Hope everyone had a restful, reflective and fun long weekend! I wanted to take this week to shine our spotlight on a beer that doesn’t need an introduction but has recently been given a few new developments. While this beer is consistently a best seller for us since it was first brewed in the beginning of 2017, we won’t let it slip us into complacency. We still strive to dial in every detail to the best of our ability. Let me share some new details on the one, the only, Four Seam, New England-style IPA.
Living in New England, it’s not hard to find the inspiration for soft, hazy, and flavorful IPAs. They are abundant, and they are excellent. Like I’ve said before, we know we’re in a league with heavy hitters and we know there is no room for errors. We need to nail every detail; body, mouthfeel, aroma, flavor, and finish (I like to agree with my colleagues that “appearance” is a by-product of the five aforementioned traits that are the real focus when crafting these beers). To accomplish this, we built a grist focused on delivering beta-glucands and dextrine (science-y words for big sugars and starches with molecules that are too big for certain yeast strains to be bothered with eating) using flaked oats, flaked wheat, malted wheat, dextrine malt. From there we add a bit of Caramel malt 10L, an extremely light caramel malt to give it a bit of sweetness and just enough color for that sunny pale orange glow. Since we were going with baseball references, we pack this one full of American origin hops. Citra is the focus and it’s backed up by a foundation of Simcoe, Centennial, Columbus, Amarillo, and El Dorado. (yea, that last one isn’t American origin but damn can it deliver a nice ripe mango flavor in the right doses. We couldn’t help ourselves.)
The end result is a full bodied and perfectly rounded ale. Not too dry as to take away from any perception of juicy character, but not overly sweet as to feel cloying or linger on the palate for too long. Aromas of ripe orange and fresh tangerine with a hint of green grass fields hit you first. On the sip, orange juice with ripened mango undertones rest softly on the palate. A slight prickle in the carbonation cleans the strong fruit flavors leaving just a bit of orange blossom in the aftertaste. Not meant to be the biggest and baddest on the block, but at 6.6% abv, we want you to come back refreshed for another, again and again. Pair with herbed and grilled white meats or sharp aged cheddar cheese.
I mentioned a little update to the recipe before. If you want to try the difference, cans from the previous recipe (dated 5/16/18, batch #30) are available to take home in the Taproom, while the new batch (batch #31) is currently on draft in the Taproom. All I can say is that a little goes a long way. A less than 2% change to the grist and a slight alteration to the water profile; we’ve never been happier with the final result. But as always, we invite you to come see and taste for yourself. Cheers! — Lead Brewer Brett Bauer
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