The Brewery: Left Hand Brewing Co. (Longmount, CO)
The Brew: Good Juju
Availability: Draft & Bottles (12oz.)
ABV: 4.5%
Rating: 8
Location: Home
The Story? Several years back, my partner's sister brought over a 12-pack from a brewery I hadn't run across yet. The artwork was fantastic and the brews were even better. That beer was from Left Hand - Sawtooth Ale, 400 Pound Monkey IPA, Milk Stout, and Stranger Pale Ale graced my pallet. But then, just like that, they were nowhere to be found in town. I was able to snag one or two on draft while out of state, but otherwise hadn't run into them since and they slipped into the back of my mind.
Fast forward until a week back when I stroll into one of my usual pick-up places (Finger Lakes Beverage) and voilà! - they're back in our area. Into my basket go a sixer of Juju and Nitro Stout. Neither of which I'd tried yet.
Juju's story starts way back (ha) in 1994 as part of Left Hand's first 5 production beers, beginning life as Juju Ginger. 2010 the brew was rebranded as Good Juju with fantastic updated artwork.
The Beer? A full mouth of pleasant ginger satiates me in the first big swig. As well it should - they juice 20kg of ginger for each 60 barrel brewery batch, plus using the rinds in quite an innovative manor.
A smooth, wet, mild pale ale finishes the job. The ginger is ever present, but not in a spicy ginger-beer way... this is a far more subtle nature. A bit sultry, thirst-quenching and satisfying. A great alternative to skunky summer beers and boring, phoned-in fruit wheat beers. I'm peaked to try this with some good Indian or Thai food as well.
This isn't a beard-scratching, philosophizing ale; but that's not what it's aiming. Perfect for those of us looking for a high quality session ale as the temperature rises with quite it's own personality.
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