Juice Island
Goose Island Beer Co.

473 ml can served cold into a pint glass. LCBO purchase for $3.50 CDN.

Appearance - Hazy pale golden colour with a finger of short lived white head. Small soapy collar lingers on.

Smell-Tropical with some stale grapefruit notes and some orange and possible passion fruit. Fairly malty base.

Taste - some orange and grapefruit again with pine presence at the end. Passion fruit and malt shows through stronger than in most IPA's. Hints of pepper at the end. English hop presence is in here too which is unusually for this style.

Mouthfeel- medium bodied, crisp and assertive carbonation and a touch of astringency to close.

Overall - decent IPA that is juicy enough but won’t set any amazing alarms off. Worth a try for the tick and if you love Goose Island, for me this will be two and done unless I happen across some in travels.

 

 

Juicy and easy drinkable IPA with a sour taste in the mouth and not enough bitterness for me. The flavors disappear quickly.

Pours an unspectacular yellow greyish colour with a big head. It does leave nice lacing on my glass however. Smell is bitter and tropical, as is the taste. Grapefruit, passionfruit, tangerine dominate the taste, big hops also. Nicely carbonated
Nov 1 2021

 

Pours strawberry blonde with a patchy, long lasting head that musters a lot of lace trails on the glass. The aroma is of peach, mango, pineapple, kiwi hops with a bit of biscuity malt in the back. The taste is dominated by tart lemon drops with floral and tropical hop notes in there too. Grainy, sweetish malts provide plenty of balance. Medium bodied with light carbonation. Light bitterness in the short finish.

A nice, if restrained NEIPA. On the maltier side. Worth a try if you like balance.

A-Hazy yellow with a nice ring of white head around glass
S-Sweet malt forward with little hops detected, but an element of darkness that is nice
M-There is a nice pillowy effect, with a decent juicy character. Carbonation is medium
T-Subtle tropical fruit sweetness with a subtle bitterness that increases its potency as the aftertaste lingers
O-Decent brew. Perhaps I am anti-commercial beer biased and jaded…

473 mL can from the LCBO; coded F11T12 (Jun 11 2021 in Toronto) and served barely chilled.

Pours a turbid, hazy apricot yellow colour, with one finger of smooth, foamy white head situated atop; it falls apart within two minutes or so, leaving behind a decent swath of sticky lace as it recedes. A bubbly collar and filmy cap are its remnants - looks normal for the style. It smells of white grapefruit, orange, cantaloupe and passion fruit, with hints of peach, mango, and maybe just a touch of lychee/berries.

The flavours are along the same lines - I'm getting stone fruit, grapefruit and melon at the front end, with hints of passion fruit, guava and mango following closely in tow; this is all supported by a backdrop of wheaty, bready pale malt sweetness and some lightly caramelized sugars. Finishes with slightly syrupy mango/melon/stone fruit juiciness melded together with an earthy, slightly resiny hop bitterness and a touch of alcohol warmth. Medium in body, with moderately low carbonation that gently tickles the surface of the tongue, lending a teensy bit of crispness to its generally smooth, fluffy mouthfeel. Fair drinkability.

Final Grade: 3.62, a serviceable B grade. Juice Island is not bad for what amounts to a macro NEIPA, but it fails to impress when compared to some of the upper (or even middle) tier hazy & juicy IPAs that you can find in Ontario these days. It's the sort of thing I might grudgingly select at a bar equipped only with macro taps... but in all honesty, I'm not convinced I'd pick this over their flagship Goose IPA, which is almost certainly more drinkable. Give 'er a go and decide for yourself - it's good enough to get the job done, I just wouldn't go out of my way for more.