Gear Shifter from 71 Brewing Co Review

Dundee based brewers 71 Brewing Co are regular contributors to LIDL beer festivals and sure enough that's where I picked up Gear Shifter, a single hop Citra IPA. Those who have read a few of my reviews will know I'm rather bored of citrus based IPA's now as they just seem to be everywhere, but we live in hope this one will be a bit different. Gear Shifter comes in a nice enough lime green can and contains a distinctly average 5% alcohol. The beer pours a really hazy orange with a reasonable white head, to me it looks like an unfiltered beer, but I'm assured it isn't. The aroma is mainly citrus as expected, but it smells nice and fresh so that's promising.

Gear Shifter has a night light texture, making it pretty refreshing, and I actually like the taste. Because this is a single hop IPA it's not too sharply citrus, it's not mixing a bunch of flavours, and it's not over complicating things, it's just a nice solid beer. My usual distaste for citrus beers mainly comes from them feeling too zesty, too lively and too sharp, but this is actually nice, mild, and generally pleasant with grapefruit and mango coming through nicely. I'm going to give Gear Shifter from 71 Brewing Co 7 out of 10. It's not an exciting beer, but it's a surprisingly pleasant one.