From the Beer Writer: Quality of ingredients is key to producing quality beer. This extends beyond hops, grains, yeast, and water to any specialty ingredients brewers incorporate, such as fruits, herbs, and spices. This is not lost on the team at Pure Project Brewing, which produces a number of fruited beers, including their latest in a line of rotating sour IPAs, Blood Magic. Much of the flavor for this hazy, and half its name, is derived from fresh blood oranges procured from an organic farm in North County’s Fallbrook community. It’s the latest in Pure Project’s ongoing plucking of prestigious fruits from local producers. Those sweet, earthy, crimson gems blend surprisingly well with hibiscus flowers and lactose to make for a beer that sounds very “kitchen-sink” in nature, but comes across as a balanced, cohesive, and refreshing finished product. The same red-orange hue as the can it’s packaged in, Blood Magic tastes like a fruited Berliner weisse and a hazy IPA have been crossbred. The beer is lighter on the palate than most “murky” brews, far less sweeter, delicately acidic, and big on juicy, pithy orange character. And at 8.5% alcohol-by-volume, it’s almost scary how easy-drinking this contemporary offering is. Blood Magic will debut on-tap at Pure Project’s Miramar tasting room at noon, today, and go on-sale in cans 10 a.m., tomorrow.
From the Brewer: “Blood Orange Magic, or Blood Magic for short, is the second beer in our ‘Magic’ fruited sour IPA series. We are really excited about this series for a few reasons. First, the sour fruited IPA style is very unique in that, often times, the fermentation process will ferment out a lot of the fruit flavor. The souring process used and the addition of lactose in this style actually enhances the fruit flavors by creating acidity and sweetness in the beer. Second, these styles allow us to showcase some of the amazing local fruit available to us in Southern California. For instance, the blood oranges used in this beer come from La Vigne Organics, an organic and biodynamic citrus farm in Fallbrook. We love exploring these types of local farmer relationships to support our local agriculture while producing unique beer. This beer utilizes a grain bill featuring oats, wheat, and organic pilsner base malt from Admiral Maltings in Alameda, California. We are extremely excited to start utilizing Admiral’s organic base malt in our beers this year, due to both the flavor profile and sustainability impact. If you want to switch to a more sustainable ingredient, there is no more impactful shift as a brewer than your base malt. Admiral utilizes California-grown, malted, and dry-farmed varietals with organic options available, so this was a big move for us and one we are really excited about. Look for more versions of the ‘Magic’ fruited sour IPA series coming soon.”—Winslow Sawyer, Head Brewer, Pure Project Brewing