Revisiting the Hazy IPA Pack from Firestone Walker Brewing (received)

Last year I reviewed the beers of the Hazy IPA Pack from Firestone Walker Brewing, a mixed 12-pack featuring three beers built around the company’s Mind Haze IPA and marketing campaign. This year the Hazy Pack is back, with a bit of a remix, and the company sent me the beers to review.

This year’s edition of the Hazy Pack swaps out Brain Melter Hazy Imperial IPA for Galaxy Bender Double Hazy IPA, but keeps Mind Haze and Cosmic Crusher Juicy Imperial IPA. Since I reviewed the latter two last year, I’ll add some notes on those revisiting the beers, and focus my full review notes on Galaxy Bender below.

Mind Haze IPA

The flagship of the series, the original Mind Haze is 6.7% ABV with 30 IBUs, brewed with Azacca, El Dorado, and Hüll Melon hops.

This year’s edition of the can advertises “Juicy Hazy” for the beer (last year’s was “Hazy Tropical”) but I think it’s more savory and herbal-spicy than fruity as before; I get more minty aromatics over the fruitiness which fades a bit into the background. The flavor sticks the landing on that savory, peppery character, with a nice bitterness hitting the back of the palate that avoids hop burn, though there is a bit of a minty aftertaste/coolness on the tongue. It’s a nice hazy overall, solid with a good bitterness this time around.

Cosmic Crusher Juicy Imperial IPA

Like Mind Haze, the recipe and stats for Cosmic Crusher haven’t changed from last year: 9.5% ABV with 20 IBUs, with hops Galaxy, Simcoe, and Mandarina. It’s a big beer and it’s full of fruity aromatics worth checking out.

Fruit pops in the aroma here, with apricot, honeydew melon, and some light citrus featuring prominently; it is indeed “juicy” in the nose. The flavor gives melon rind and bitter greens, some floral alcoholic notes, fruit juice character that’s got stone fruit, pear, something tropical. As I noted before, there’s some alcohol but it doesn’t drink like it’s 9.5%; it’s quite mellow and smooth in that regard. It does hit the mark on the “juicy” label.

Galaxy Bender Double Hazy IPA

Galaxy Bender lands in between Mind Haze and Cosmic Crusher, with 8.5% ABV (no IBUs listed). The website description is pretty minimal:

Galaxy Bender unleashes mind-bending waves of tropical fruit and bright citrus. Each sip sends your taste buds on a vibrant, flavor-soaked journey.

But there is a blog post about the new beer that gives more details on the hops Galaxy Bender is built upon:

The name isn’t accidental. Galaxy Bender is built around Galaxy, the Australian hop that’s been rewiring tropical IPAs for years, delivering waves of peach, plum, and grapefruit that feel almost too good to be real. Alongside it sits Citra: the Pacific Northwest legend that essentially reshaped the modern IPA, bringing that electric, zesty citrus charge that arrives before the beer even reaches your lips. The third leg of the constellation is Krush: a newer release from the Hop Breeding Company that brings tropical punch, mango, and orange to the blend. On its own, Krush is interesting. Layered with Galaxy and Citra, it becomes something else entirely.

Appearance: Properly hazy—it has a cloudy appearance, nearly opaque, yellow-orange, but avoids looking muddy or like a slurry. Decent white head but it doesn’t pile up, though it has decent legs.

Smell: Light fruit to my nose, with pineapple and a bit of peach, with a savory-spicy hop character that borders on allium. Not terribly pungent, rather pleasantly mellow. Some twigginess.

Taste: Soft, grainy in the sense that I can taste the wheat protein contribution (a touch doughy or perhaps even flour-y), with a bit of mellow fruit juiciness (peach juice, a splash of pineapple juice, bitter citrus peel oil). There’s a subtle menthol or eucalyptus-like minty-cool character, and as it warms I get more fresh pineapple toward the back. The alcohol perhaps contributes some floral or fruity esters but otherwise I’m not tasting it.

Mouthfeel: Medium to medium-full body with a soft, pillowy texture presumably from the protein haze; it’s quite pleasant on the tongue. It finishes with a bit of that menthol-like cool note coating the mouth.

Overall: It’s pleasant, mellow, and hits more of the mark on what I think a “hazy IPA” should be than many I’ve had, which makes this a successful beer in my opinion. Watch out though because at 8.5% ABV it does not drink like it.