Review: Torque Hazy Whaler New England IPA

My incredibly trusty and reliable Canon 50mm ƒ/1.8 broke on me back in February after over a decade of service, it was my favourite lens for beer reviews - almost always provided a crisp and clear picture and did its job. Nobody cares what I use to take photos for the reviews.. I could use a flip phone and still do reviews with minimal complaints. That said, I've been dreaming of upgrading to Canon's 50mm ƒ/1.4 for seven years or so and this week I finally got the lens! I hope people enjoy the photos.. it certainly wasn't a cheap purchase but I was hoping to upgrade anyways!

My first review with the new lens is Torque Brewing's Hazy Whaler New England IPA. When this first came out, I just wasn't a fan of it and many of my friends were raving about the beer a lot. So, I gave the beer a try again the next time the beer came out and it actually was a lot better than I remembered. I feel like this is probably one of Torque's most raved after beers but for a long time the brewery simply wasn't making the beer.. in a time when NEIPA and Juicy IPAs are probably the most common trend in the beer scene. Well, Hazy Whaler is easy to find again! I've been able to find it at my local LCs pretty frequently lately and it's been one of my main go-tos in recent weeks. 

Hazy Whaler is aromatic, juicy, murky and toothy. Torque recommends pairing this with a lazy day by the water. 6% ABV / 45 IBU.

Appearance: Murky indeed! It's a bit of a copperish-orange appearance that reminds me of a heavy tea. Very cloudy and a light amount of carbonation in the body. The head is quite hefty/thick with a yellowish/beige hue to it. The head diminishes a bit as it warms up/gets savoured and leaves behind a hefty amount of lacing on the glass.

Aroma: A malt-forward IPA with lots of caramel hitting the nostrils at every opportunity, followed by a real nice tropical presence of pineapple, grapefruit, lemon and melon. There's a good deal of bitterness in this IPA to give off a rich pine aroma to it, hint of soapiness at the end.

Taste: Quite a sweet IPA that again has a good deal of malt-forward presence to give off a good amount of caramel to it. There's a good amount of tropical notes in the beer with mainly pineapple, melon and lemon.. it's a lot more subdued than in the aroma but definitely still there. The hops are quite bitter for the style, giving off a heavy pine/wood presence to it so it may be a bit aggressive for those who want more of a juice-forward beer.. but as someone who loooooooves hops, I like it. Aftertaste is a combination of melon and pine.

Overall Thoughts: Drink👏This👏In👏A👏Glass👏. The experience you get from this beer in the can versus in a glass is night and day - in a can you don't really get much of the tropical fruits in this beer but in a glass, there they are! More bitter than most NEIPAs on the market and not quite as juicy.. I feel this is more of a West Coast-style IPA than a NEIPA but the NEIPA category of beers has changed a lot in just the last two years. Hoppy, caramel-forward and mildly tropical.

https://torquebrewing.beer/beer/hazy-whaler/