A month ago we discovered a pretty unique take on IPA at Social Kitchen & Brewery in San Francisco. Their brewmaster, Kim Sturdavant, created a super dry IPA called Hop Champagne, using enzymes that make complex sugars in beer completely fermentable. Reducing the amount of residual sugar in beer, to this extreme, gives the beer an ultra-dry, brut champagne-like body that’s a great platform for hop aroma and flavor.
TROCKEN: EXTRA BRUT IPA
Because we’re always looking for new ways to express our love for hops, we decided to brew our own version, Trocken: Extra Brut IPA (“Trocken” means dry in German). Our beer is a nod to German Riesling and features Hallertauer Blanc, a new German hop, that imparts notes of white grape skins, bolstered by bright citric flavors from Amarillo and Bavaria Mandarina hops, and a bit of crisp tropicality courtesy of El Dorado hops.
TUESDAY TAPPING SERIES
Trocken will be available on draft starting today at Drake’s Dealership and Drake’s Barrel House, while supplies last, as part of our Tuesday Tapping Series. Every Tuesday, both locations feature a new beer created by our brewing team.
The beer is often packaged the morning it’s served, so you can enjoy them as fresh as possible. Tuesday Tappings are a great opportunity to taste new, unique, or experimental beers. On February 27th, you can expect a Dunkelweizen made with rye.
Photo: Drake’s Production Manager, DeVonne Buckingham (left), with Kim Sturdavant of Social Kitchen & Brewery
WHY EXTRA BRUT?
If you would like a better understanding of how and why an extra brut IPA was created, here’s how Kim Sturdavant approached the creation of his beer, Hop Champagne:
I’ve played around with this enzyme to dry out our triple IPA in the past, rather than using dextrose (which, as a personal preference I try to avoid). I’ve had this concept floating in my head for a year or so and finally got around to realizing it in practice. The timing is great, because right now the brewing scene is all about fluffy hazy juicy IPA profiles with a lot of mouthfeel, and this is a huge contrast to that, and a refreshing (pun intended) alternative.
What I’m striving for is the palest possible color and smallest amount of body in the beer to lay the foundation, or lack thereof, for the hops. Making a dry neutral malt profiled beer to allow the hops to pop more isn’t a new concept, but this extra brut style is all about pushing that as far as possible to the point it comes across as something like hop Champagne, if possible.
With basically zero body to balance out the bitterness, we’re left with a puzzle to solve, and that’s what we (all of us that are just starting to brew these) are doing right now. I’m really curious to see how other brewers approach this puzzle. I really hope more breweries give it a shot so we can learn from each other and push the style forward. I can’t wait to try the Drake’s version!
There you go, straight from the brewer. Kim, thanks for the opportunity to mess around with a new IPA style. We hope Trocken does you proud. Once we knock this beer out, we’re going to take a shot at brewing a dry and hazy beer, using enzymes to ferment out all the available sugars, but with a lush hazy body from unmalted oat. Hazy Brut, baby, stay tuned! Until then, RELEASE THE TROCKEN!
Thanks for posting about on this new approach to IPAs. It really resonated with me. I'm brewing a session version today in Virginia that I'm describing as a brut extra pale (ale). In a world full of hazy ( and murky), obtuse yet gratifying, thick, and sadly unstable NE IPAs, this new "style" shows promise to stand out in a very delicate and adult way and with better flavor stability. We'll see how a lighter version comes out but I'm already thinking about a full strength one. Thanks SF Bay area brewers for coming up with this slant on hoppy beer.
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