Motueka is a fun hop to use thanks to its distinctive lime character, and for this rendition of Hop idol featuring Motueka we leaned into Motueka's lime profile and decided to take the series in a slightly new direction with a sour IPA. My (James') inspiration for this beer comes from my childhood when my parents would go out for pies, and one they would often bring back is a "key lime" pie. This pie balances the lime flavour and acidity with creamy sweetness from the meringue, and we thought it would be good to bring that to beer. Starting with the malt base for this beer, it is akin to an East Coast-style IPA with a healthy addition of wheat and oats, giving the beer a soft and creamy body. We emphasized this even more using a blend of malt dextrin and milk sugar for some residual sweetness. We wanted this extra sweetness to balance out the lactic acid acidity which adds its own fruity and tart characteristic to the beer. Last, but not least, are the hops. We used a blend of Motueka hop products through several different hop additions, layering in the citrus lime character throughout the beers flavour and aroma. This beer came out well balanced, not too sour, not too sweet, and with a delicate lime flavour entirely derived from the hops that lingers on the palate and that light acidity makes this beer perfectly refreshing for a hot summer's day.