Today I have a new can coming from Lawson’s Finest Liquids in Waitsfield, VT.
This is Hazy Rays IPA and it will be brewed with Citra and Mandarina Bavaria hops. The beer will shine in at 5.3%-AbV and you’re looking at the 16oz can (12oz cans below packaged in Stratford, CT). Stay tuned for release details. I’ve also added in Scrag-arita pilsner with lime and sea salt (4.8%-AbV, 16oz cans), Elderberry Gose fruited sour ale (5%-AbV, 16oz cans) & Juice Stand blood orange IPA (5%-AbV, 16oz cans) zzubreebym
This 2 Aug 2023 update from Lawson’s:
Our First Distributed Sour Beer
If you visited our taproom in the summer of 2021, you may have had the opportunity to try the very first batch of Elderberry Gose. Since its quick run in the taproom, fans have been asking us to bring it back, so we are! And this time, we are sharing it with all Lawson’s Finest fans in our 9-state territory.
The Origin Story
Elderberry Gose was imagined and crafted by our Brewery Lab Manager, Julie. This is not the first time that Julie has been the mastermind behind one of our beers. Every year she takes the lead on our annual Pink Boots collaboration brew and is even a co-leader of the Vermont Chapter of the Pink Boots Society. Clearly, Julie knows her stuff.
In 2021, Julie decided to tackle making a beer unlike any Lawson’s Finest beer; a sour! This style of beer can be difficult to perfect but Julie was up to the challenge. At the time, the women of Lawson’s Finest had decided to brew a sour for that year’s Pink Boots beer so Julie took this as an opportunity to explore the style a little more.
The two beers were similar in malt build which made for a light, slightly tart profile. Then, to change it up, Julie added a ton of elderberry! The goal was to make the beer fruity yet non-traditional. The elderberries certainly complement the style with their medicinal and herbal properties rather than adding sweetness. Not to mention, have you seen the color of this beer?! The beautiful magenta color is all thanks to the addition of elderberries.
The Brewing Process
Let’s talk about the brewing process. To start, brewing a sour takes longer than brewing an IPA. The first step in brewing a sour is very important because it is where all of the sourness comes from.
Julie explains that it starts off normal; mashing the grain in with the water then you take the run off and send it into the kettle. This is where things change. Instead of boiling it for an hour, you bring it up to a boil quickly and then cool it back down to kill off anything you don’t want in the beer. Next, you add a sour pitch at 70-90 degrees and let it sit for as long as it takes to sour.
Sour Pitch: A high-performance, high-purity lactic acid bacteria specifically selected for its ability to produce a wide range of sour beer styles.
Fun Fact: It can take anywhere from 12 hours to 2 days to sour a beer depending on the sour culture used.
Once the wort hits the ideal sourness, it boils for an hour like a normal wort. By boiling the wort after the souring process, it kills all of the bacteria cultures that made the beer sour in the first place which you don’t want to bring into the fermentation stage. After boiling, the beer moves to the fermentation stage where the elderberries eventually get added.
Wort: a sweet liquid drained from the mash and fermented to make beer or whiskey.
Aromas and Tasting Notes
At first, you may pick up tart cranberry on the nose. Thanks to the subtle addition of sea salt, the fruitiness of this beer shines through right away. With each sip, you will notice that this beer is clean, crisp, and tart with herbal notes from the elderberries.
This 30 Mar 2023 update from Lawson’s:
We are so excited to share our new, year-round beer! Now, without any further delay, allow us to introduce the newest member of the sunshine family, Hazy Rays.
Setting the Stage
The year is 2014. The term “New England IPA” had not yet been coined. Sip of Sunshine is kegged for the first time down at Two Roads Brewery in Connecticut. It is described as “fresh and hazy” making it one of the first hazy beers in the soon to be expansive Lawson’s Finest portfolio.
A New Era
Back in the day, a beer, like Sip of Sunshine, was considered hazy based on the high amount of hops used in dry hopping and serving the beer fresh and unfiltered. In recent years, brewers have taken hazy in a different direction. Now, extreme amounts of hops are used in the dry hopping process which is moved forward to right after fermentation begins. This allows biotransformation to occur.
Biotransformation: The process by which yeast changes less desirable hop compounds into more desirable flavors and aromas. This is only possible because the hops are added at the height of fermentation.
The Creation of Hazy Rays
Building a Concept
First, we decided that we needed to add a low ABV hazy to our year round lineup. As a team, we discussed our desired flavors, aromas, and mouthfeel for a Lawson’s Finest hazy beer. Next (this is the fun part), we conducted research by tasting other hazy beers. This helped us narrow in on the things we wanted in our beer and the things that we did not.
Brewing Up a Haze
The next stage in the process was brewing a test batch on our 1bbl system. By our 5th, 1bbl pilot batch, we were ready to scale up to the 7bbl system at our Warren brewery. With each batch, we refined the recipe and tweaked the hop build until, finally, it matched the concept. With the recipe perfected, it was off to Two Roads Brewery in Connecticut for the final scale up and first canning of Hazy Rays!
Fun fact: For those that did not know, Two Roads is a brewery that we use to brew Sip of Sunshine, some Little Sip, and now Hazy Rays!
It’s Hazyjuicylicious!
Hazy Rays fits right into the sunshine family with its tropical, fruit forward, juicy character with just a little bit of sweetness on the finish. Overall, it has a prominent, robust, fruity hop aroma all well being balanced and maintaining a clean profile.
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