Brewery: New Belgium Brewing Company
Beer: Voodoo Ranger – Captain Dynamite IPA
Style: New Englad IPA
ABV: 7.7%
Character: Dry-hopped with Mosaic, Simcoe and Cascade hops
Ratings: BeerAdvocate: 3.90/5 | Untappd: 3.74/5
Metal Connection: BULLET – Fire and Dynamite

BeerMetal Rating: 4/5

Since creating this website back in 2013, I have featured several beer reviews for New Belgium Brewing Company. By this time, I really don’t think I need to go into too much detail of an introduction about this brewery. They are one of the big heavy hitters in the market. So much so, that in early 2020, New Belgium Brewing Company was purchased by Lion Little World Beverages, an Australian based company who is owned by the Japanese controlled beverages company, Lion. So yes, in the Craft Beer world, many have shunned away from New Belgium, as thy are looked at as a “Sell Out” brewery now. In my opinion, as long as it’s not AB inBev or MillerCoors, the giant asshole companies who bash on Independent Craft Beer at any time. Fuck them! Haha!

So one thing I love about this series of beers is the artwork and marketing for them. Their character, the Voodoo Ranger is a cool looking skeleton dude with different outfits on each can. For Captain Dynamite, our Voodoo Ranger is dressed in what looks like a futuristic soldier uniform. It’s a metal looking uniform complete with skull shoulder guards. He has his ranger hat on, and large goggles with green and yellow flames in the lens. The background is a blue, green, and black sunburst. I actually bought this beer at the store because of the can design, even knowing that this is a Hazy IPA, which is something I try to avoid.

Appearance: Hazy bright golden with a slight amber hue. This pour had a large 2 inch white foamy head.

Aroma: Lots of tropical fruit in the nose. Pineapple, guava, papaya. Also picking up a bit of resin, slight dankness. A bit oniony. There is a layer of baked white bread underneath all the hop aroma.

Taste: Very similar to the aroma. Tropical fruit like pineapple, guava, papaya is really heavy here. As the fruit flavors fade, there is a taste of the resin, oniony dankness. Nice fresh baked white bread backend on this one. The aftertaste reminds me of biting into the tropical fruit mixture and an onion at the same time.

Body/Mouthfeel: Medium body thickness with a smooth mouthfeel that has a bit of a bitter bite to it. Moderate carbonation. The finish is semi dry with that smoothness still there.

Overall: Knowing this was a Hazy IPA, I didn’t expect to like this one as much as I did. I’m just glad there was a bitterness to this beer. I really do not like IPAs with low or no bitterness. I am very glad I picked up this can. I have had 8 different Voodoo Ranger beers by New Belgium. Most of them I rated at least a 4/5, and I feel no different about this beer. My Untappd score is a 4/5 for Captain Dynamite IPA.

Metal Connection: For Captain Dynamite, the Metal Connection I went with comes to us from the Heavy Metal/Hard Rock band from Sweden named Bullet. I thought that I had featured this band before either here on the site or on my podcast, but I was wrong. Bullet started back in 2001 with founding members, Dag Hell Hofer (vocals) and Hampus Klang (guitar), who have actually been playing together since 1996 in a cover band. I did feature one of Klang’s previous bands on the podcast once when I had Hypnosia as a Metal Connection. I think it is awesome that this dude has played in the Death Metal band Hypnosia, and was also a member of the Grindcore bands, Jigsore Terror and Birdflesh. All of these bands really shows off his skills as a musician, that he can pretty much play all styles of Metal. In their career they have released 6 full length albums to date. Our Metal Connection song comes from their 3rd full length, Highway Pirates which was released in 2011 on Black Lodge Records. The cover of this one looks right out of the 80’s. it features the band members all standing or sitting on and around a classic car. They’re all holding weapons, looking like real highway pirates. There are 2 songs on this album using the word “dynamite” in the title, and I chose to go with “Fire and Dynamite.” This is an old school sounding classic Hard Rock tune. Musically I hear a bit of Dokken, Cinderella, mixed some AC/DC. What sets them apart is the vocal style of Dag Hell Hofer. It’s a high pitched clean vocal style but with a lot of rasp to it. It took me a few listens to get used to his voice, but this song is pretty fucking bad ass. It’s a perfect pairing for this beer. Please click the video below to hear this Metal Connection song.