The Borderlands series has earned a reputation over the years for being loud and brash — kinda like that one barfly at your local watering hole who drinks IPAs and only IPAs. So I’m sure it comes as little surprise for you to learn that the Official Borderlands 4 Beer is [drum roll please] an IPA.
Ahead of Borderlands 4‘s Sept. 12 release, publisher 2K Games has teamed up with New Belgium Brewing Company to produce a limited-edition beer for its Voodoo Ranger IPA line. Available as a six-pack, adorned with the Voodoo Ranger skeleton mascot wearing Borderlands clothing, picking a pack of the Voodoo Ranger x Borderlands 4 IPA (official name) grants a chance at winning a download code for Borderlands 4. You can also earn Golden Keys (in-game currency that’s historically used to open rare chests holding powerful Borderlands loot) from each six-pack.
Developer Gearbox is touting Borderlands 4 as a chance to reinvent the series, which has run for a decade and a half now and has generally offered the same mix of first-person looting and shooting now as it did in 2009. In promoting the fresh twist on the series, you’d think its makers would’ve wanted to go with something equally fresh — not the very same beer that has been the de facto stand-in for hipster tastes since the era of LCD Soundsystem playing on repeat at your house. How would this promo have landed were it paired with something trendier and tastier, maybe a nice golden ale, or perhaps even a pilsner or a saison? How about a crisp sour to ring in the fall? (Sour beers have been trending upward in popularity in recent years. Game developers seeking cross-promotional tie-ins would be wise to hop on the trend before sours become the next IPAs.)
Instead we have more of the same — likely not a sentiment the makers of Borderlands 4 want associated with their upcoming loot-shooter, despite what some previews might indicate.
But most crucially here is, sorry, IPAs are just the worst! Heavy without enough of a kick to justify, tart with minimal sweetness to balance things out, and the general sense that you’re drinking a liquified bread loaf.
I’ll pass on the Vooder Ranger x Borderlands 4 IPA, thanks. Wake me up when the Kirby Air Riders lychee gose is available.
