At Wayward, we have been tweaking, refining and perfecting our Hazy IPA game for a few years now, trialling recipes for almost 12 months before releasing our first Hazy limited release can, Appalachian Mist, way back in October of 2019.

Since then we have brewed dozens of Hazy beers using an array of hop varieties, at different ABVs, and with different yeasts and malts, evolving the process with every new beer on a quest to produce their dream iteration of the style.

Now, after three years, countless brews and many many requests for a year-round addition to the Wayward portfolio we are very excited to present to you our brand new core range Hazy IPA.

We caught up with Head Brewer, Shaun Blissett, to find a bit more about the beer.

What’s exciting about Wayward launching a Hazy IPA into our Core Range?

We’ve been brewing Hazy and Juicy IPAs as limited releases for almost three years now, but we don’t see too many Hazy IPAs sitting in core ranges. We have always had a strong and varied core range at Wayward and a solid, sessionable Hazy IPA fits in perfectly as the latest addition.

Like a lot of the beers we enjoy producing at Wayward, Hazy IPAs are the modern interpretation of a classic beer style. They have a fuller body and pillowy mouthfeel that allows us to showcase hop flavours in the best possible way.

How do you approach brewing Hazy beers? Are there any special considerations involved?

There’s a lot of technique that goes into brewing Hazy beers – a lot of building blocks. You want the freshest hops you can get, and the flavours in them have to balance perfectly for those big tropical juicy flavours. You also need to find the right type of yeast to compliment your hops so you can be left with a little sweetness. Water has also been an extremely important part of the way we brew hazy styles now, we put more focus on that than you might expect. There are compounds that make the hop bitterness present more harshly, and ones that will work perfectly with them for a smoother taste, so it’s definitely about finding the best ingredients to compliment what’s coming out of the tap here in Camperdown. This helps us achieve that pillowy mouthfeel we expect from hazy beers.

Talk us through the hop varieties in the beer, and what made you choose them for this brew.

We’ve used Citra, Simcoe and Sabro hop varieties in this beer to create a perfectly balanced juicy IPA. We’ve been using Citra as a dominant hop for a while in our hazy beers – it lends itself to the word “juicy” and presents those big tropical flavours we expect from this style. Simcoe brings a touch of those piney resin notes that compliment the Citra. We trialled a lot of batches to get the balance between these two hops and our final hop, Sabro, just right. The tropical coconut flavours of Sabro are dialled right back so that they support the Citra and Simcoe and add another layer to the beer.

When’s the perfect time to crack a hazy?

For me, this really is just the perfect beer to sip all year round. I’ll be cracking a few over the long weekend for sure.”

Wayward Hazy IPA is now available online, at the Wayward Taproom and listed stockists.