Beacon is Free Reign Brewing Co.’s hazy IPA out of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and it wears its coastal identity right on the can: a hand-drawn lighthouse standing over a lightly sketched shoreline. I rate it 4.11 out of 5. The listed strength is 6.8% ABV, while the IBU is not published in the available beer listing, so I will not pretend to know it.
Beacon at a glance
| Beer | Beacon |
| Brewery | Free Reign Brewing Co. |
| Location | Mount Pleasant, South Carolina |
| Style | New England / hazy IPA |
| ABV | 6.8% |
| IBU | Not listed in the available brewery or beer-profile data |
| Calories | No verified figure published; any estimate would be speculative |
| Hops | Citra, Citra Hyperboost, and Nectaron |
| Malt bill | Not disclosed in the product information I could verify |
| Rating | 4.11 out of 5 |
If the words hazy IPA or New England IPA are new to you, my guide to what makes a hazy IPA different covers the soft body, hop aroma, and deliberately cloudy pour without treating haze as a gimmick. Beacon leans into that softness rather than fighting it, which is part of why it reads as an easy, approachable pour rather than a hop bomb.
What is Beacon, and who brewed it?
Beacon is a New England-style hazy IPA from Free Reign Brewing Co., a small nano brewery in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, just across the harbor from Charleston. Free Reign has an origin story worth knowing: co-founders Ryan Marcom and his partner both worked at the well-known Westbrook Brewing Company starting in 2014, and Free Reign began as a side project brewed on Westbrook’s spare tanks during off-hours before growing into its own licensed brand. That connection to Westbrook still shows up in small ways, like Free Reign beers occasionally sharing taproom and cooler space with the brewery that gave it its start.
Beer-tracking app listings show Free Reign as a nano brewery, meaning its batches are small and its distribution is more limited than a regional craft brand, mostly reaching the Charleston area through a distribution partnership rather than wide national shelf placement. That scale shows in the beer list too: Free Reign’s lineup leans heavily into hazy and imperial hazy IPAs (Canopy, Double Canopy, Lux, Sound the Trumpets, a Triple IPA called 5th Anniversary), which tells you the hazy style is the house specialty rather than a one-off release. Beacon fits right into that identity as one of the brewery’s standard hazy IPA offerings.
The name and label art both point toward the coast. South Carolina’s Lowcountry has a real lighthouse heritage, and the can’s hand-inked lighthouse illustration reads like a tribute to that maritime history rather than a random visual choice. For context on how ABV numbers like Beacon’s 6.8% are actually calculated, our explainer on beer gravity and ABV is a useful companion read; a beer at this strength drinks easily but still carries real alcohol worth pacing.
Beacon ABV, IBU, calories, and ingredients
Beacon is 6.8% ABV, a common strength for a modern hazy IPA: enough alcohol to carry hop oils and body without tipping into double IPA territory. IBU is not listed in the product data I could verify, so I am not going to guess a number. Perceived bitterness in a hazy IPA depends on more than a single lab figure anyway, including hop timing and form, malt balance, carbonation, and water chemistry, all of which factor into how sharp or soft a beer feels in the glass.
The confirmed hop bill is Citra, Citra Hyperboost, and Nectaron. Citra is one of the most recognizable American hop varieties, associated with grapefruit, lime, and tropical fruit character; it shows up in a huge share of modern hazy IPAs for exactly that reason. Citra Hyperboost is a concentrated hop product built to push more of that Citra character into the beer without adding extra plant material, and Nectaron is a newer New Zealand hop known for passionfruit, peach, and lime notes that pairs naturally with Citra’s brighter citrus. If you have read my review of Rippp from Outer Range and Commonwealth Brewing, you will recognize the same “let two or three well-chosen hops do the talking” approach here.
Free Reign’s product listing does not disclose a specific malt bill for Beacon. Hazy IPAs commonly lean on pale malt with wheat or oats to build the soft, rounded mouthfeel the style is known for, but that is a style-level generalization, not a confirmed Beacon recipe detail. No calorie figure is published either. ABV alone does not reliably predict calories because residual extract, adjuncts, and final gravity all move the number, so I would rather leave that field blank than dress up a guess as a nutrition fact.
Homebrewers curious about how dry hopping shapes aroma without adding harsh bitterness should check our guide on what dry hopping actually does to a beer, since that’s almost certainly how Free Reign is getting this much Citra and Nectaron character into Beacon’s aroma. I have brewed at home for more than a decade, and a soft, juicy hazy IPA like this one is a good reminder of how much oxygen management and hop timing matter; sloppy packaging shows up fast in a beer built around fresh hop aroma.
How Beacon tastes
Beacon opens with a soft, juicy hop aroma that leans into grapefruit and a lighter tropical fruit note, more citrus peel and passionfruit than dank resin. That tracks with the hop bill: Citra and Citra Hyperboost push the citrus forward, while Nectaron adds a rounder tropical layer rather than sharpening things up. It is a friendlier nose than a piney West Coast IPA, and it telegraphs the soft body that follows.
On the palate, Beacon is medium-bodied and properly hazy, with a smooth, almost creamy texture that never tips into syrupy. The citrus carries through from the aroma, joined by a light stone fruit sweetness, before the beer dries out toward a clean, moderate finish. The bitterness stays in the background, doing enough work to keep the beer from feeling sugary without ever announcing itself. That balance is exactly what I look for in a session-friendly hazy IPA, one you could hand to a drinker who normally avoids IPAs because they expect a bitter slap.
Carbonation is lively enough to keep the fuller body moving, and the beer holds a fine, persistent head, based on the pours I have seen from both can and tap. I would serve it cold but not ice-cold, in a tulip or a simple pint glass, and drink it fresh; hazy IPAs built around fruit-forward hops like Citra and Nectaron lose their pop faster than a malt-driven style once they age. Our guide to getting more out of a beer through serving temperature and glassware walks through why that small step matters.
How Beacon compares with other hazy IPAs
Beacon sits closer to the soft, approachable end of the hazy IPA spectrum than to the resinous, piney end. If you have tried a beer with a more aggressive hop backbone, like the Comet-Simcoe combination in Rippp, Beacon is the gentler counterpart: same haze, same juicy intent, less bite. It is also a useful comparison point against a classic West Coast IPA; for that contrast, my explainer on how a cold IPA differs from a traditional IPA is a good companion read if you want to understand where the modern IPA family has branched.
Within Free Reign’s own lineup, Beacon reads as the brewery’s standard, everyday hazy IPA, sitting below the stronger Canopy and Double Canopy releases and well below the 8 to 10 percent triple IPAs like Sound the Trumpets and 5th Anniversary. If you want a wider view of where hazy IPAs sit against other IPA styles generally, our roundup of notable IPA brands is a good jumping-off point, and our review of New Realm Brewing’s lineup covers another East Coast brewery working in a similar juicy, fruit-forward register.
Because Free Reign is a nano brewery, Beacon is a rotating or limited-run item rather than a beer you will find on shelves nationwide. If you are in the Charleston area, the brewery’s taproom and its Advintage Distributing partnership are the most reliable ways to find it fresh; outside that footprint, checking community check-in apps for recent venue activity or asking a local bottle shop with a strong East Coast craft selection is a better bet than assuming standard retail availability.
Food pairings for Beacon
Beacon’s soft citrus profile and moderate bitterness make it a flexible food beer rather than a niche one. My first pick is fried seafood, which fits both the beer’s coastal branding and its actual flavor profile: fried shrimp, fish tacos, or a plate of hush puppies all play well against the grapefruit and light tropical fruit notes without fighting the beer’s soft body.
It also holds up to grilled chicken, pulled pork, and lighter barbecue where the sauce is not overly sweet. The citrus character cuts through fat while the low-to-moderate bitterness keeps the pairing from feeling harsh. Our beer and barbecue pairing guide has more detail on matching smoke and sauce styles to different beer profiles, and if you are planning a bigger spread, the general beer and food pairing guide is worth bookmarking.
For something spicier, Beacon works well with a mild Cajun or Lowcountry boil, since the fruitiness offers a small counterpoint to heat without amplifying it too much the way a very high-ABV beer can. If you are building a full tasting flight around it, the home beer tasting party guide has a simple format for comparing several hazy IPAs side by side, and pairing it against a ramen night is covered in our ramen and beer pairing guide if you want a completely different direction.
For cheese, a mild cheddar, a young gouda, or a soft goat cheese all complement the citrus without competing with it. I would skip anything too pungent or blue-veined; Beacon’s profile is bright and easygoing, and a heavy cheese can bury that.
Where to find Beacon
Beacon is brewed by a small nano operation, so distribution is limited mostly to the greater Charleston, South Carolina area through Free Reign’s partnership with Advintage Distributing. The brewery’s Mount Pleasant taproom is the most reliable place to find it fresh and on tap, often alongside other rotating hazy releases like Canopy or Konichiwa. I would check Free Reign’s current tap list or social channels before making a special trip, since small-batch hazy IPAs like this one rotate faster than a flagship year-round release.
If you cannot find Beacon where you live, that is a distribution and geography issue rather than a quality one, and it is exactly the situation the five alternatives below are meant to solve. Each is a genuine, currently available hazy IPA with a similar juicy, citrus-forward profile.
Similar hazy IPAs to try
Beacon is not listed among the current Saucey products, since Free Reign’s small nano-brewery output does not appear to reach Saucey’s delivery network. I have picked five genuine hazy or juicy IPAs with live product pages and individual product images instead. None of them are clones of Beacon, but each makes sense for someone drawn to its combination of soft citrus hop character and easygoing body.
Hazy Hero is my closest match here: soft, citrus-led, and unpretentious in the same way Beacon is. Hazy Like a Fox is a good second pick if you like the idea of trying another smaller East Coast brewery working the same juicy lane. Aloha Sculpin leans harder into tropical fruit if you want Beacon’s Nectaron character amplified, while Liquid Candy is the sweeter, more dessert-leaning option. Hazy Little Thing is the practical choice if you just want something reliably on the shelf at your regular store.
If you like comparing hop-forward beers side by side, I would put Beacon next to something sharper and more resinous, like Rippp, to see how differently two hazy IPAs can express the same general style. My home beer tasting party guide has a simple structure for running that kind of side-by-side, and if dessert pairings interest you more than savory ones, our beer and dessert pairing advice is a good next stop.
My verdict on Beacon
Beacon earns its 4.11 rating by doing the fundamentals of a hazy IPA well rather than chasing novelty. The 6.8% ABV keeps it easy to drink, and the Citra, Citra Hyperboost, and Nectaron hop combination delivers a soft, citrus-and-tropical-fruit profile without any rough edges. It is the kind of beer I would happily hand to someone who says they “don’t really like IPAs,” since the bitterness never gets in the way of the fruit.
My main reservation is availability. Free Reign is a nano brewery with a small footprint centered on the Charleston area, so Beacon is not a beer most readers can walk into a store and buy on demand. I also cannot give you a verified IBU number or calorie count from the information available, which matters if you are comparing labels closely rather than just deciding what to drink tonight.
If you can find it, or if you are ever in the Mount Pleasant or Charleston area, Beacon is worth seeking out, especially if your favorite hazy IPAs already lean soft and citrus-forward rather than dank and piney. It is a solid example of a well-made regional hazy IPA from a brewery that clearly knows the style.
FAQs
What style of beer is Beacon?
Beacon is a New England-style hazy IPA brewed by Free Reign Brewing Co. in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
What is the ABV of Beacon?
Beacon is 6.8% ABV.
What is Beacon’s IBU?
An IBU figure is not listed in the beer information I could verify, so a precise number should not be assumed.
What hops are used in Beacon?
Beacon is dry-hopped with Citra, Citra Hyperboost, and Nectaron. A detailed malt bill is not published in the available product details.
How many calories are in Beacon?
No verified calorie figure is published in the information available. ABV alone is not enough to calculate an accurate calorie count.
Where can I buy Beacon?
Beacon has limited distribution centered on the Charleston, South Carolina area through Free Reign’s partnership with Advintage Distributing. The brewery’s Mount Pleasant taproom is the most reliable place to find it fresh; outside that region, check community check-in apps for recent venue activity or ask a bottle shop with a strong East Coast craft selection about current stock.
References
- Free Reign Brewing Co. beer listing and profile data for Beacon.
- Free Reign Brewing Co. official site and taproom information, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
- Charleston City Paper, “Free Reign Brewing born from spare Westbrook tanks, employees’ off-hours” (2021).
- Community beer-tracking app venue and beer-list data for Free Reign Brewing Co.
