Victoria
ABV – 6.2%
Size – 440mL can
Style – West Coast IPA
''Get lost'' is an insult commonly flung around a primary-school playground. But it's hard to imagine in an era of GPS sat nav and Google Maps where it's possible to get lost. Yet knowing where you are and where you're going without a device that instructs us exactly when to turn left or right can still be handy, just ask Simon Veltmeyer. It's reported that the tourist from out of town typed 'Blue Mountains' into the search engine, but for some reason, this had pointed him — with the usual Google certainty — to a dead-end street about 30 kilometres north of Katoomba. And he wasn't the only one. Realising what Google Maps was doing, residents had to erect a sign explaining the error. Appropriately it read. 'Blue Mountains is not here – Google is wrong!'
Knowing the latitude (along with Longitude) helps pinpoint the exact location of where you want to get to. 37.8 was where Andy Crocker and Scotty McKinnon were headed to brew their collaboration beer. However, Andy from Original Pattern Brewing fame in Oakland, California, would find himself at a latitude of 37.8 South, working within the walls of Scotty McKinnon’s Melbourne-based Wolf of the Willows. Visa versa, Scott landed 37.8 North to work with Andy's team, brewing his side of the collaboration. With a shared love of West Coast IPAs, the pair traded hops to deliver the beer's cross-hemisphere credentials. Andy worked his magic on the Australian Eclipse, and Scott gave America's experimental HBC 586 a shakedown.
The result is everything you'd expect from latitudinally-devised West Coast. Pouring with great clarity, it's lean, dry and bitter with heavy hits of mandarin, grapefruit, pine and herbaceous amora and flavours.
Maps of the entire world, on-demand, for free, in your pocket any time you want. Can you imagine how shocked Burke and Wills would be to hear that? They'd need to sit down and have a drink. I'd say this 37.8 would have taken the edge off!
