Vacation Juice by Second Line Brewing: Full Review

I have poured a lot of hazy IPAs over the years, and most of the “beach” or “vacation” branded ones lean on the label a lot harder than the beer inside the can. Second Line Brewing’s Vacation Juice is one of the few that actually earns the theme. This is a New Orleans beer through and through, brewed at Second Line’s Mid-City beer garden and built around a heavy dose of Citra and Idaho-7, the two hops most responsible for that tropical, orange-Creamsicle character hazy IPA fans chase. Community ratings put it at 3.79 out of 5 on BeerAdvocate, and after digging into the brewery’s own release info, the label art, and a stack of drinker notes, I think that score is fair: a genuinely juicy, easy-drinking Hazy IPA that is a notch below the very best examples of the style but well worth grabbing if you can find it.

If you already know your way around what makes a hazy IPA a hazy IPA, skip ahead to the tasting notes. If you are newer to the style, stick around, because Vacation Juice is a good, uncomplicated example of the category to learn on.

At a Glance

Who makes Vacation Juice: Second Line Brewing

Second Line Brewing opened in 2014 in Mid-City New Orleans and describes its own mission as making “Good Beer, Brewed Honestly.” It is a Women-, Veteran-, and Minority-owned independent brewery with a dog-friendly beer garden at 433 N. Bernadotte Street, and it runs food trucks, trivia nights, and live events alongside the actual brewing. That’s the kind of neighborhood-brewery backstory that shows up in a lot of the best regional IPAs, and it matches what I have seen from other small Gulf Coast operations.

Second Line’s core lineup includes Saison Named Desire (a blood orange saison), Batture Blonde Ale, a West Coast IPA, and MSY Common Lager, all of which show up regularly around the New Orleans area and as far as Mobile, Alabama. Vacation Juice was added to that core lineup after the brewing team spent months testing different hazy IPA recipes at the beer garden as pilot batches, eventually locking in the version that ships today through Crescent Crown Distributing.

ABV, IBU, and the hop bill

Vacation Juice comes in at 6.8% ABV with 24 IBUs, both official figures from the brewery’s own release information rather than a guess. If you are still getting a feel for what that IBU number actually tells you, here’s my full breakdown of what IBU means and why a lower number does not always mean a less flavorful beer. 24 IBUs is on the mellow side for an IPA, and that tracks with what people describe when they drink it: bitterness that shows up as a light, bread-crust dryness on the finish rather than a hard resiny bite.

The hop bill is Citra and Idaho-7, dosed at more than 5 lbs per barrel, which is a genuinely heavy hopping rate for a beer this size. Citra brings the tropical fruit and citrus, Idaho-7 leans more toward orange, pine, and tangerine, and together they are the combination behind most of the current wave of “juice bomb” hazy IPAs, including a lot of the beers I compare it to further down this page.

What Vacation Juice actually tastes like

This pours a hazy, opaque yellow-gold with a medium off-white head and noticeably heavy lacing down the glass, which lines up exactly with what you’d expect from a Citra and Idaho-7 hop bill at that rate. The aroma leans tropical fruit up front, backed by a soft, bready wheat note from the oat and wheat additions typical of the style. On the palate it is medium-bodied with a mildly bitter, bread-crust and tropical fruit flavor, finishing dry rather than sweet, which keeps it from tasting cloying the way some juice-forward IPAs can.

Drinker notes on this beer are split in a useful way. Some reviewers rate it toward 4.3 to 4.75 out of 5, praising the aroma and the smooth, easy-drinking body. Others land closer to 2.9 to 3.3, describing the hop profile as more in line with a juicy pale ale than a true IPA, meaning the hop pungency and depth are there but a little softer than the biggest names in the category. That spread is exactly why the community average settles at 3.79: a beer that a lot of people genuinely like, with a smaller group wishing it pushed the hop intensity further.

My read, working from the hop bill, the appearance notes, and that spread of ratings: this is a crowd-pleasing, patio-and-porch hazy IPA rather than a hop-bomb built for IPA obsessives. If your favorite hazies are on the punchier end (think Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing or something bigger), Vacation Juice will read as a step gentler. If you like your hazy IPAs soft, juicy, and easy to keep drinking on a hot afternoon, it delivers exactly what the can promises.

How Vacation Juice compares to other hazy and juicy IPAs

I’ve reviewed a run of similarly juice-driven IPAs recently, and Vacation Juice sits comfortably in the middle of that pack on both ABV and intensity. Thunderbird and Hipster Juicebag both push the juice-bomb angle harder with bigger hop loads and a fuller body, while XXX OJ and Homewrecker IPA lean into a similarly soft, tropical-fruit-forward style that’s closer to what Vacation Juice is doing. If you want a direct regional comparison, Bianca Road’s Tropicali is another small-brewery hazy IPA with the same “easy to drink, not trying to be the hoppiest thing on the shelf” approach.

For a broader view of where all of these fit, my IPA brands guide runs through the wider IPA landscape, from West Coast to hazy to imperial, and my hazy IPA explainer covers exactly why beers like this one look and taste the way they do (short version: unfiltered wheat and oats plus a heavy late-hop addition).

Food pairing: what to eat with Vacation Juice

The bread-crust malt character and dry finish make this a genuinely useful food beer, not just a sipper. A few pairings that work well with a Hazy IPA in this ABV and bitterness range:

• Fried seafood, especially fried shrimp or a po’boy, which is the obvious hometown pairing given where this beer is brewed. The dry finish cuts through the fry oil the same way a squeeze of lemon would.
• Grilled fish tacos with a citrus-forward slaw, where the tropical hop character echoes the citrus in the dish instead of fighting it.
• Spicy jambalaya or a mild gumbo, since the soft bitterness and bready backbone won’t get steamrolled by chili heat the way a crisp lager can.
• A simple charcuterie board with a mild cheese, since the fruit-forward hop character pairs the same way a fruity white wine would.

For a longer list of style-by-style matchups, my beer and BBQ pairing guide covers how different beer styles hold up next to smoke and spice, which is useful background if you’re planning a full cookout menu around this can.

Where to buy Vacation Juice (and what to grab instead)

Vacation Juice is a regional release. It ships in 6-packs of 12oz cans and on draft through Crescent Crown Distributing, mainly around New Orleans and the broader Gulf Coast, plus Second Line’s own Mid-City beer garden. It is not currently listed on Saucey, and I was not able to confirm a live national retail listing at the time of writing, which is common for a smaller independent brewery’s core-lineup beer that hasn’t scaled distribution nationally yet.

If you can get to New Orleans, the beer garden itself is worth the trip. If you can’t, here are five real, currently available hazy and juicy IPAs in the same style lane that you can actually check availability on right now:

FAQs

What is the ABV of Second Line’s Vacation Juice?

Vacation Juice is 6.8% ABV, according to Second Line Brewing’s own release information.

What are the IBUs in Vacation Juice?

Vacation Juice comes in at 24 IBUs, an official figure from the brewery, which is a relatively mellow bitterness level for a Hazy IPA.

What hops are used in Vacation Juice?

Second Line uses Citra and Idaho-7 hops, dosed at over 5 lbs per barrel, which is where the tropical fruit and citrus character in the aroma and flavor comes from.

How many calories are in Vacation Juice?

There is no official brewery calorie figure published. Third-party listings put it around 220 calories per 12oz can, which is typical for a 6.8% Hazy IPA, but treat that as an estimate rather than a confirmed number.

Where can I buy Vacation Juice?

It is distributed regionally through Crescent Crown Distributing, mainly around New Orleans and the wider Gulf Coast, in 6-packs of 12oz cans and on draft. It is not currently listed on Saucey; see the alternatives above if you can’t find it locally.

Is Vacation Juice a good beginner hazy IPA?

Yes. The bitterness is mellow at 24 IBUs, the body is soft rather than heavy, and the finish is dry instead of syrupy, which makes it an easy, approachable entry point if you’re new to the Hazy IPA style.