SPRING BREW
Boese Brothers releases single-hop Cascade Grenade
Spring is almost here, and Boese Brothers Brewery is giving you something refreshing to welcome the season. Boese Brothers will release its Cascade Grenade on Saturday, March 12. The brew is a single-hop beer made with the popular American hop Cascade. It is a “fruity, flowery” hop with subtle grapefruit-like flavor, according to Boese Brothers Operations Manager George Boese.
“With this spring beer, we wanted to start making kind of a seasonal that is a little lighter, rather than like our Double Dead Red Ale that is kind of a thicker, maltier beer,” Boese said. “We wanted something a little bit lighter but still kind of strong in alcohol content.”
The popularity of Cascade hops began somewhere in the 1970s and 1980s when some California brewers began using the hop as craft brewing began to take off there, Boese explained. Boese and his brother, Sam, began homebrewing as a hobby, which later led them to both brew commercially and later co-found Boese Brothers, which opened last August. Their brewing collaboration inspired Cascade Grenade.
“It’s very popular, but you also don’t get an opportunity to taste a single-hopped beer, particularly a stronger singlehopped beer,” George Boese said. “This is a variation of a recipe that Sam and I have been brewing for ourselves for about five years. We kind of started making singlehop beers, particularly with Cascade, so it’s something that we always wanted to do as a seasonal at the brewery.”
In addition, Gold Street Caffe will be offering a special pairing of vermicelli bowls made with tasty rice noodles, herbs, vegetables and your choice of shrimp, pork or more vegetables. The dish is something new for Gold Street Caffe, which mainly offers American classics and some New Mexican dishes, Boese said. He added that the cafe’s chefs enjoy experimenting with different types of dishes when they create special pairings for Boese Brothers seasonals and frequently use the beer as a marinade.
“It’s kind of a real bitter citrusy beer paired with that kind of light (vermicelli bowl),” Boese said. “Hopefully, we can incorporate some fresh citrus flavor into the dish too.”