OnTap Magazine

BREW REVIEWS REVIEWERS: Lucy Corne, Brian Leopold & Marcel Harper Although originally launched in 2020, The Juice has had a complete overhaul and has been re-released as a single-hop hazy IPA. The hop will change with each release - you can expect two or three versions per year. This first edition features the classic hop Citra, which gives the beer a fresh aroma of ripe granadilla, lime and honeydew melon. On flavour it delivers exactly what the can promises - a juice bomb of note, with peach and mango taking centre stage and some subtle sweet orange rounding it out. The aftertaste makes you think you just polished off a carton of Ceres tropical fruit punch - the nectar version. There’s plenty of body to this beer and a certain sweetness, but it’s not cloying or sickly. The dry hopping is so generous it lends a few much-needed IBUs to balance things out, and suddenly you’ve sucked down a whole can without realising it and are reaching for the next. The Juice launches in September and will be available at select liquor stores, via ACBC’s online shop and directly from Banana Jam. – LC Afro Caribbean Brewing Co. THE JUICE CITRA IPA (5.8%ABV) 4.0 This classic West Coast style IPA is the third release from Nova, the gypsy brand launched by Anja van Zyl in 2021. Hopped with five classic American hops, it's got a fine aroma of naartjie peel and a notable whiff of pine. The pine isn't just from the hops though. In a bid to bring the outdoors into your glass, Anja added a tea made with pine needles collected from Majik Forest in the northern suburbs of Cape Town. I don't know how much of the pine aroma comes from the tea and how much is coming from the Simcoe and Columbus. But either way, it's a crisp, inviting beer with a long, clean finish. It's not all hops though - there is malt backbone here, but specialty malts have been used with restraint, the light caramel note not dominating or detracting from the hops at all. In short, it's my kind of IPA and one I can see myself having a few of in one session this spring. – LC Nova Beer Project MAJIK FOREST IPA (5.4%ABV) 3.9 Something that many may not know is that when rating a beer, a beer judge will utilise the BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) style guidelines to properly evaluate the beer. The white stout is a fairly new beer trend and is not represented in the BJCP guidelines, which makes reviewing them more difficult as you have no real style parameters to work with. What I can tell you though, is that white stouts are designed to mess with your mind. They look like a regular pale ale, but due to brewers using special ingredients like coffee or chocolate to help mimic flavours found naturally in dark grains, the beer is meant to taste and smell like - you guessed it - a stout. The Doppelgänger does just that and starts by giving off a complex aroma of smoked wood, roasted vanilla and raw coffee. It makes me think I'm smelling an Irish extra stout but staring at what seems to be a pale ale. The flavour of vanilla and coffee comes through again nicely on the palate, and has a pleasant bite at the end, with a creamy texture to balance it off well. I may just replace my iced coffee with this. – BL Smack Republic DOPPELGÄNGER WHITE STOUT (5.5%ABV) 3.9 56 | Spring 2022 | ontapmag.co.za