Not wanting to dive right into the newest IPA craze, Scrappy Punk’s Greg Krsak instead dipped a toe in the world of brut IPAs with his newest beer.
Invented by San Francisco brewer Kim Sturdavant, brut IPAs are the yin to the hazy IPA yang. Made with champagne yeast and sometimes enzymes to dry it out, brut IPAs are highly effervescent, dry and clear as a summer day.
After hearing about brut IPAs on Reddit, Krsak decided to brew a transition beer. His Mango Champagne IPA is made with American ale yeast, Vic Secret hops and mango puree to give it that juicy flavor and aroma, but Krsak then hit it with champagne yeast to dry it out. The result is a dry, bubbly IPA that looks and tastes like a hazy IPA.
“I was far from certain of its success, but it does taste delicious,” Krsak said. “It has that champagne earthiness to go along with the fruity aroma and flavor.”
Krsak said if customers enjoy the beer he might use another trick, amylase enzymes, which helps with additional fermenting, to brew another brut IPA and create a more true, clear version of the beer.
Snohomish’s Scrappy Punk will be pouring the Mango Champagne IPA and other favorites, including its Coconut Blonde, Lavender Old Ale and Oatmeal Milk Stout, at this weekend’s Washington Brewer’s Festival.
They won’t be alone. It’s great to see more than a dozen Snohomish County breweries at this year’s Washington Brewer’s Festival, making it easy for folks to try all their beers in one place. Along with Scrappy Punk, here’s a look at the local breweries at this year’s festival and a must-try offering:
At Large Brewing, Everett: Big Bare, No Bite Imperial IPA, a triple IPA made with five varieties of hops, including Amarillo, Cascade and Simcoe. (Friday only).
Beardslee Public House, Bothell: Orange Creamsickle Ale, a light blonde ale that contains lactose sugar and treated with vanilla beans and both sweet and bitter orange peel.
Crucible Brewing, Everett: Big Berries Imperial Sour, a collaboration beer with Dreadnought Brewing, is packed with over 250 pounds of blackberries, raspberry, strawberries and blueberries.
Diamond Knot Craft Brewing, Mukilteo: Pineapple Azacca IPA, a single-hopped IPA with the addition of real pineapple.
Dreadnought Brewing, Monroe: Heart Of the Dragon Barrel Aged Cherry Sour, a sour aged over 18 months in oak and flavored with cherries from Yakima.
Gallaghers’ Where U-Brew, Edmonds: Island Paradise, a blonde ale with a pineapple/coconut blend.
Lake Stevens Brewing, Lake Stevens: Jalapeño Business German Pilsner, a traditional German pilsner infused with fresh jalapeno peppers.
Sound To Summit Brewing, Snohomish: Tropical Breeze Hazy IPA, a New England-style hazy IPA brewed with Mosaic and Eukanot hops.
Skookum Brewery, Arlington: A Memory of Light, a barrel-aged imperial stout with tons of coffee and cinnamon.
Three Bull Brewing, Snohomish: Racked Blackberry IPA, an IPA with a hint of blackberry finish.
Timber Monster Brewing, Sultan: Stone Chucker Vanilla Bourbon Porter, a porter made with dark grains, bourbon beer candi and torrified oak chips soaked in bourbon.
210 Brewing, Arlington: Berliner Weisse, a sour wheat aged in wine barrels and inoculated with brettanomyces and wild yeast.
Stylin’ six pack
It’s easy to go to your standby brewery and grab a hazy IPA. But with more than 80 breweries and 500 different beers pouring at this year’s Washington Brewer’s Festival, it can get a wee bit overwhelming trying to figure out where to go to try something new and off-the-wall. Here’s a look at some interesting beer styles to taste at this year’s festival.
Grissette: Originally brewed for Belgian miners, grissettes are a lot like saisons. Generally brewed with malted wheat, a grissette’s defining characteristics are farmhouse, low in alcohol and refreshing. Drink this: Skookum’s Buried in Light, a grissette fermented in wine and gin barrels.
Graf: This part cider, part beer that fuses apple and malts dates back to 7,000 B.C. Characteristics include light body, hazy appearance and low bitterness. Drink this: Boundary Bay’s Graf Cider Beer, collaboration with Lost Giants Cider Co., is a mix of semi-sweet apples and malty backbone.
Gose: Traditionally, this German wheat beer is light and tart, with a finish of salt and coriander. Drink this: Postdoc Brewing aged its gose in Woodcut Gin barrels from Lynnwood’s Temple Distilling, giving the beer flavors of fresh citrus, brine and woody gin.
Glitter beer: The newest trend in fad beers, this style is all about looks. Brewed with food-grade glitter with pearlescent pigments, the glitter has no effect on the taste or aroma of the beer. Drink this: Redhook Brewlab created the Highly Verotic Pale Ale, made with Candurin Silver Lustre food coloring … oh, and Citra and Mosaic hops and Skagit Valley Pilsner malt.
Gruit: This isn’t so much a style as spices and herbs used for millenia by brewers, and hops not yet at their disposal, to add flavor to beer. Drink this: Bellweather Brewing’s Eclectic Feel is an oat pale ale and clover honey braggot dosed with a botanical blend of hops, black pepper, birch bark, lemon verbena and basil late in the boil.
Belgian IPA: Oh, fine, I’ll add an IPA to the list. Fruity, hoppy and a bit wild, Belgian IPAs are a an exciting ride for your senses. Drink this: Aged on 30 pounds of pears in chardonnay barrels and then cask conditioned, Pike Brewing’s Soured Pear IPA is made with four strains of wild yeast.
If you go
The 13th annual Washington Brewer’s Festival is today through Sunday at Marymoor Park, 6046 West Lake Sammamish Parkway NE, Redmond. Tickets are $30 online and $35 at the door. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.washingtonbeer.com/festivals.
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