Feral Brewing Biggie Juice

Biggie Juice, a six per cent ABV New England IPA from Feral Brewing, has earnt a release in bottles following a successful draught debut last year.

Biggie Juice bottles came off the production line yesterday and are now available in West Australian bottleshops, with the east coast soon to follow.

“He is notoriously juicy, brimming with tropical hop aromatics of apricot, peaches and passion fruit – we’ve left him intentionally cloudy with a creamy mouthfeel – so we can leave you day dreamin’ in a cloud of haze,” the brewer told its Facebook community on February 7.

Feral Brewing boss Brendan Varis recently told Brews News that he is not the biggest fan of the NEIPAgenre himself, butthe beer had proven popular on draught.

“The guys in the brewery championed that beer… they ran with it and it was very well received,” he said.

“But speaking personally, there’s just a lot about that beer style that I don’t go for. I don’t necessarily accept that they need to be as cloudy… yeast is not devoid of flavour, so leaving some of it in there is fine, but I don’t know that they need to look like custard.”

Biggie Juice was one of very few draught-only beers to make it into the GABS Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers of 2017, ranking at 83.

Seven New England or hazy IPAs made the Hottest 100 in total, led by ‘Jedi Juice’ from Melbourne’s Hop Nation in eighth place. 3 Ravens (‘Juicy’), Mountain Goat (‘Back To The Brewer’) and CoConspirators (‘The Matriarch’) also drew significant votes for their interpretations of the NEIPA style.

But Feral’s Brendan Varis suggested New England IPA is just the fashion of the moment and said he doubts it will figure strongly in future Hottest 100 polls.

“I look forward to seeing next year’s list, and the year after’s, and seeing if there’s as many NEIPAs,” he said.