It is the end of an era.
As many of you know, one of the essential ingredients in our beloved Maryland All-Stars IPA recently became unavailable. That’s right, Maryland-grown Southern Cross has sadly gone the way of the dodo. This hop was integral to bringing in the tropical hoppy notes to this recipe while using only Maryland-grown hops.
However, one of our friends is a bit of a mad scientist in the world of hops. We tasted some of the stuff Che was cooking up at Black Locust Hops Farm Brewery and said to ourselves “How the heck is he doing this?!”
So we approached him and said “How the heck are you doing this?!”
Che proceeded to tell us about a couple of techniques, including some that we’d never even heard of! But you know what? He was finding tropical notes where we’d never found them before!
Because (as we all know) Harry is particularly thick and couldn’t get his head around it all, Che (and his wonderful wife Lisa) volunteered to come show us some new hop tricks.
And since we were already doing some things we’d not done before, we decided to add one more to the streak… a super hazy and tropical NEIPA using only Maryland hops. This sucker was hopped every step of the way, and is unlike anything we’ve brewed before.
Maryland-grown and malted barley and wheat were blended with copious amounts of oats to give them extra body and haze. Thirty pounds of Cascade, Chinook, and Brewers Gold hops were added strategically for a perfect balance of tropical hoppy notes.
And all that new hop wizardry we learned? It’s going to be applied in the development of the new and improved, 100% MD ingredient, Maryland All-Stars IPA 2.0.
Funny thing about the end of an era; it always notes the beginning of the next era.
To the future!
To good collaborations!
To a A NU START!
A NU START
7.2% ABV, 31 IBU
And since I have more news than I do space, we’ll leave it at this:
BEER! COOL NIGHTS! MORE COLLABORATIONS! SPOTTED LANTERNFLIES! NEWS! HOPS!
*no pumpkins were harmed in the typing of this newsletter*