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What’s the deal with Cryo Hops?
Plus 12 new beers to enjoy this week, including a jalapeño wit
Joseph Lavoie
August 23, 2022
Good morning!
While the internet continues to settle on the 2022 Song of the Summer, I’ve been struggling to settle on my 2022 Beer of the Summer. I think I finally found it on the weekend. What about you? What’s your 2022 Beer of Summer? Hit me up with a reply
Blueberries and jalapeno beers make the list today.. We also explore Cryo Hops (yes that’s a real thing) and jump with joy at news of a new brewery opening in Squamish next year.
Have a great week!
— Joseph Lavoie
NEW BEER RELEASE
Jalepeño Wit
What’s old is new again with this interesting beer release. About a decade ago, brewers across North America went deep on spicy experimentation. It was a trend we quite liked and are excited to taste Deep Cove Brewers and Distillers’ Japaeño Wit.
The brewery is promising “earthy and natural flavours…with subtle heat, a peppery nose and a hint of honey sweetness.”
Available: Aug. 26, at the brewery
Location: 2270 Dollarton Hwy., Unit 170, North Vancouver | Map
Blueberry IPA
Barnside Brewing hand-blended 1,500 pounds of fresh blueberries from Tecarte Farms in Ladner to make their Heavy Horse Blueberry IPA. It pours a beautiful red/blue colour and promises a balanced tasting experience with subtle blueberry sweetness and a mild bitterness. Seems like the only way to celebrate the blueberry harvest season.
Available: On tap in the taproom and in 473ml four-packs to go and coming to stores this week.
Location: 6655 60 Ave., Delta | Map
Two Experimental IPAs
Superflux continues to do what they do best: bringing us the joy of IPA with this new IPA mix-pack that features two experimental Double IPAs. This should make for a fun tasting experience as both beers started with the same silky-smooth, pillowy base beer.
The pink can, Experimental IPA #27 was dry hopped with Vista and Citra Cyro hops (think citrus zest, sweet red berry and a touch of dankness).
The peach can, Experimental IPA #28 was dry hopped with Exp 008 and Mosaic Cryo hops (think nectarine and orange flavours).
Wondering what Cryo hops are? Scroll down to today’s Beer School section below.
Available: At the brewery and online now, stores later in the week.
Location: 505 Clark Dr., Vancouver | Map
Mister Hip West Coast IPA
Spandex has never looked so good on a can. Strange Fellows is encouraging us all to put on our stretch pants to mark the third release of this “supple” brew. To mark the occasion, the brewery is also putting on a launch party on Friday.
As for tasting notes, you can expect typical West Coast flavours, with pine, citrus, and ripe fruit with a malt backbone.
Available: At the brewery and in stores next week
Location: 1345 Clark Dr., Vancouver | Map
MORE BEER RELEASES
The colour on Field House Brewing’s blue raspberry coconut pineapple vanilla sour (there’s a mouthful!) is unlike anything we’ve ever seen in a beer. They also have a choco raspberry smoothie sour.
Beacon Brewing also got in on the double release, with a blackberry pale ale and a hazy pale ale.
A-Frame Brewing brewed with 600 pounds of blueberries to make a blueberry rooibos sour.
Ace Brewing Company has a new margarita sour.
Another Beer Company has canned its collaboration Four Winds Kellerbier, now available for pickup at the brewery.
Fern and Cedar Brewing Company released a New Zealand Saison, inspired by that country’s white white wine regions.
IN THE NEWS
Deals, announcements, re-releases, and other news from your favourite breweries
In what has become an annual tradition, Backcountry Brewing is re-releasing their Suck It Cancer Pale Ale on Friday, featuring a design collaboration with the estate of Chili Thom, a local artist who succumbed to cancer in 2016. Proceeds go to the BC Cancer Foundation.
You’ve got two weeks left for your chance to become a member of the Four Winds Beer Club.
It took 27 years, but in case you missed it, Russell Brewing finally has a tasting room and it looks beautiful.
Locality Brewing invites visitors to pick blackberries onsite (with full permission to sample for quality control) to help with a collaboration beer.
LEARN SOMETHING NEW
What are Cryo Hops?
With so many new beers featuring Cryo Hops, you might be wondering what all the hype is about. The hype, as with recent beer trends, is all about hop oil called lupulin. When brewers add hops to a beer, they are doing so to extract the flavour compounds that reside in lupulin.
The problem with typical hop pellets is that they are 90 percent green matter and only 10 percent lupulin oil. If lupulin is what we’re really after, this is a highly inefficient ratio. So hop producers have been improving this ratio in recent years.
These lupulin-enriched hop pellets are processed using a cryogenic processing technology resulting in significantly higher lupulin levels. This low-temperature methods gives allows brewers to male highly aromatic beers, especially those juicy IPAs that so many of us love.
Did you know? Cryo Hop is the registered trademark of Yakima Chief Hops (YCH). They even have a stand-alone building to process this brand. Other hop producers offer lupulin-enriched hops under different brands.
Explore this topic further with this primer from Hop Culture.
BC Beers made with Cyro Hops: This week’s DIPA release from Superflux features Cyro Hops. Superflux also has a new Phantasm Cyro IPA that it released last week, in collaboration with Yakima Chief Hops.
GIVEAWAY
Beer-tember, Beer-tober… It’s beer-year with a giveaway of six months of free beer
We've teamed up with Craft Co. Home Delivery to give away their surprise dozen pack. For six months you'll receive 12 random BC beers delivered directly to your door. It's a great way to discover new BC beer.
How to enter: Visit our contest page and input your email. It's that simple.
If you've never heard of Craft Co., don't worry, it's because they're pretty new! Created by, and for, local manufacturers, they offer same business day delivery of locally produced beer, wine, cider, spirits, RTD and non-alcoholic beverages to the Lower Mainland plus courier shipping province-wide! Click here to check them out.
JOB BOARD
Red Bird Brewing is looking to grow its full-time kitchen staff.
La Cerveceria Astilleros is looking for a new taproom team member.
Old Yale Brewing is on the hunt for a marketing coordinator.
Fernie Brewing has posted for a permanent tasting room associate job.
NEW BREWERY ALERT
House of Lager
Some big news from House of Brewing on the weekend, with a teaser post on Instagram. The team is building a new brewery at the Oceanfront in Squamish, set to open in early 2024. If the name is any indication of what to expect from the new brewery, we can’t wait to see what opening day looks like. BC could use more craft lager.
Stay in the loop: The brewery already has an Instagram account.
BEER LOOP PICKS
News, fun reads, deep dives and other distractions.
Here’s a brand new, 5,000-word essential guide to IPA from Pellicle, perfect if you want to dig really deep on the style. [Pellicle]
On the topic of styles, what exactly is a Mexican lager? Is it a Corona? A vienna lager by another name? Jess Keller Poole explores this further. [Beer is for Everyone]
Mark Johnson, who has been writing about beer for more than 10 years and did a Q&A with readers. Lots of interesting topics in here and we certainly share Mark’s optimism on the written form! [Beer Compurgation]