Baby Ghost Keeps Ghost's Citra Load, Drops Three Points of ABV

Parish has brought back Baby Ghost, a 5.5% scaled-down take on its Ghost in the Machine Double IPA. The brewery kept the double dry hop of Citra and took the alcohol out from under it.

Style: Micro IPA
Release Date: 2026-09-23
ABV: 5.5%
Parish Brewing Co. (Broussard, LA)

Ghost in the Machine is the beer Parish Brewing Co. is known for, a Double IPA the brewery has spent years building its reputation on. Baby Ghost is the smaller one, and it is back on sale as of today.

The pitch is a scaling exercise. At 5.5%, Baby Ghost sits well under its namesake, but Parish says the hopping did not come down to match. The brewery describes double-dry-hopped amounts of Citra, framing the beer as delivering "Ghost's big hop profile in a compact format" without what it calls the heavy impact of a high ABV. The brewery's own line is that this is "more than a micro IPA."

That is a specific claim, and it is worth separating from the usual smaller-sibling formula. Plenty of breweries answer a flagship Double IPA with a lighter version by pulling back on everything at once. What Parish is describing here is a single-variable change: same Citra load, less alcohol under it. Citra is the hop that carries grapefruit, lime and passion fruit, and it tends to read brighter and sharper when there is less malt sweetness competing with it.

Baby Ghost is a returning beer rather than a debut, which is the clearest signal available about how the first run went.

Cans are $15 for a 4-pack of 16-ounce cans, available today in the Broussard taproom and through the brewery's online shop for local pickup or UPS direct shipping. Parish ships to consumers in Washington D.C., Kentucky, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Virginia at a $25 flat rate for one to six 4-packs. Baby Ghost also goes into the Parish Beer Club box shipping in October.

Editor’s Take

The phrase Parish uses is "more than a micro IPA," which is a brewery getting out ahead of the obvious objection. Everyone knows what the small version of a famous beer usually is: the same label in a lighter font, quietly holding back. The claim here is the opposite one, that the dry hop did not shrink along with the ABV. That is the harder version of the trick, because a big Double IPA is doing some of its aromatic work with alcohol - there is more body underneath to carry the Citra, and more sweetness to sit against it. Take three points out and the hops have nowhere to hide.

What that buys you is a beer you can have two of on a Broussard afternoon, which is not a small thing in a state where September is still meaningfully summer. Call it a session beer if you like, though Parish pointedly does not. Either way it would be entirely at home next to something fried and dusted with cayenne.

Source & Editorial

JollyPint independently prepares release articles using information published by breweries through newsletters, websites, and other official public communications. Brewery-supplied descriptions and tasting notes are reported as provided, while editorial context is added by JollyPint.