I don’t remember exactly when it was that I got my first taste of Electric Jellyfish, or EJ as we refer to it these days, but it was one of those perception altering moments where you instantly reevaluate all of your previous beer drinking decisions and know that they were wrong. As part of the market research team for Silver Eagle, we occasionally get random assortments of beers/seltzers/etc that they are thinking about picking up for distribution in the San Antonio area. Back in early 2022, one of those “market research” packs happened to include a few cans of Electric Jellyfish by Pinthouse Brewery in Austin. I’ve been seeking out EJ anywhere I can find it ever since then.
Due to limited production, Electric Jellyfish availability in San Antonio has been almost exclusively through kegs. I have heard that in Austin you can find it regularly available in cans, but until recently (like last week recently), I hadn’t heard of anybody seeing cans of it anywhere in San Antonio for months. Restaurants and bars seem to be doing great with the stuff on tap and it’s popping up everywhere, which has been great for fans like me. The one caveat with this hazy IPA is that it needs to be served COLD, and if the lines haven’t been cleaned in awhile…it’s gonna have some odd flavor (just like any beer would).
The general flavor profile of Electric Jellyfish seems to embody everything I think a hazy IPA should be. There is some fruity tropical citrus tones on the front end, with a hoppy but not overpowering flavor on the finish. At 6.5% ABV it’s definitely not low, but it’s not insanely high like a lot of the IPAs you see coming out in recent years. Have a couple EJs and you’re going to feel great. A lot of people who are more typical light domestic beer drinkers would be turned off by the fruity flavoring here, but I much prefer that over a standard West Coast IPA which…ends up tasting like you just ate a damn Christmas tree.
Regardless of your typical beer choice, if you are open to trying new flavors/styles and happen to run across some EJ in the wild, I think it’s definitely worth a pint or two.
We’re giving it a LandmanLife Beer Drinkability Score of 7/8ths, only losing the 1/8 due to the lack of widespread availability.
