From the Beer Writer: When volunteering to brew a beer for my Beer to the Rescue campaign, Green Flash Brewing Company Brewmaster Chuck Silva and Director of Beer Education Dave Adams couldn’t have been more gracious. Not only did they squeeze a pilot brew into their rapidly expanding brewery’s schedule, but when brainstorming, they said nothing was off limits. Brettanomyces, barrels and experimental hops were all on the table. So, we worked up a recipe that would incorporate all of that…and more. The more in this case was fresh passion fruit procured from Stone Farms in Escondido, which were blended in post-fermentation to add a bit of tartness. But there’s much more to this truly unique, multi-layered, 7.7% alcohol-by-volume beer, which debuts today at Green Flash’s Mira Mesa brewery tasting room as part of a Beer to the Rescue event benefiting the Lupus Foundation of Southern California.
From the Beer Educator: We were trying to brew a low IBU (international bittering unit) white IPA, if you will, with the intention of adding passion fruit purée, post-fermentation. We wanted to utilize an experimental hop that would complement the passion fruit that we’d use later. We added mostly late additions of this experimental hop varietal in order to provide a nice tropical fruit aroma while keeping the IBUs in the 40-ish range. Then we headed to Stone Farms to source some passion fruit. The passion fruit we found there was mind-blowing in all aspects. After cutting open the fresh fruit and tasting the beautiful, bright orange seed-peppered juice we all had ear-to-ear smiles and knew this would be perfect for the beer. We juiced the fruit and headed to the brewery to make up some different blends. We also added some Protégé Savauge, our White IPA aged in Chardonnay barrels with Brettanomyces. The result was a beer that had an amazing orange yellow color with a touch of tartness and an incredible amount of complexity. We’re very excited to offer this beer in the tasting room for a limited time, kicking off the initial tapping for our Beer to the Rescue fundraiser. —Dave Adams, Director of Beer Education, Green Flash Brewing Company
From the Brewer: When the three of us met to develop the beer concept, we discussed going in the direction of a saison or white IPA for the base. Other suggestions included using our house Brettanomyces, barrel-aging all or part of the beer, utilizing an experimental hop and, finally, giving the beer a “passion fruit kicker,” which became the name for our beer. As it came together, we chose a grist of 15% wheat and 85% two-row for a simple wort up front, but on our brew day we selected Hopsteiner experimental hop 05256 for its unique fruity qualities and to build some flavor throughout the boil. We fermented with White Labs California Ale Yeast and, later, dry-hopped the moderately bitter brew with a modest amount of 05256. I like this hop and it was my first time using it. It’s delightful with some restraint in hop rate. This beer has mild Brett funk with some Chardonnay oak barrel notes, slight tartness, just a bit of hop bitterness, and an exotic but funky tropical fruit flavor kicker to wash it all down. —Chuck Silva, Brewmaster, Green Flash Brewing Company