Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
There are collaborations and then there are super collaborations. Highland Park + Beachwood, well that is the level above super.
Here are the double details…
“Natural Born Shredder – West Coast-style IPA, our version of the previous beer collab released at Highland Park Brewery.
No Chestnuts in This Beer – Hoppy & crisp Italian-style pilsner, just in time as the warm weather creeps upon us for this pilsner.”
I am starting to see a shift in IPA’s where there is a huge IPA with multiple hops and then a fruit is added too.
Recent example being the collaboration between Anderson Valley Brewing with Sudwerk Brewing that has three hops, clocks in at 8 1/2% and has apricots. Maybe those three hops gave a hint of the stonefruit and more was desired?
This year both tangerine and pineapple are fresh and patriotic with the 2021 Enjoy By for the 4th of July from Stone Brewing.
Indie Brewing in south DTLA has a new entry into their Tiki Style IPA with Catapult “A hazy IPA with pineapple, honeydew, banana, coconut and tangerine.” Sounds like a fruit explosion.
Offshoot Beer Co. is headed out to the hop farms with two new IPAs from two different farms.
Just the Two of Us– “The saga continues! Just the Two of Us is the follow up to 2020’s “Better Together,” a collaboration with Virgil Gamache Farms. This Double Dry-Hopped Hazy Double IPA features Amarillo variety complimented by Sonnet, both grown at Virgil Gamache Farms. This big DDH Hazy DIPA boasts a huge chewy mouthfeel, with round juicy flavors of grapefruit and lemon peel, along with light floral notes.”
Better Together – “This was our chance to get our boots in the dirt and get to know our hop farmer friends and their stories. Better Together was a collaboration with our old friends at Crosby Hop Farms, and our new friends at B&D Farms. This heavy-hitting, classic West Coast IPA features Centennial hops from B&D Farms, and is intense with aromas and flavors of grapefruit, citrus, and pine.”
If you missed the first go round, Burnin’ Daylight Brewery is re-releasing their 2nd Anniversary beer. According to the brewery, Burn 2 is a West Coast style IPA “hopped with Strata and Citra”.
Five Threads Brewing north of L.A. in Westlake Village is “releasing an Organic IPA with a special cause at its core. Vanishing Beauty is our effort to rally support for the critically endangered Western Monarch Butterfly. Numbers of these majestic migrators have fallen from 4.5 million to 2,000 in just the last 40 years. Integral to the pollination of much of our local flora, these creatures must be protected at all costs, and a portion of the sales from Vanishing Beauty will be put to that use.
Vanishing Beauty was brewed with 100% organic ingredients including Bravo, Simcoe, Sultana, Calipso, and Mosaic hops. Expect a light and crisp body buoyed by notes of grapefruit zest and a subtle floral medley. This can with a cause is available today in our tasting room and online, and if you’d like to do even more to help protect the Western Monarch Butterfly please visit our website to find out how you can make a difference.”
The brewery is also releasing a quintuple IPA named 5X as well. A hoppy way to help the earth.
Modern Times is switching it up in a couple differ ways with their new Dungeon Mao IPA. First, it is a West Coast and not hazy and second, it is in 12oz cans instead of the 16’s. Here is a little more detail on the new year-round offering, “This majestic 7.2% liquid is loaded with heaps of Nelson, Strata, Mosaic, & Centennial hops—a stellar lineup bursting with stone fruit, citrus, and tropical notes…”
Even the latest LD from Firestone Walker got a bit of a label re-fresh along with the hop list for this all New Zealand iteration….
The hop news for this IPA is the use of the Nectaron hop and this is the backstory from the press release, “The latest Luponic Distortion stems from Brynildson’s travels around the Nelson region of New Zealand. There, he befriended multigenerational hop farmer Brent McGlashen, proprietor of MAC Farms, as well as Dr. Ron Beatson, a hop geneticist with New Zealand’s Plant & Food Research public breeding program.
After his initial trip four years ago, Brynildson returned two years later and followed up on emerging hops like Hort 4337, which McGlashen was growing on an experimental basis at the time. Hort 4337 would later be named Nectaron in honor of Dr. Beatson. The name Nectaron is a marriage of “Nectar of the Gods” and Dr. Beatson’s first name, Ron.”
Another AleSmith collab is dropping soon, this time Tower of Flower with Beachwood Brewing. Julian has been busy!
The new release will be a double dry-hopped west coast-style IPA with Galaxy, Cashmere and Nelson hops.