Name: Feral Brewing Co Hop Hog

Style: IPA (India Pale Ale)

Country: Australia

ABV: 5.8%

Beer description: Feral Brewing Company comes out of Western Australia. The Hop Hog is their flagship beer and their best seller. It’s a robust, American style IPA.

Given the amount of alcohol in this beer and the fact that it’s an IPA, it actually pours a little light in colour. It’s fairly golden and sparkling in demeanor and just great to look at. The heads sits well on the beer, coating the entire top.

The aroma of this beer is filled with malt and citrus, with a little bit of passion fruit at the very end. Feral notes that they use a lot of American hops in this beer, and quite a bit of pine comes through in the aroma. The Hop Hog is styled as a purely American IPA and they’ve really pulled this off well in the aroma.

There’s plenty of malt in the body, but not much taste of it. There’s almost no sweetness to this beer. Rather, the citrus from the aroma sits hard in the front. Right behind this is the IPA bitterness and a very dry finish. It’s a pretty bitter beer and this quickly becomes the dominant sensation in the mouth. In the middle, a tiny bit of vanilla manages to sneak through.

While this is a great beer, there’s not a whole lot to say about it. It’s certainly a hoppy beer and an excellent example of an American style IPA. There’s little to fault this beer, but also little to set it apart from the myriad of other IPA’s out there. This isn’t a problem of course, it’s a good beer!

The little thing that sets it apart is just a little bit of fruit in the aroma and flavour. This manages to lighten the mood of the beer just a little bit and take the edge off.

Check out more IPA reviews.

See other Feral Brewing Co beers.

And for those not in the know, IPA stands for India Pale Ale. Find out why it’s called IPA.