Aloha NEIPA with POG Juice
Six String Brewing Company

“Aloha!” which is the Hawaiian word for both “hello” and “goodbye”... seems like a recipe for disaster to me “what do you mean ‘goodbye’? You just arrived!” *gets divorce* So I’ve got my hands on the latest New England style India Pale Ale (NEIPA for short) by Six String, and I’ve been crossing my fingers for years for Aussie brewers to make NEIPAs, and now we’re being flooded with them (be careful what you wish for!). This brew also contains POG, no I’m not talking about some 90’s fad, this is the POG that is Passionfruit Orange Guava juice, although (as it turns out) the 90’s POG fad was started by the makers of POG juice, thanks again Wikipedia! Back to the beer: we’re really starting to take the piss now with all these fruit-added NEIPAs, when will brewers discover the next hype train to board? [Grodziskie FTW!]

Poured from a 500ml can into a nonic pint.

A: Tis a swamp in my glass! Murky AF pale orange coloured body with a rather happy to see me 1 inch white head that slowly disintegrates leaving lace splotches on the side of the glass. Rather OK looking NEIPA. 7/10.

S: Passionfruit and grassy are dumped all over this brew in dump truck proportions. Lingering in the background are orange and guava and little else. May the POG be with this brew, always. Overall aroma is a bit of a split between juicy POG and grassy green hops, my concern is the flavour balance isn’t there, but I’ll find out soon enough. 8/10.

T: Funky mother of Jesus Gonzalez this beer is all over the shop! Flavour is a mess, bit of the above (passionfruit, orange, guava) and dry middle, touch of alcohol spirit, some wateriness (but we’ll cover that off next), grassy green bitterness - in the finish - and an aftertaste like a wet newspaper. I can see what they were going with here, but no, just no Six String. 4/10.

M: Watery given the 7.5% ABV, with a mid to light body and a crazy gassy carbonation. Doesn’t work, but at least it’s less of an issue than the taste. 5/10.

D: I was still burping long after I finished - a testament to the wrongness of this brew. I think might have problems with how they incorporated the POG juice, plus it’s been fermenting too long and the balance is trash as a result. Here’s an example of an Aussie NEIPA done right (which I had cans of last night): Hop Nation Jedi Juice. TBH I think I underscored Jedi Juice, that is a cracking NEIPA. Regardless Six String Aloha NEIPA with POG Juice isn’t a cracking NEIPA, it’s BALLS. 6/10.

Food match: Nah, follow this with a Jedi Juice and tell me it isn’t balls, I dare ya.