Craft Beer Spotlight: New Belgium Juicy Haze IPA

Craft Beer Joe

7 years ago

Juicy Haze IPA By New Belgium Brewing

For many, the New England IPA craze has been going on for a few years. However, unless you were willing to line up or trade, getting these hazy, juicy beers was nearly impossible. That’s changing as the larger breweries are starting to make this style. One example is the New Belgium Brewing Juicy Haze IPA.

Some of what has made the New England IPA popular is the intense fruit forward, juiciness along with its low bitterness. But we also can’t deny that some of the appeal is tied to the limited availability.

Which leads me to wonder if the larger breweries can make a similar tasting beer that gets the same hype of small breweries.

Review Of New Belgium Juicy Haze IPA

It’s hard to deny that I really like New Belgium Brewing. Their company has done some amazing things both in and outside of the beer industry. And their beer is really good too.

Check Out My Brewery Spotlight On New Belgium Brewing

But it’s also necessary to point out that breweries like New Belgium are finding it hard to grow their companies. They are stuck in the middle between big, Marco beer and the demand for local beer. It’s a tough spot to be in.

To stay relevant, these larger breweries must learn to adapt. Gone are the days of producing the same, high quality beers and gaining market share. Now you have to be unique both in your approach to marketing and beer offerings.

This means jumping into new beer styles while they are still popular. And that is exactly why we are seeing so many larger craft breweries releasing New England IPAs (aka juicy IPAs, hazy IPAs, etc).

This leads to me the beer we are spotlighting; Juicy Haze IPA. It is part of New Belgium’s VooDoo Ranger series. Check out all four of them here.

This series represents their efforts to align themselves with the intense demand for IPAs – the best selling style of craft beer.

Juicy Haze IPA is 7.5% ABV and 50 IBUs. You’ll find 6 packs of 12oz bottles for around $10.

Here is how New Belgium Brewing describes their Juicy Haze IPA:

Packed with bright tropical aromas and brilliant citrusy flavors, this unfiltered IPA wraps up with a pleasantly smooth finish.

Initial Thoughts

I’ve enjoyed my fair share of New England IPAs. And while they share a handful of characteristics, there is still lots of room for interpretation.

The appearance of Juicy Haze IPA is really close to what I’ve come to expect. It has a bright yellow-orange hue that almost looks citrus like. While it wasn’t as hazy as some in this style, it is what I’ve come to expect from the larger breweries.

When it comes to aroma, I want a nose full of tropical or citrus notes. Juicy Haze IPA delivers on both of these. I get more tropical (pineapple) than anything else.

I do get a touch of “stinky” hops in the aroma as well. Looking over their site I see the use of Simcoe hops which can often have a dank and earthy aroma.

Tasting Notes

After meeting my expectations for aroma, I looked forward to getting some good news in the flavor.

The first sip is very sweet citrus flavors. It’s somewhere between orange and grapefruit which adds a bit of citric bite to the flavor.

New England IPAs are know for having low bitterness. I find Juicy Haze IPA to have more bitterness than I’d like. However, those that are accustomed to IPAs will find that the bitterness is very mellow.

The body is medium which is good as some New England IPAs have a body that is a bit too heavy.

It finishes clean and dry leaving you ready for more.

To avoid most of the bitterness, I recommend drinking it cold as the hop bitterness increased as the temperature increased.

Final Thoughts

Juicy Haze IPA is a solid offering that I recommend checking out if you are interested in the “hazy” IPA trend.

If you’ve had some of the hard to get New England IPAs, you may feel like this beer left you wanting more. But that’s partially due to the realities of scale and shelf life.

Larger breweries aren’t going to make small batch beers and they have to ensure that they can last for a few months to accommodate shipping and shelf life.

New Belgium Brewing does a great job giving the details about their beers. Check out Juicy Haze IPA here.

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Conculsion

The Brewers Association recently added Hazy/Juicy Ales to their style guidelines. This was even more proof that the New England IPA isn’t going away any time soon.

It’s exciting to see breweries of all sizes make this style and help get it into more hands.

The New Belgium Brewing Juicy Haze IPA is a solid offering. It isn’t as aromatic, flavorful or hazy as the beers made by smaller breweries but it still fits the category quite well. And it is easy to find which is a huge selling point to most craft beer fans.