Cheers to Local! Beer From Here- Pale Ale.
Throwback brewer Chris is a hop head. I often find him waxing poetic about the aromas and flavors of various hops, or talking excitedly about a rare hop he happened to get his hands on. Lucky for us, Chris’ knowledge, enthusiasm, and passion for hops has driven him to progressively refine our hoppy beers to point where they are now our uncontested top sellers – especially our Donkey-Hoté Double IPA and our Hank’s Pale Ale! So when Chris came to me with the idea of releasing several experimental hoppy beers this Summer, how could I say no?
As such, we are thrilled to announce the Hoppin’ Summer series – a short series of experimental, small batch beers each designed to highlight a unique or special hop. Starting in June and running through August, we will release one unique hoppy beer per month. Given that these months are the warmest of the year, each beer will be designed to be super drinkable and refreshing – something you would want to drink while soaking up the hot Summer sunshine.
The first beer in this series will be released tomorrow, Wednesday, June 8th! The beer is called Beer From Here!– Pale Ale. As some of you might know, our fifth birthday is coming up on July 3rd, so we decided to craft a beer that represents what we at Throwback Brewery are all about – making farm-fresh beers from local ingredients. Beer From Here – Pale Ale is a beautiful light tangerine-colored pale ale made with 100% local malts – Pale Malt & Wheat from Valley Malt, Vienna Malt from Blue Ox Malthouse, and 2-row from The Maine Malt House, PLUS 100% Maine hops – Nugget, Centennial, and Cascade – all from Aroostoock Hops (Maine).
Here are some of our tasting notes.
– Appearance: Light tangerine-colored beer with a beautiful white head.
– Aroma: Aromas of lemon tea, tropical fruit, hoppy sweetness.
– Taste & Mouthfeel: This is a light bodied hoppy ale with notes of candied orange and a lingering dried apricot finish. There are some tea-like flavors from the local nugget hops, and the local cascade hops give the beer that wonderful orangey sweet aroma and flavor. When I queried our team about how they would describe this beer, the word that came up over and over again was “refreshing” along with “ooohh sooo good!!” 🙂
While this beer has a significant amount of hops in it, it isn’t bitter. Rather, Beer From Here is the perfect Summer IPA – it tastes super fresh and goes back nice and easy!
– Pairing: Fish & Chips, fresh fruit, roasted chicken, salads.
– Serving glass: At the brewery we will be serving this beer in a 16-oz tulip glass.
– Stats – ABV is 5.4% and IBU is 50
What other beers are we planning for this series? Well, here is what we are working on:
- July – Hoppy Hef: A double hefeweizen dry hopped with Mandarina Bavaria and Belma hops (which will contribute a strawberry flavor). We are aiming for a nice fruity strawberry banana flavors, with some hints of orange — all coming from the hops and yeast!
- August – Sunny Summer IPA: We’ll use some lemony hops like Centennial combined with malted sunflower seeds to create a beer perfect for drinking while doing a little sun worshipping.
See you at the farm!
Beer From Here- Pale Ale — check out that head!
