Blood Brothers Brewing does not name a beer Doll's Eye by accident. The Toronto brewery has built a whole series of hazy IPAs named after exotic and unsettling flowers, and this latest entry keeps that gothic streak fully intact while delivering exactly the kind of juicy, thick hazy that has made the brewery's name in the first place.
Doll's Eye is brewed with Krush and Citra hops, a combination that leans hard into stone fruit, citrus, and berries, all wrapped in that classic soft, cloudy body that hazy IPA fans chase. At 6.2% ABV it sits in a comfortable middle ground, sessionable enough to have a couple without regret, but with enough weight to feel like a proper beer rather than a watered-down approximation of one.
The Blood Brothers story itself is a good one. The brewery was founded by real-life brothers Dustin and Brayden Jones, a pair who spent years chasing a rock and roll dream in a band before they ever thought about brewing professionally. It took a trip to Portland, Oregon, and a serious dose of that city's beer culture, to convince them that brewing was the creative outlet they had actually been looking for. They bought a homebrew kit the very next day, made some genuinely rough beer to start, and eventually turned that hobby into one of Toronto's most talked-about breweries, now operating out of a renovated hundred-year-old horse stable in the Geary Avenue arts district.
That artistic, slightly theatrical sensibility carries straight through to the branding, and Doll's Eye is a perfect example, with can art that would not look out of place on a horror movie poster. But underneath the eerie packaging is a well-built, thoughtfully hopped beer that rewards a closer look rather than just a curious glance.
This week's release lands as the latest entry in that ongoing flower series, and if the description holds true, expect a full, juicy pour with real depth from the Krush and Citra combination. Blood Brothers has also just rolled out a new rewards program for regulars, so if this becomes a habit, there is now an actual incentive to keep coming back.
Doll's Eye is available now at the Blood Brothers taproom and online. Given how quickly this brewery's releases tend to move, this is not one to sit on for too long.