Arbeiter / Venn Collider FDHDDHHDIPA with Curuba Fruit

Arbeiter / Venn Collider FDHDDHHDIPA with Curuba Fruit.

9.3 % ABV, 26 IBU. Arbeiter Brewing, Minneapolis, MN, collaboration with Venn Brewing, also Minneapolis, MN. 

I don't remember what those letters mean, although I might have known at one time. DDh is Double Dry Hopped. IPA is India Pale Ale. Is FDH "fresh dip hopped"? Is it a Double IPA? 9.3%, so that checks out. DDHH? I'm so confused over here. {Edit: Hazy Double IPA? Except it's not that hazy...}

But, here we have two of my favorite South Minneapolis breweries collaborating, at long last. {Edit: It's their third time.} And I enjoyed it on tap a few weeks ago, so let's dig this growler. (Which I almost didn't buy because it was $12, but what the hell, I say, once in a while.) 

Clear, bright golden color, large cloud-white head. Looking very good. 

In the nose: Citrus explosion. Lemon looms large. Stone fruit shines through, peach and apricot mix up with the orange and passionfruit. Intriguing. Arresting. Promising.

In the mouth: Juicy fruit! Plenty of bitterness unloaded upon the palate, mixed with a panoply of hop flavors, a mishmash of citrus and tropical tastes. Passion fruit reigns. Slightly sweet, wonderfully refreshing, despite the ABV, and altogether pleasant and delightful. This one firmly belongs to that rarified category called Yum A Dum Dum. 

FDHDDHHDIPA. “Fruited Dip Hopped Double Dry-Hopped Hazy Double IPA” — That’s a mouthful and the silliest acronym ever assembled! Venn had been very interested in using curuba fruit which is in the passion fruit family. Yellow in color, it’s lovingly called the banana passion fruit, it has a papaya-like earthy richness and tropical tartness as well, perfect for a big ‘ol hazy! Azacca, El Dorado, and Mosaic hops were used for their tropical and fruity and mango flavors that played nicely with the curuba fruit. This beer was truly a collision in technique, ingredients, and breweries. A collider of a collaboration!

One of the things I missed was the H for Hazy...but it isn't. Okay, whatever.