The New England-style IPA is a funny character. It’s hazy, low in bitterness and tends to inspire nearly rabid devotion from legions of fans.

Its name comes from the breweries, especially one in particular in Vermont, who developed the now ubiquitous style. As a bit of a twist, the most prominent ingredients for a NEIPA are hops from the West Coast.

That goes double for Meanwhile…Down in Moxee by Great Lakes because the “Moxee” (not “moxy”!) refers to the hometown of the El Dorado hop variety.

We had a teaser preview for this beer when we talked to Mike Lackey and Iain McOustra for our first installation of Brewer vs. Brewer. They are two of the very few Ontario brewers who make the trip down to Washington State to personally select their annual hop purchases.

Most of the hop-selection fun happens in Yakima, a city of nearly 100,000 citizens. But, just down the road, Moxee is the much smaller town near the farms where the El Dorado hop was first developed.

Moxee, the beer, manages to be all of subtle, refreshing and full-flavoured. It shows ripe melon and orchard fruit aromas that nicely preview the juicy, tropical plus peach flavours. There’s very little bitterness on the finish with just a hint of hop tingle.

Moxee has been a quick seller at the GLB retail store this spring and a fairly large shipment went to the LCBO. The only bad news is that they won’t be brewing it again this summer so don’t sleep on this one. Last summer, I ended up crisscrossing the province to grab the last few cans.