Tox’s Summer Fugu – a hazy IPA brewed for the summer
Tox Brewing is one of the breweries that uses Twelve Percent’s facilities in North Haven, Connecticut to brew their beer but they also have a location about 50 miles east, in New London, Connecticut.
I had never heard of Tox, let alone had any of the brews, until they came across my Tavour app. And I jumped at the chance to try one of their seasonal releases – Summer Fugu.
For this brew, they took their flagship IPA – Fugu – and revamped it for the summertime. They took their base and scaled down the ABV slightly…from 6.5% to just 6%. It still has the same Citra, Cashmere, and El Dorado hops just with a tad bit less of a bite. The 16-ounce can cost me $7 but if you’re close to them, you can get the beer for much, much cheaper. About $14 for a four-pack.
Summer Fugu poured a very hazy muddled straw color with some golden and orange hues. About a finger and a half of eggshell white head topped the brew and slowly faded down. As the foam dissipated, it left some nice lacing around the entire glass, leaving very little clean.
The aroma was thick and tropical but the grist was also quite noticeable. The grains added a heaping of cereal-esque notes of flaked wheat and oats that were nearly as prevalent as the juicy fruits. And there were a LOT of fruit characteristics in this brew – pineapple, passionfruit, oranges, white grapes, and mango to name a few. It was very sweet and insanely juicy.
For as heavy as the brewed smelled, it did not drink that way at all. It was incredibly sessionable and perfect for the summer. The mouthfeel was light and watery but there was still a lot of flavor to this brew. The grains started things off with a quick flash of biscuity and caramel qualities but were soon overrun with tropical fruit flavors.
Mango and oranges led the way with some massively juicy papaya and passionfruit flavors following quickly behind. After a moment or two, the pineapple peeked out with some light acidity and that noticeable prickly feeling. That’s also where the hops added a dash of bitterness that settled at the back of the tongue for a few moments.
On the backend, the beer turned slightly dry and pithy. The grapefruit appeared here with some pithiness and was joined by a bit of mango and a final push from the wheat and oats. The brew then ends a little dry and sticky with some lingering citrus rind notes fading very slowly.
The beer did get a tiny bit heavier towards the bottom of the pint, making the second half of the can a bit harder to chug but it was still lighter than I was expecting it to be.
Overall it’s a solid summer hazy. If you’re headed out on the water and don’t want to sacrifice flavor, it’s a solid option but…between the 6% and the increasing heaviness of the beer, it’s not an all-day drinker. However, a few of these guys would be great during a BBQ or after dark on the beach.
