PORT NECHES, Texas — One boxer-clad Port Neches man's 'colorful' reaction moments after a plant exploded near his home has inspired his very own flavor of beer.
The Neches Brewing Company released “Helluva Boom,” a pepper infused IPA, as an homage to one of its customers who appeared in the viral doorbell video reacting to last year’s TPC explosion.
In the video Jerry Plaia, 62, of Port Neches, can be seen in his boxers reacting rather colorfully on his front porch immediately after the TPC plant explosion early the morning of November 27, 2019.
Along with a few other choice words we can’t mention here, Plaia can be heard yelling about about the explosion being a “hell of a boom!”
The video was shot on Plaia’s doorbell camera and posted to Facebook by his daughter, Shelby Plaia, on December 3.
So far the video has been shared more than 5,000 times on Facebook.
Plaia is seen in the video stepping out onto his porch, clad only in a pair of boxers and dropping several expletives before making the statement that is was a “hell of a boom.”
At one point he motions for someone off camera to get back in the house and yells that he's calling 911.
Plaia and his wife, Debbie, visit the Neches River Brewing Company from time to time and Debbie works right next door to the brew pub.
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The idea for the beer actually came from Plaia himself according to Tyler Blount, owner of Neches River Brewing Company.
Blount describes Plaia as larger than life and a good patron of the Port Neches Avenue brew pub.
At some point, while enjoying his viral video fame, he mentioned to Debbie that he thought it would be cool if the brewery made a beer called hell of a boom, Blount told 12News.
Debbie then told Blount about the conversation and the idea snowballed from there.
Blount says at first they weren’t even sure what the beer would be like. They use peppers in some of their other beers so he figured something spicy to go along with Plaia’s video would be in order.
Not long after, while picking up items for the brewery, Blount said a produce manager at Market Basket mentioned he had a lot of Serrano peppers he needed to get rid of to make room for a new shipment.
Blount first told him he wasn’t interested, but on the way to the checkout counter he says it just clicked.
He bought about 20 pounds of those Serrano peppers and used them to make “Helluva Boom.”
The beer is actually a hybrid of the pub’s regular “Dream Catcher” IPA according to Blount.
Normally Blount brews 16 kegs of the “Dream Catcher” but this time he says they held back six of those kegs and used the Serrano peppers to infuse a little spice into what became “Helluva Boom” IPA.
He says the peppers give just a little of a spicy tickle that isn’t overpowering at all.
Plaia has yet to taste the beer but he and Debbie are planning to visit the brew pub on Thursday evening and give it a try as they celebrate his 62nd birthday.
We asked Blount how he would respond to those who might think the beer is in poor taste.
Blount, who lives in Port Neches and had his own home damaged in the explosion, told 12News he would hope that the beer would help bring a little light to the situation and help keep things positive.
