The days are heating up and summer is all but here, which means easy summertime drinking—and a great time to check out the Easy Day hazy IPAs from Worthy Brewing. The two beers, Grapefruit and Tangerine, are Worthy’s entry into the low-alcohol, low-calorie lifestyle (“better for you”) space, while still remaining true to “beer.” The brewery’s stance in this regard, from its press release at the beginning of the year, is:

Worthy Brewing announced today it is a craft brewery, will always be a craft brewery and therefor will not be peddling hard, soft or truly lame seltzers or any other sweetened fizzy beer-flavored waters, ever.

In response to the recent demand for hard seltzers, as well as high flavor hazy IPAs, Worthy is preparing to resurrect the Easy Day name in order to launch an Easy Day low calorie, low alcohol, fruited hazy series. The alcohol content will dip under 4% and the calories under 100, without the use of any extracts or artificial flavors. The first two Easy Day packaged hazy IPAs will be grapefruit and tangerine.

The brewery had provided me with several samples of Easy Day, the first samples back in February, and then in April a new package was sent. I’d made notes already on the February beers, so I figured I might as well also make notes on the April ones—perhaps they were a new iteration that had the recipes tweaked? I don’t know if that’s the case or not, but I thought it would be interesting to post both sets of notes as a compare/contrast.

Let’s jump in!

Easy Day Hazy Grapefruit IPA

Both of these Easy Days are only 3.4% alcohol by volume, with 23 IBUs, and 97 calories per 12-ounce can. Unfortunately the brewery’s Grapefruit page is mostly blank so there’s no other details or description to point to, but I do believe (as is the case with Tangerine) that real fruit puree is used in formulating the recipe. To that end, I’d expect citrusy, grapefruit-forward varieties of hops were used.

February:

Appearance: Hazy gold, with a muddled “dirty” (as in “martini”) juice look to it. White head was crisp and fell quickly.

Smell: Citrusy hops with a light spritz of grapefruit peel, pretty mellow, with a light grassy note bordering on garlic greens.

Taste: Grassy-bitter greens (hay), lightly peppery, a woody note (twigs, stems), grapefruit pith. The bitterness lingers over a light body, where I get notes of crushed wheat, grain flour, yarrow, wildflower petals, light grapefruit zest, grapefruit/citrus oil.

Mouthfeel: Light-bodied, soft, long lingering herbal bitterness into the finish.

Overall: It is pretty easy drinking, though I’d love more fruit at play here.

April:

Appearance: Cloudy golden yellow, though it’s a uniform haziness and not billowy; off-white head that started out promising, but fell to a skiff/ring quickly.

Smell: Mellow notes of grapefruit, more peel than juice,  along with a hint of dank/catty musk, and a grassy/hay hop note. Otherwise there’s not a lot of aroma being thrown off.

Taste: Big grapefruit bitterness (pith, peel, oil) combined with a lupulin “hop tea” bitterness that’s a touch harsh for the lighter body, and lingers. Pithy, oily. Light, wheaty body goes in a grassy direction with some biscuit notes. Not a lot of hop flavor or juiciness like I would expect.

Mouthfeel: Light-bodied, slightly thin, with a near-astringent feel from the bitterness that lingers on and on.

Overall: Leans too far into the bitterness and it should focus more on bringing the grapefruit.

Easy Day Hazy Tangerine IPA

According to the description, Tangerine is brewed with Mandarina Bavaria, Mosaic, and Saphir hops along with tangerine puree (I’m assuming puree when the description says “real tangerine” since Worthy has used/does use Oregon Fruit Products purees). The description says:

Bright citrus aromas and flavors dominate from skillful usage of named hops and the usage of real tangerine to give the beer all the flavor in less alcohol and calories. Tangerine aromas are front and center with background lemon and a hint of tropical dankness.

Same stats as Grapefruit (3.4%, 23 IBUs, 97 cals).

February:

Appearance: Pale golden yellow, hazy, golden-orange highlights. Off-white head is crisp and effervescent, fell quickly.

Smell: Bright, juicy, a touch of tart citrus that’s lighter that the Grapefruit with a bit of sweet orange character. Mild minty allium, grassy.

Taste: Light and grassy (dried grass, but not hay-like) with hints of spicy citrus peel oil, wheat chaff, yellow onion, and a mild squeeze of tangerine juice with a hint of lemon. Crisply wheaty with lemongrass notes.

Mouthfeel: Light-bodied, crisp yet soft with a wheaty finish and a lemony twist.

Overall: Not bad, good mellow flavors though again, I’d like more fruit.

April:

Appearance: Pale gold, mostly opaque (though it’s partly translucent), full haze. White wispy head fell to a skein.

Smell: Fragrant notes of tangerine—both peel and juice with a sweet presence that does evoke whole fruit. Hazy hop notes including some allium but it’s mild. Citrus oil, oily oats.

Taste: Light and crisp, there’s a snap of wheat and a lightly spicy citrus peel note that leads into an easy bitterness that’s appropriate for the light body. The fruit tapers out toward the back and turns herbal.

Mouthfeel: Light-bodied, a bit thin, and fairly crisp for a hazy style.

Overall: I think it’s fruitier that the first batch and more dialed in; a tasty, crispy low calorie hazy that’s ultimately successful.

Conclusions

My preference between the two is the Tangerine, which I found to be fruitier and more balanced. It did seem that the recipes had been dialed in between the winter and spring versions, which I appreciated, though I’d still like to see the Grapefruit achieve more balance.

Overall, if you’re looking for low-alcohol, low-calorie beer options to drink this summer, these Easy Days are ones to pick up.