Next Coast IPA is brewed by the Goose Island Beer Company, though the can doesn’t mention the Goose Island Brewhouse Toronto, so I don’t think this one is actually brewed there, but rather as a part of the lager Goose Island empire. It’s a 7% IPA brewed with Citra, Eureka, Mosaic, Nugget, and 06277 hops and it comes in a 473mL can. As far as I can surmise, the idea here is to bridge the gap between east/New England and west coast IPAs, with some hazy and tropical flavours à la New England and some of the citrus/pine and potency favoured by west coast fans. The result is a slightly hazy deep gold beer with a thick and durable white foam crown.
Next Coast is built around evergreen aromatics, but also some fruit elements—both grapefruit and something a bit more tropical. If I were trying to place this beer on a spectrum between east and west, it’d be closer to west than the centre, with citrus and bold pine notes taking prominence, though there is definitely a playful and sweet tropical subtext.
This is an undeniably well-made beer and it doesn’t give me much to complain about. At 7%, it has some gravitas, but at just 40 IBUs, it isn’t assertively bitter. I think it strikes a nice balance between the prevailing hazy and juicy IPAs of today and the more bombastic hops bombs that ruled the seas ten years ago.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10.
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