It was our first beer festival, a veritable who's who of high abv brewing, and we were there, the alcohol free brewery. Madness. It was Hop City baby!
In a sea of Dipas Tipas and Qipas, there was one brew that stood out to me, Lobster And Piña Coladas by Tripping Animals, these were my kinda guys.
"It was back in 2011 that the crew started brewing beer out of their garage in Caracas, Venezuela, making wild concoctions with whatever they could get their hands on and stoking the flames of their passion for craft beer. After years of traveling to breweries all around the world and experimenting with different styles of brewing, the crew took a leap of faith and moved to Miami to pursue the next chapter of their brewing careers. It was finally in 2018 that Daniel Chocron, Ignacio Montenegro, Iker Elorriaga, and Juan-Manuel Torres came across their dream location and Founded Tripping Animals Brewing Company in the heart of Doral, Florida."
I became somewhat obsessive about Tripping Animals. To the surprise of no one, that's just how I be sometimes. So when we got invited to design one of the headline beers for Hop City 2023, there was really only one suitable partner.
Our first meetings yielded the cbd infused heavily fruited sour "does this get you high or uhhhh?" (which WILL still be made, its on the list, it will get done)
Then the team at Northern Monk reminded us, "uh guys its HOP city, not whatever weird thing you are on today, city"
HAZY IPA it is then!
We fell upon the experimental hop library on the Yakima Chief elite program, a veritable treasure trove of early release and soon to be available but not quite yet hops. Obviously, we love the VIP treatment.
For the dry hop, we utilised YCH 301 Frozen Fresh Hops Cryro Hops®
A part of the Yakima Chief Hops Elite Product Trial program. Citra, but not as you know it. Think of it as exaggerated and amplified Citra
Paired up with one of my favourite hops HBC 630 as well as, yet more trial runs HBC368 & HBC 1019
These highly experimental new test strains are very high in tropical notes, unusually caramelised banana.
This beer aims to push the limits of what a 0.5% beer does whilst still retaining session friendly experience.
Its a tough gig standing shoulder to shoulder with folks slinging 8% bad boys all day. But we got this.
