One of the recent beers from Bend’s Crux Fermentation Project is Strange Behavior, a hazy IPA brewed with kveik yeast as the brewery’s fall seasonal (available through December). The brewery has been dabbling with kveik fermentation, as many others are, and it seems that hazy IPAs are the primary application for the yeast. I’d received cans of the beer from the brewery to sample, and have my review here.

It’s 6% ABV with 40 IBUs, and here’s what Crux says about it:

Over the centuries, the craft brewer’s pursuit of perfection has yielded countless cases of unexpected awesomeness, and this Hazy IPA is no different – we added the ancient Norwegian Kveik yeast with its one-of-a-kind high temperature fermentation to this modern, hop-forward ale. The result is a truly unique IPA defined by distinctive flavors of grapefruit & apricot. Skål!

Appearance: Opaquely hazy, golden orange color, with a good and fine head that’s fluffy and off-white.

Smell: Apricot, other stone fruit juice and skin, with some garden greens; not quite an allium note but close. Clean fermentation profile so that I wouldn’t necessarily have guessed kveik yeast was used.

Taste: Smooth with a savory bitterness that’s quite pleasant; light grapefruit pith, green fruit, muddled herbs. Good wheat malt that’s clean and slightly creamy. There’s a bit of an estery fermentation profile in the flavor, so that it’s nicely fruity. Lightly spicy or even a bit minty at the back.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied with a great soft profile, nice bite at the end.

Overall: This is a nice hazy, with good fruit character and soft malts.