A double IPA with four different hop treatments on the can is either going to be a mess or a masterclass, and Partway from Manchester’s Track Brewing Company lands firmly in the second camp. This one comes with a description that reads more like a cocktail than a beer, mango, passionfruit and strawberry over a dank cannabis base, at a very serious 8% ABV. Here is the honest verdict on the can and the pour, plus what is actually going on with all that hop.
Partway at a Glance
| Style | Double / Imperial IPA (New England / Hazy) |
| ABV | 8.0% |
| Hops | Motueka Cryo, Citra, Citra Cryo Fresh, Strata CGX |
| Format | 440ml can |
| Brewery | Track Brewing Company, Manchester, England |
| Founded | 2014, under a railway arch at Manchester Piccadilly |
| Best served | Cold, in a tulip or stemmed glass to hold the aroma |
Track Brewing Company: from a railway arch to a warehouse taproom
Track started with founder Sam Dyson cycling around the world in 2008 and stumbling into small taprooms across the United States along the way. He came home, learned the trade brewing in London, and then set up shop back in Manchester in a 2,000 sq ft railway arch tucked under Piccadilly Station. Seven cramped years later, in 2020 and 2021, Track moved a stone’s throw away to a 12,000 sq ft warehouse on the Piccadilly Trading Estate, right across from fellow Manchester brewery Cloudwater, and built the taproom they had wanted since the beginning: 20 lines of beer poured a few feet from the tanks it came out of.
That taproom-next-to-the-tanks idea is the whole philosophy, get the beer to the drinker as fresh as possible, and it shows in how Track builds a can like Partway. Rather than one hop doing all the work, Partway stacks four separate treatments of three hop varieties, Motueka Cryo, plain Citra, Citra Cryo Fresh and Strata CGX, which is the kind of layering you only bother with if freshness and hop character are the entire point of the beer.
What all those hop names on the can actually mean
Cryo hops are processed at cryogenic temperatures to separate out the lupulin, the resin glands that carry a hop’s aroma and flavour oils, from the leafy plant matter. The result is a concentrated pellet with roughly double the aroma punch and less of the harsh, grassy bitterness a whole-cone hop can bring, which is why Partway leans on Motueka Cryo and Citra Cryo Fresh rather than the standard versions of those hops.
CGX, used on the Strata here, is a newer hop product that concentrates a hop’s essential oils even further than Cryo, aimed squarely at maximising aroma and flavour with minimal bitterness. Stacking a Cryo hop, a Cryo Fresh hop and a CGX hop in one beer is a deliberate move toward “as much tropical hop flavour as physically possible, without the beer turning harsh,” which lines up exactly with how this one drinks.
How it tastes
Partway pours a hazy, pale gold to orange, with the soft, almost creamy look you expect from a New England-style double IPA. The nose is intensely fruity before it is anything else, ripe mango and passionfruit up front, with a lime-like brightness underneath and a base note of dank, resinous cannabis that keeps it from tipping into candy territory.
On the palate that fruit carries straight through, mango and passionfruit again, with a strawberry sweetness that shows up late and softens the finish. There is a light tickle of chilli-like warmth threaded through the hop character, and the finish lands resinous and dank rather than bitter in the classic West Coast sense. For an 8% double IPA it is remarkably soft and drinkable, the alcohol is well hidden behind all that fruit, and the “silk-soft” mouthfeel Track itself uses to describe it is an accurate call, this is built to be smooth, not to punch you with bitterness.
“A luscious, hazy, highly hopped DIPA, and it’s so drinkable.”, Dan, on the can
- Genuinely fruit-forward, mango and passionfruit lead over bitterness
- 8% ABV is very well hidden behind the hop character
- Silk-soft mouthfeel for a beer built around this much hop
- Interesting, well-explained hop bill for anyone into the technical side of brewing
- Dank, resinous finish will not suit drinkers who want a clean, crisp DIPA
- Small-batch UK can, hard to find outside the North West and specialist bottle shops
- At 8% it is a sipper, not a session beer
Partway is not sold through US delivery apps. Great Divide Hercules Double IPA is a comparable US-available double IPA, below.
FAQs
What style of beer is Partway by Track Brewing Company?
Partway is a Double IPA, in the Imperial / Double New England / Hazy IPA category. It is 8.0% ABV and sold in 440ml cans.
What hops are in Track’s Partway DIPA?
Partway uses Motueka Cryo, plain Citra, Citra Cryo Fresh and Strata CGX, four separate hop treatments stacked together for maximum tropical aroma with minimal harsh bitterness.
What does a Cryo hop do differently to a regular hop?
Cryo hops are processed at cryogenic temperatures to concentrate the lupulin, the resin glands carrying aroma and flavour oils, away from the leafy plant matter, giving roughly double the aroma impact with less grassy bitterness.
Where is Track Brewing Company based?
Track Brewing Company is based in Manchester, England. It started in 2014 in a small railway arch under Manchester Piccadilly Station and moved in 2020/2021 to a larger warehouse and taproom on the Piccadilly Trading Estate.
