Intergalactic Warrior by Toppling Goliath Brewing Company is a juicy hazy IPA that highlights Galazy and Warrior hops. Lemon, peaches and grapefruit dominate the beginning and middle of this IPA, ending with a spicy and piney bitterness that lingers well into the aftertaste. This article covers a review and relation to Felicity Shagwell as a movie reference.
Technical Details for Intergalactic Warrior IPA
- Beer Name: Intergalactic Warrior
- Beer Style: IPA
- Brewery: Toppling Goliath Brewing Company (Decorah, IA)
- Brewery website: https://www.tgbrews.com
- Purchased: Cellar in Norman, OK
- Tasted: 11/19/21
- Glass Used: Benshot Slapshot hockey puck pint glass
Intergalactic Warrior IPA Scoring Categories
Beer Review Toppling Goliath’s Intergalactic Warrior IPA Scoring Categories:
- Can Design: Lara Croft heads to outer space to team up with Sterling Archer
- Appearance: medium thickness yellow haze 4/6
- Aroma: starts with lemon, citrus fruit salad middle, sweet tangerine finish with a hint of pine 21/24
- Flavor: lemon slices hand the baton to peaches and grapefruit juice, zesty grapefruit finish with some spice and piney notes 37/40
- Mouthfeel: thick, creamy, syrupy with a spicy finish 8/10
- Overall Impression: sneaky IPA due to a fruit forward taste profile with a long lingering spicy and piney finish that leaves a memorable bitterness, typical of a regular IPA and not a hazy IPA 18/20
- Total Score: 88/100
- This IPA highlights how well Galaxy and Warrior hop flavors compliment each other due to grapefruit, peach and fresh tropical fruits playing nicely in the sandbox. Toppling Goliath has figured out how to consistently brew top notch hazy IPAs that highlight tasty hop profiles.
Brewery Background
Toppling Goliath Brewing Company (TG) is located in Decorah, Iowa and opened in 2009. Founded by Clark and Barbara Lewey after a very successful run in the home brewing market. TG focuses on hazy IPAs and barrel aged stouts. Current beer portfolio includes forty beers that rotate throughout the calendar year. Have strategically expanded distribution to thirty states in the USA as of 2021.
Beer Advocate named TG the #2 brewery in the world. TG’s Kentucky Brunch Brand Stout has held the title of #1 rated beer in the world since 2015 (current Untappd rating of 4.84 out of 5.00). Hazy IPAs and barrel aged stouts are TG’s forte, and their sours are improving on a daily basis due to unique brewing techniques and using top notch ingredients. TG gets a ton of beer geek hype across the internet, in magazines and in beer stores. Agree the hype is warranted, due to the TG beers I’ve tasted have been extremely good and complex. TG is very active in the social media market with timely posts on Twitter and Instagram.
Due to the annual rotation of forty beers, TG has focused on improving their “flagship” beer recipes, by tweaking with new hop profiles and adding fruit. Structures Brewing has a similar approach in Bellingham, WA. I’m now wondering why more breweries don’t follow this business model. Best guess is that most breweries don’t have solid flagship recipes that enable tweaking and testing during a calendar year. Nothing wrong with trying subtle changes to a baseline product, enabling the beer geek community to have debates about special releases and best batches.
Intergalactic Warrior IPA Background
Toppling Goliath brews the following rotational IPAs:
- Nugmo – 6.7% ABV, Untappd Rating 4.06
- ZeeLander – 6.3% ABV, Untappd Rating 4.02
- MoZee – 6.3% ABV, Untappd Rating 4.12
- Pompeii Beach – 5.3% ABV, Untappd Rating 3.73
- Golden Nugget – 6.8% ABV, Untappd Rating 4.00
TG definitely has the 6.3% ABV level figured out for their annual IPA rotationals. Nugmo is top notch and worth seeking out. Current goal is to find ZeeLander and MoZee in 2022 to keep the TG beer tasting train rolling and on the track.
Movie Comparison for this Libation
Felicity Shagwell, played by actress Heather Graham in the 1999 movie, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. Shagwell more than held her own after meeting Austin Powers in London, England during 1969. She helped Powers defeat Dr. Evil for a second time, and then gladly time traveled to 1999 to settle down with Austin #1 and Austin #2. Besides dropping more one line jokes than Powers, Shagwell followed CIA agent protocols to defeat Dr. Evil’s largest henchman and distracted a guard when the stakes were high.
Shagwell followed Power’s love interest from Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery in 1997, Vanessa Kensington played by actress Elisabeth Hurley. Kensington helped Powers get used to the 1990s after being cryonically frozen for thirty years. She also ended up being one of Dr. Evil’s fembots and was gone from the The Spy Who Shagged Me before the opening credits.
Foxy Cleopatra, played by Beyonce in the 2002 movie, Austin Powers in Goldmember, followed Shagwell as Power’s work partner/love interest. As with most movie trilogies, the third installment felt hollow and most of the jokes fell flat. Cleopatra worked well with Powers, but she wasn’t the marrying type like Kensington, or Powers’ true love with Shagwell’s bubbly personality and funny habits.
Tasting beer consists of three phases: aroma, flavor and finish. In the Austin Powers movie trilogy, Vanessa Kensington is a good aroma, Felicity Shagwell is a top notch flavor, and Foxy Cleopatra is a forgettable finish. No matter what, you’ll gladly sit down anytime to watch The Spy Who Shagged Me due to Shagwell’s business first approach, before flirting with Austin Powers.
Are you interested in finding this beer? Check out this article that tells you how to locate great beer near you.
Cheers and keep it classy everyday!
