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Is it possible to have juicy and dry beer?
The promise of a new yeast strain
Joseph Lavoie
May 31, 2022
We hope you enjoyed our list of 15 essential and eclectic IPAs last week. This week we return to our regularly scheduled programming with a fresh selection of new beer releases, including an IPA that has me very intrigued (juicy AND dry!?)
We also demystify dry-hopping, and sticking to a theme, explore a very popular hop variety.
Oh, and have you heard? Craft beer is coming to a BC Ferries late this summer.
Lots to explore today, let's dig in!
— Joseph Lavoie
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New Beers in the Lower Mainland
Hazy yet dry? How is that even possible?
Dageraad has a new experimental series that drops this week called Slang 01. Hopped with Nelson Sauvin and Saaz, fermented with a new yeast strain that transforms hop compounds into vibrant fruit aromas, it promises to "electrify" the palate without adding bitterness. The part that intrigues me most is the promise that this new yeast strain results in a crispy dryness that is nearly impossible to find in hazies.
Description: “The first version of New Slang lifts up notes of stone fruit, gooseberry, and white wine, with a decidedly clean, dry finish.”
Where to get it: In the tasting room, Thursday, June 2. Store shelves next week.
Brewery location: 3191 Thunderbird Cres. #114, Burnaby | Google Maps
Life savers, candy, and lime
Pineapple, Life Savers, candy, and lime are the flavour notes Studio Brewing promises with their new sour called Counter Clockwise. This one looks well rounded with robust grain bill featuring Pilsner, Vienna, and Munich malts, a super clean yeast strain, and dry hopped with El Dorado and Mosaic.
Where to get it: Available on tap and in cans at the brewery
Brewery location: 5792 Beresford St., Burnaby | Google Maps
A rare double dry hopped IPA
This collaboration between Brewhall and Darby's Pub, called Strata Z, has been double dry hopped with Strata and Zappa hops to bring out strawberry and passion fruit flavours in this juicy IPA. Strata is a fascinating hop variety in that it lends menthol, sweet fruit, strawberry and berry/currant notes which blows my mind; I remember the days when hops mostly brought pine and herb notes to a beer.
Where to get it: On tap at Darby's Pub and at Brewhall, available to-go at Brewhall
Brewhall Location: 97 E 2nd Ave, Vancouver | Google Maps
Darby's Location: 2001 Macdonald St, Vancouver | Google Maps
New Beers in BC
Seeing red
Here's something you don't see too often anymore: a red ale. Apologies for all the nostalgic references today, but I remember a time when most craft breweries had a red ale in their line-up. It used to be a staple with Parallel 49's Ruby Red Tears top of my list. I suppose when flashy hops like Strata come on the scene, these malt-forward beers had to step aside. I'm glad to see they haven't gone completely extinct with Match the Hatch Red Ale from New Tradition Brewing.
Description: "A smooth red ale — light-bodied, light hop character, creamy finish, easy drinking classic style."
Where to get it: Available on tap at the brewery
Brewery Location: 215 Port Augusta St Unit 11, Comox | Google Maps
It's called what?
El Dorado
Sounds like a place I'd like to visit. Sunny vistas, cactus-lined drives through the dessert, hole-in-the-wall restaurants with me pretending to be a perfectly fluent Spanish speaker. A mythical place, some would say. It's also the name of a relatively new hop variety.
It was first released in 2010, which in the history of hops, still makes it a newborn. It has since become a popular choice for brewers looking to add juicy pineapple and tropical notes with enough bitterness to balance out those flavours. Given its flavour profile, you won't be surprised to learn that it has featured prominently in NEIPAs.
Beer School
What does dry hopping mean?
We featured a dry-hopped IPA above and it's become the go-to method for adding those juicy tropical fruit flavours you love in modern IPAs. When brewing beer, hops typically get added at three distinct phases of brewing and fermentation:
Early in the boil to add bitterness to the beer. Hops added early in the boil (i.e., for a long period during the boil) will bitter the beer and contribute very little aroma, as the aroma compounds evaporate with the boil. This is considered a "hot side" addition, as the solution is hot.
At the end of the boil to contribute aroma. Another hot-side addition is the end of the boil, but because the beer will quickly go from hot to cold as the brewer readies the solution for fermentation, the aroma compounds survive through to packaging. However, there are limits to how much "fresh" aroma flavour you can extract from an end-of-boil addition. When you want fresh, you need to dry-hop.
During or after fermentation. aka, dry-hopping, or "cold side" addition. Once the boil is complete, brewers will bring the temperature down to fermentation temperature quickly and then ferment it for days or weeks, depending on the beer style. By adding hops at this stage, the hops lend super fresh aromas that burst out of the can or glass.
While this hopping approach seems reasonably new, modern-day craft breweries got the idea from a centuries-old approach to serving cask ale in which breweries would add hops to a cask before packaging it. So yes, we can thank cask ale for this wonderful innovation.
What else is brewing?
The one beer myth that will never die (The Takeout)
Find a great beer to go with your next BC hike (BC Growler)
BC Ferries plans to permanently add beer to its menu. And yes, that means craft beer (CTV News)
Brews you missed
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