Coastal Brew Day Blog

GREEN TEA IPA   As far as IPAs go, this one is fairly mild. The point of this beer, however, isn't to be an IPA, but rather to be a platform for a special adjunct to shine. Green tea pairs well with a lot of things. Its delicate flavors and subtle aroma act splendidly on their own or as a highlight to other foods and beverages. Green tea ice cream, matcha powder in smoothies, and powdered green tea used in baking have all been a part of the culinary landscape for over a decade.  Around that time, we decided to put it into a beer.  We hadn't seen it in our area before, so we thought that we would try it. Turns out, we were on to something. The beer that came out of this experiment was crisp and refreshing, perfect for that time of year when the weather begins to perk up and the chill of Winter is in the rear view. The tea is balanced with the beer, which amplifies the IPA qualities without leaving the green tea in the background.  Green tea has a delicate flavor. It isn't ov

Belgian IPA   What is a Belgian IPA, you ask? Easy, it's essentially an American IPA fermented with a Belgian yeast strain. It's also one of the newest beers styles around. Emerging from homebrewers and craft breweries in the early 2000s, it hasn't really grown in popularity as quickly as other IPA variants, especially in Belgium where it is almost never consumed. The Belgian IPA has its roots in the old gruit beers of the Middle Ages. The herbal mixture had a many uses, from flavoring the beer to being a preservative for exported beers. The gruit tended to have an aroma and flavor that is similar to the hops that we use today, which are stronger than the varieties that were available in the 1500s. As hops became more and more popular, the gruit beers faded away, and new styles were developed. Among them was the IPA, which we have talked about before. The American IPA came along relatively recently, and even later mass experimentation has evolved the style into new and inte

New England IPA  The New England IPA. A hazy, juicy, tropical brew whose profile would never be confused with the flavors or general perception of the region it's named after. The New England IPA, or NEIPA, was developed fairly recently, only gaining certification as an actual beer style by the BJCP in 2015. The first version of the NEIPA is Heady Topper from The Alchemist in Waterbury, Vermont. It's unique profile quickly gained popularity and breweries across the region scrambled to make their own version.  Eventually, the NEIPA style evolved into a style of beer distinct from the bitter IPAs of previous generations. The heavily hopped West Coast styles and more balanced East Coast IPAs were trampled by the uniquely flavorful upstart from New England. Hazy and heavily dry hopped, the NEIPA relied on hips not for the bitter punch beer drinkers were accustomed to, but rather a delicate, citrus forward profile that hadn't been explored with great depth before.  These days, n

BLACK IPA The Black IPA is highly unusual beer. For starters, the name itself is oxymoronical. The "P" in IPA stands for Pale, so having something that is simultaneously black and pale can be confusing. It is, in fact, the best of both worlds. This esoteric brew combines the hoppy dryness of typical IPAs and the roasty characteristics of dark ales and lagers. Its color is, of course, black, and thus the style of beer. The Black IPA is a very new style, created by a brewpub in Burlington, Vermont in the early 1990s. Since then it has seen a growth in popularity among the craft beer circuit through the 2000s and with homebrewers up until today. Its presence has waned in recent years as small brewers have pivoted to the hazy New England IPAs that have dominated the craft scene for the last five years or so.  Even though the Black IPA is among the youngest styles of beer, its roots can be seen back in the 19th century. In a beer book published in 1888 called The Theory and Practi

CENTENNIAL  We're going to do something a little bit different this week. Instead of going deep into a style of beer, we will discuss a specific variety of hop.  Centennial hops are among the most popular hops used today. It was introduced to the public in 1990, but vines had been developed and cultivated since 1974 when a Washington State University researcher bred together Brewer's Gold, East Kent Goldings, Fuggles, and a small amount of "Bavarian" hops (probably Hallertau Mittlefruh) to create a fragrant and flavorful hop. The creation was called Centennial, and its versatility has become one of its most beneficial characteristics.  Centennial is part of the "Three C's" of American hops, with Cascade and Columbus. Centennial is indeed similar to both, and lands between them in several categories. It isn't as strong as Columbus, but is bigger than Cascade. It has similar bittering notes as Cascade, but neither have the bitter punch that Columbus do

AMERICAN IPA Everybody thinks they know the origin of the IPA. The legend states that the East India Tea Company, England's famous colonizers and import/export firm in South Asia, wanted fresher beer, so brewers in Northern England dumped a bunch of extra hops in their pale ales because the oils and acids in the hop cones provided stabilization and preservative qualities to beer. The resulting hop forward beer was then called the India Pale Ale, or as we have shortened it to, the IPA. This is wrong.  The truth of the matter is slightly more hazy. The IPA began in London by a brewer named George Hodgson, owner of the Bow Brewery, in the 1780's. The Bow Brewery was located a couple miles upriver from the piers where ships exported beer to the British colonies in Asia. The supply ships would simply take beer, regardless of style, over the seas to their customers across the globe. Many porter brewers included their beers on these ships, along with the paler ales from Bow, who was a