Tuesday, April 29, 2008

New batch of Hop Project IPA on tap this weekend

The newest incarnation of our Hop Project IPA, #6, will be on tap this weekend at the taproom only. Why the taproom only? Because, with the price of hops these days, and based on how many we used, I'd have to charge an arm and a leg to sell it anywhere else.

I've got a lot of new readers, who are probably asking, "What the heck is Hop Project"? Well, last year, we began working on developing a kick-ass IPA recipe. We alternated the hops in each batch of IPA we brewed, with the intention of coming up with the best blend we could and then releasing that beer as a year-round Yazoo IPA. And then the hop shortage hit, and we could no longer get enough hops to release the recipe we had come up with. So we kept on brewing an IPA any time we managed to score a couple of boxes here or there of different hops.

For this batch, we used Pilgrim, Millenium, and Simcoe. It's a unique IPA to say the least. I've never had an IPA with as many different hop flavors, and one whose bitterness sneaks up on you. The first sip, you say, "wow, this is well balanced!" Then the bitterness washes over you like a rising tide, with the enamel of your teeth crying "Mercy!" That's actually a pleasant sensation to a hophead like me.

In addition to the new batch of Hop Project IPA, we will have on tap:


PALE ALE
DOS PERROS
HEFEWEIZEN
SLY RYE PORTER
ESB
HOP PROJECT IPA #6

2 comments:

Lee Koehler said...

Hop project batch #6 is my favorite hop project thus far, so count this as a vote in favor of #6 over #s 1-5. I love Simcoe and it's piney aroma, so it's not that surprising. There are enough citrusy IPAs out there. I've never had/heard of the other 2 hop varieties before. Anything you can tell us about them and why you chose them?

Anonymous said...

Another vote for #6...best that I've had so far!