Hop-Heavy: “Voodoo Ranger” Links Up With “Voodoo Child”

By Nick M.W.

New Belgium Brewing’s Juicy Haze IPA and Jimi Hendrix’s are a perfect match.

Brewery: New Belgium Brewing
Beer: “Voodoo Ranger” Juicy Haze IPA (7.5% alc.vol)
Artist: Jimi Hendrix
Song: “Voodoo Child”

If the wah-wah pedal were to be represented in an alcoholic beverage — if the flowery bouquet of late 60’s counterculture were to be captured in a beer — it would be New Belgium Brewing’s Voodoo Ranger “Juicy Haze” IPA (7.5% ABV). The name alone conjures something like a smoke-filled speakeasy steeped in mysticism, where the house band is led by a shaman who rips through guitar chords after he lights his axe on fire.

*Tap tap tap

Is this the Voodoo Ranger Lounge?

Yeah, what’s the password?

Juicy Haze.

If you are unfamiliar with the mission of these Hop-Heavy articles, it is to convey the experience of sipping on a good beer while listening to a certified jam. Because I chose the Voodoo Ranger, I immediately thought of cracking the can open while blasting Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” just loud enough to feel the fuzz of his guitar through my headphones (I’ve got young kids who are currently asleep).

The first 30 seconds of this rock classic are Jimi just giving you a little splish-splash taste of what’s to come, and it syncs up nicely to the initial pour. You see the golden, slightly opaque liquid flow from the can down the inside of your glass, and just as the drums kick in the foamy head of this delicious beer crackles and pops with that fuzzy guitar sound.

Like most of Jimi’s songs, the guitar is front and center of “Voodoo Child”. It seems like the rhythm section was designed just to carry the weight of his solos. The bass guitar is more of a subtle undertone, and that parallels “Voodoo Ranger’s” subtle citrus notes. You sense it in the aftertaste. Where one might expect a bitter bite that comes standard to many of the IPA lineage of beers, “Voodoo Ranger’s” vapor trail leaves you with a distinct acidic flair common to citrus. It’s quite lovely, and it’s also quite deceptive.

You wouldn’t necessarily know that Jimi was going to melt your mind with his guitar from the jump on “Voodoo Child”, but that’s what happens. Boom! Slap! Wah-wah shred all the way until the music fades. One minute into the song, Jimi lets you know:

“Well, I’m standing next to a mountain

Chop it down with the edge of my hand.”

He is not to be played with, and neither is “Voodoo Ranger”, but it tastes so damn good, you slide a couple gulps down your gullet before you realize that you have indeed transcended the realm of the Squares for something far more fun and raucous. It doesn’t happen immediately, like “Voodoo Child” doesn’t quite blow you out of your chair until Jimi decides to let loose. But, when it hits you, you feel it.

Jimi is the high watermark for guitar greatness, but his brand of rock has some blues in it, and by virtue of the artist’s gifts, it also has some soul to it. Like Jimi’s work is in the vein of rock ‘n roll, “Voodoo Ranger” Juicy Haze IPA is in the vein of IPA — that’s where you’ll find it’s soul — but it will also take your taste buds to a different place, somewhere between the grassy fields of Woodstock, NY, and the transcendental experience of a well-crafted beer, coincidentally brewed in the upper elevations, just below the heavens.

Facts:

Colorado has 425 breweries.

“Voodoo Child” was the last song Jimi Hendrix ever played live.