If there's a competition for most lovable beer mascot - I'm 100% certain California's Green Cheek Beer would be up there. And thankfully what comes in the beer can is just as good as what's on the outside - don't you just love it when that happens?

So what's the story with Green Cheek?

Green Cheek's Evan Price. 

“Man, you’re kind of being a d*ck.”

Yep, that's probably how it all got started.

Green Cheek's head brewer and co-founder Evan Price was an aspiring homebrewer who was working in a restaurant when a disgruntled customer who was having a bad day had taken it out on the wait staff, and Evan had to tell it like it is. Upon being fired, Evan thought it was probably just as well and began pursue working in a brewery to gain some experience and fix his homebrewing, which in his words were really bad.

This culminated in more than 10 years of moving from brewery to brewery, each time picking up more experience and rising through the ranks from washing kegs to becoming head brewer. Through his varied experiences, Evan would come to find that many brewers seemed to assign the most importance to various aspects of brewing, which made him realise that all of these were important in determining the final quality of the beer, and that they should not be viewed as isolate.

He further learnt the value of really using high quality ingredients and not simply touting it - if it was going to be a British style beer, high quality British ingredients have to be used, expenses be damned! He also picked up the practice of constantly evaluating and tinkering with recipes and fine tuning it, and to get them to drinkers as fresh as possible. Whilst these are taken for granted as obvious today, it should be recognised that the beer game has truly elevated in the past decade.

Just before Evan was ready had struck out on his own to start Green Cheek in 2017, he had served at Noble Ale Works for 5 years as head brewer where he fought tooth and nail to perfect his recipes which bagged no small haul of awards for the brewery. Known for being an all around super nice guy, Evan claims that he's only hyper competitive when it comes to competitions and ping-pong.

Evan and Brian.

Between Evan raising his sons, and Brian Rauso, the head of Noble Ale Works, quitting, the pair began to explore the idea of starting their own brewery. They had stumbled on a closed down brewery and made the decision to purchase it and having been making beers under the banner of Green Cheek ever since.

Today Green Cheek is known for their American and NEIPA Hazy IPAs, and have done well independently to have even expanded into multiple locations in California. One thing's apparent to anyone who's heard Evan talk - the man is obsessed with making the best beer possible and will find ever minute aspect he can to ace, and at the same time he's never happy with just doing the same thing on repeat - for that reason Green Cheek has no flagship brew.

As for the parakeet mascots? They go by Cheeky, Pierre, Kee Wee and Matt. The brewery had taken up the mascots from the local species of Parakeet, and they've adorned Green Cheek's cans ever since!

And so with all that said, it's time to try some of Green Cheek's Double Dry Hopped Hazy Triple IPA. This one's called The Clouds Just Hung Around.

Let's go! 

The Clouds Just Hung Around DDH Hazy Triple IPA, Green Cheek Beer Company - Review

Tasting Notes

Colour: Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice

Aroma: Lots of bright citrusy notes of oranges, tangerines, alittle bit of grapefruit. Really fresh, and yet has this richness that carries it and gives it depth to complement the brighter fruity accents. It’s just slightly pithy and pulpy.

Taste: Really smooth, great richness, pulpy too, it’s almost identical to freshly squeezed orange juice. All those citruses of oranges and grapefruits pour forth, along with the hoppy bitterness, along with some cut grass and diesel. It’s very well-balanced and the hoppiness peaks and just as quickly fades into the finish.

Finish: Just the slightest whiff of hoppiness here. With just a light lingering bitterness. Somewhere hanging about are some vague touches of leftover citrus.

My Thoughts

Very well balanced, great freshness, it’s as fruity as it is hoppy, the hoppiness is pronounced but not all that dank, making it very approachable and friendly, very crushable and easy to drink, refreshing too. I like this one, its got good balance not too sweet or bitter, with bold notes of both fruits and hops but neither overpowers.