• Jason Murphy
• On February 1, 2021

The latest and greatest New England IPA to hit my palate is Volume Integral, a hazy double IPA brewed with oats and wheat which creates a very plush mouthfeel. The oats and wheat play well with the hops used in this beer which are El Dorado, Azacca, Mosaic and Belma. All of these combined create a lot of fruit and melon flavors that are balanced very well. The hop star of the show has to be the Belma hops which tend to create an almost strawberry-like profile.

Members from Pontoon Brewing and Ology Brewing Co. met when they were neighbors at the Meet the Brewers tent during the 2019 Great American Beer Festival. Fast forward to August 2020 when Pontoon Brewing launched distribution in Florida and did a “Florida Collab Tour,” where they did beer collaborations with Corporate Ladder Brewing Company, Hidden Springs Ale Works and Ology. Shannon Riley, marketing manager for Pontoon, said “We’ve been working on improving our IPAs at Pontoon and we loved what the Ology team was doing. So, we took our collab a step further and brewed another version back up in Georgia.”

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The beer that was brewed while in Florida was called Volume Displacement. The name is a play on the heavy science background that comes from the family of Nick Walker, co-owner of Ology, specifically Nick’s father. Riley from Pontoon noted, “When coming up with our collaboration beer that we brewed, we landed on Volume Displacement to play on the collaboration aspect and bring in our water-themed branding.” Riley explained that when they decided to do their own version back home in Sandy Springs, they wanted to do a play on Volume Displacement and came up with Volume Integral. “We aren’t as science-y, so we leaned into the math meme label concept which is more on-brand for Pontoon’s laid back lifestyle,” said Shannon.

To most people, Pontoon is known for their crazy, off-the-wall fruited sours and stouts. But don’t let that reputation fool you into thinking their IPAs aren’t up to par. If you’re a fan of the hazy New England style IPAs, this beer will blow you away. This is one of the best IPAs this year.

Volume Integral was available in the taproom for purchase and was distributed in the Atlanta metro area to local bottle shops and package stores, making it easy to get your hands on them. Go seek this out and try it if you can, you won’t regret it!