Brut IPAs hit Pittsburgh beer lovers where it’s dry
A new style of India pale ale you may not have tried, much less heard of, is hitting Pittsburgh in two waves this week.
Darren Gailey of Larimer’s Couch Brewery is releasing a new beer Saturday, one “that we believe we are the first to brew in Pittsburgh — a brut IPA” named Dune Buggy.
But Couch was beaten to the punch by Hitchhiker Brewing Co., which released its draft brut IPA, Alternate Dimensions, Tuesday at its tasting rooms in Sharpsburg and Mt. Lebanon.
Customers of both breweries are in for a new experience.
“Brut IPAs are the antithesis of the hazy IPA ‘juice bombs,’” Mr. Gailey explained in his email. “Originating in San Francisco, they’re super dry, pale, using light malts — basically a sparkling hop beverage, according to Kim Sturdavant from Social Brewing in San Francisco, the inventor of the style.”
In announcing its release on Twitter Monday, Hitchhiker also noted the style’s NorCal roots.
Indeed, as sfgate.com reported, Mr. Sturdavant describes the brew as “kind of the refreshing sparkling wine elements in a beer form.”
This spring, brut IPAs spread to about a dozen breweries in Northern California, then San Diego and many other places beyond. Even Samuel Adams has made one, and other breweries have already upped the ante with “extra brut” double IPAs. No doubt more Western Pennsylvania breweries will take a crack at the style, too.
Brut IPAs are so dry thanks to the addition of an enzyme called amylase, which further breaks down the sugars so that the beer yeast can consume them all. That leaves no malt sweetness. Hops are added not for bitterness but for aroma.
“It is extremely dry, but it also has an element of sweetness to it,” says Hitchhiker’s head brewer Andy Kwiatkowski, elaborating on the style’s “strange character.” He says he first heard about it from local home brewer extraordinaire Keith Kost and decided to try to make one. His version is cloudier than it should be, thanks to a “massive” dry hopping.
It remains to be seen if local drinkers will like these or stick with the even cloudier, sweeter, full-bodied IPAs that are all the rage.
Mr. Gailey likes the haze, too, but says the brut IPA appealed to Couch. “We wanted a beer that got back to basics.” In fact, the brewery has a second brut IPA in the tanks now, made with pilsner instead of two-row malt, to release in about two weeks, called Baja 1000. “We want to kind of get ahead of the curve.”
“On a side note, we’re starting up canning our beer, and we’ll be delving into serious distribution very soon,” he added.
First up is the brewery’s habanero amber ale. For more information, visit couchbrewery.com.
Hitchhiker has been canning up a storm, regularly releasing its packaged beers at its two taprooms and distributing them to supermarkets and other outlets. Find Hitchhiker at hitchhiker.
Bob Batz Jr.: bbatz@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1930 and on Twitter @bobbatzjr.