Friday 15 January 2016

Fruit of the (IPA) Boom


Fruit in a brewery: Cantillon, not for an IPA, though the
 time of the cherry IPA is presumably about to dawn, craft eh?
Do I want a fruit-infused IPA? Of course I don’t and I’m even more certain I don’t want one when I drink a can of Vocation’s gorgeous Session IPA Heart & Soul, in which the soul of passion fruit and grapefruit shines through courtesy of whatever hops are being used (I’m too lazy to check out the varieties); it’s a gorgeous beer, juicy and luscious and loose in the way it tempts me to open up another can. But it also makes me think, especially as I see that a few Mystic Kegs are predicting that IPAs with fruit in them are going to be humongous in 2016. It will probably be true (and I do so wish I had their skill when it came to horses) as breweries that I really respect are putting all their Carmen Mirandas in some of their IPAs, which I presume is something to do with the apocalyptic hop shortage that is coming our way (it always makes me laugh that there’s a hint of the Daily Express’ annual approach to winter in July — ie Coldest Winter on Record — in the way the shortage of Simcoe and co is being reported), which is why some people are turning to fruit. I’m all for stretching the boundaries of what constitutes beer, but I cannot help feeling that adding fruit to an IPA is sucking up to a sweet-toothed crowd in the search of the next gimmick. But then that’s me and I’m probably completely wrong. It’s just that I like rice to be used in risotto, corn to stay on the cob and fruit being directed, traffic cop style, to either the maturing tank in a Belgian lambic brewery or the kitchen blender rather than the brewing kettle (and on that note I hope no one thinks that the next trend is veggie or vegan beers — in 2013 I tasted an artichoke beer from Puglia, it was dire).  

9 comments:

  1. Herslev Aspargesøl, though. Mwah!

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    1. an image of you wearing a chef’s hat and blowing kisses to all and sundry somehow crops up in the storage cupboard of my brain!! ;-)

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  2. Adrian, keep quiet about Vocation, we want to keep as much as possible of it in Yorkshire.

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    1. don’t think that’s going to be possible, they’re really good beers, tasted the full range over Xmas, fantastic.

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  3. Adrian, keep quiet about Vocation, we want to keep as much as possible of it in Yorkshire.

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  4. If you try Siren-Limoncello or Pompelmocello you might find that fruit ipa,s will be the future.

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  5. sorry, I studied history for three years and it left me with an enduring suspicion of the ‘future’

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  6. Sorry Abrewhaha,the secrets already out in London about Vocation.Saw it in the Rake,Tap East,Crown and Anchor ,Kings arms se1.King and co,Craft beer co and the Ring bar.Nice beer.

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  7. I've made beer with mad ingredients and I'm also well aware that "purity laws" can still make toss beer, but the more I bore into my brewing, the more I loathe the lazy approach of creating difference in beer with throwing something "crazy" in the kettle/fermentor/barrel. Get a sound knowledge of raw materials and yeast metabolism, then get down to business. There's plenty of "outside the box" brewing to be done with traditional means.

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