Beer Review: Triforce Hazy IPA (Black Flag Brewing Company)

There are some beers that feel engineered in a lab to hit every modern hazy IPA pleasure center imaginable. Then there are beers like Triforce from Black Flag Brewing Company that somehow manage to feel both hyper-modern and deeply nostalgic at the same time. The name alone immediately tells you what kind of experience you’re getting into: this is not just another haze bomb tossed onto shelves to disappear into Untappd oblivion. This is gamer beer culture meeting East Coast craft brewing obsession — and honestly, Black Flag might be one of the best breweries in the country at that intersection.

(See also: Zelda and Craft Beer)

Triforce is a 7.2% Hazy IPA brewed with Mosaic, Motueka, and Nelson Sauvin hops. The brewery describes it as bursting with passion fruit, pineapple, lime, mango, grapefruit, and white wine-like complexity.

And honestly? That description is pretty dead-on.

(See also:

• Book Review: Zelda and Theology
• Book Review: Zelda and Psychology)

From the first pour, this beer comes across with that glowing opaque orange-yellow haze that New England IPA fans practically worship. Thick without looking sludgy. Juicy without looking artificial. There’s a soft foam cap that hangs around long enough to suggest a proper protein-heavy body, and the aroma immediately jumps out of the glass with tropical intensity.

The Mosaic does a lot of the heavy lifting here. You get huge mango and overripe pineapple notes up front, but the Motueka adds a sharp lime zest brightness that keeps the beer from collapsing into sugary fruit puree territory. Then the Nelson Sauvin sneaks in underneath everything with that signature white grape / sauvignon blanc character that gives the beer a slightly more sophisticated edge than your average “orange juice IPA.”

That combination is where the beer really succeeds.

A lot of breweries throw Nelson into a hazy IPA and let it dominate the profile entirely, turning the beer into something that tastes like carbonated wine must. Black Flag keeps it restrained enough that it complements rather than overwhelms. The result is a layered IPA instead of a one-note juice smoothie.

The mouthfeel is classic modern haze: soft, rounded, pillowy, moderately creamy. Bitterness is intentionally restrained, but not absent. There’s still enough hop structure here to remind you that this is an IPA and not alcoholic tropical nectar. The finish carries lingering grapefruit pith and lime oils that help clean up the sweetness before it overstays its welcome.

What Black Flag continues to do exceptionally well — and Triforce is another example of this — is balance fandom aesthetics with genuinely high-level brewing. Their reputation for gaming, anime, comic, and pop-culture-inspired beers could easily become gimmicky in lesser hands, but they consistently back the branding up with serious execution. Reddit beer communities and Maryland craft beer fans regularly praise the brewery’s hazy IPAs and can art alike.

And the can art matters here.

Black Flag has built an identity around visually striking labels and nerd-culture references, working with artists to create some of the most recognizable cans in Maryland craft beer.

Triforce fits directly into that lineage. It feels like a beer designed for people who grew up with controllers in their hands and IPAs in their adulthood — the generation that went from Ocarina of Time to brewery bottle shares.

But thankfully, the beer itself isn’t relying on Zelda nostalgia to survive.

This is simply a very good hazy IPA.

Not groundbreaking. Not revolutionary. But highly polished and deeply enjoyable. It understands exactly what modern haze drinkers want while still showing enough hop nuance to reward experienced IPA fans.

If I had a criticism, it’s that the beer sits very comfortably inside the established New England IPA formula. It executes the style extremely well, but it doesn’t necessarily redefine it. You can taste echoes of Other Half, Equilibrium, and the broader East Coast haze movement throughout. That said, not every beer needs to reinvent the genre. Sometimes delivering an excellent version of a beloved style is enough.

And Triforce absolutely delivers.

Rating: 4.25 / 5
Untappd Global Average: 3.95 (as of 1.11.26)

For fans of:

• Nelson-forward hazy IPAs
• Juice-heavy but balanced NEIPAs
• Gaming-inspired craft beer culture
• Other Half-style tropical haze bombs
• Modern East Coast IPA brewing

If you’re already familiar with Black Flag Brewing Company, this will feel like another strong entry in their catalog. If you’ve never had them before, Triforce is actually a pretty ideal starting point: approachable, flavorful, visually memorable, and technically well-executed without becoming absurdly over-the-top.

And for fun: Mental Floss’s 15 Things You Might Not Know About The Legend of Zelda

All of Our Nerd Content

Here’s all of our nerd content, served up best in one single place. Enjoy!

I know ya’ll here for the nerd reviews. So check out our other nerd reviews below:

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• Beer Review: Wookie Monster (Fourscore Beer Co)
• Beer Review: Out of Order: Blue Milk (RAR Brewing) (Batch 1)
• Beer Review: Out of Order: Tatooine Tart (RAR Brewing)
• Beer Review: Out of Order: RAWRGWAWGGR (RAR Brewing)
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• Beer Review: Wookies and Cream (Tall Tales Brewing)
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• Beer Review: This is Nut the Fluff You’re Looking For (Fourscore Beer Co)
• Beer Review: This is the Way (Broken Goblet Brewing)
• Beer Review: This is the Whey (Bolero Snort Brewery)
• Beer Review: Java the Stout (Jackie O’s Brewery)
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• Mead Review: The Meadalorian (Space Time Mead and Cider Works)
• Beer Review: Let the Haze Flow Through You (Black Flag Brewing Co)
• Book Review: The Jedi Path and The Book of the Sith (Daniel Wallace)
• Book Review: Guardians of the Whills (Greg Rucka)
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• Beer Review: Vader (Mispillion River Brewing Company)
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Futurama

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• Book Review: Futurama and Philosophy (edited by Courtland Lewis)
• Futurama Episode Review – The Impossible Stream and Mead Review: Omicron Persei 8 (SpaceTime Meadery)
• Mead Review: Omicron Persei 8 (Space Time Mead and Cider Works)
• Futurama Episode Review – Children of a Lesser Bog and Beer Review: Stay on Target (Allusion Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: I Apologize For Nothing (Fourscore Beer Co.)
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• Book Review: An Atlas of Tolkien (David Day)
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Magic the Gathering:

• New Belgium Teams Up with Magic the Gathering for Vastwood Seer IPA

Heroes of Barcadia:

• Rollacrit Partners with Voodoo Ranger IPA for New Kickstarter, Heroes of Barcadia: Heroes for Hire Tabletop Game

Zelda:

• Zelda and Craft Beer
• Beer Review: Motueka’s Mask (Black Flag Brewing Company)
• Book Review: The Psychology of Zelda (edited by Anthony M. Bean)
• Book Review: The Legend of Zelda and Theology (edited by Jonathan L. Walls)
• Beer Review: Triforce Hazy IPA (Black Flag Brewing Company)

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• Beer Review: Peace Among Worlds (Cushwa Brewing Company)

Space Balls:

• Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

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• Beer Review: Game of Thrones: My Watch Has Ended (Omnegang Brewery)
• Book Review: The Wit and Wisdom of Tyrion Lannister (George R.R. Martin)

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• Beer Review: I Voted for Kodos (Second Sin Brewing Company)
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• Beer Review: Back to Reality (Three 3s Brewing Co)

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• Beer Review: Scrooge IPA (Iron Hill Brewing)

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• Logyard Brewing’s Prognosticator Pils is the Official Beer of Groundhog Day (2022)

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• Beer Review: The Soft Electric Glow of Sex (RAR Brewing)
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• Book Review: The Philosophy of Snoopy (Charles M. Schulz)
• Book Review: You Don’t Look 35, Charlie Brown! (Charles M. Schulz)

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• Beer Review: Broken Skull – Stone Cold Steve Austin’s IPA (El Segundo Brewing Company)
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• Beer Review: Royal Rumble (Funk Brewing)
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• Beer Review: Pulisic Pilsner (Jackass Brewing Company)
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• Beer Review: Terpenes in Time (BAREBottle Brewing Co)

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• Beer Review: Airing of Grievances (Black Flag Brewing Company)
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