Original Pattern Brewing Co. has stacked the hop bill on this one: El Dorado, El Dorado Cryo, Idaho 7, Idaho 7 Cryo, and Australian Galaxy, five different hop forms doing five different jobs in a single Hazy IPA. At 6.8% ABV, Live A Little is soft, expressive, and thoroughly hop-saturated, which is a lot of adjectives for a beer whose name suggests you should just relax.
The brewery describes it as lush, fruit-forward, gently dank, with a smooth rounded finish, easygoing in name but bold in execution, and that contradiction is really the whole appeal. This isn't a beer trying to overwhelm you, it's one quietly packing in more hop complexity than its laid-back branding lets on.
Cryo hops in particular tend to concentrate the oils without dragging along extra plant matter, and stacking that many varieties together is the kind of move that either turns into a muddled mess or a genuinely layered pour. Based on the brewery's own description, this one lands on the layered side.
It's one of six new releases from the Oakland taproom this week, part of Original Pattern's constantly rotating lineup, available in the taproom and shipping Friday at noon, with delivery across California for anyone not local.
Sometimes living a little just means one more can of a very well-built Hazy IPA. Seems fair.