Kyoto Brewing Co. - Wholesale
豊醸 赤ぶどうサワーIPA編 (HOJO - Sour Grape IPA edition)
A style-bending sour IPA using red grape juice and skins for a tart mix of tropical and dark fruit character
When co-founder, Paul, travelled to New Zealand to source hops earlier in the year, he learned that Frestyle, one of our most important hop suppliers, is located adjacent to Kindeli Wines, a famous winery that specliases in natural wine. The owner of that winery, Alex Craighead, was also the teacher of head vintner, Noya-san, at Grape Republic (for more details on GP, please refer here).
When we spoke to Grape Republic for the red grape juice + pressed grape skins we wanted to use for this beer, they introduced us to Steuben grapes. Steuben grapes were created in New York state during the 1920s. This grape had an interesting sweet jam-like character with notes of dark stone fruit notes.
After tasting their wine, I was inspired to take this beer in a completely new direction from my original plan. I wanted to lean into this dark sweet fruit character, so I approached it in a similar way to how I might build a beer around a Flanders red ale, a style which showcases these flavors well.
This beer uses a blend of Pilsner, Munich, and Vienna malts, with a splash of Special B for its sweet raisin character. A blend of Kohia Nelson and Nelson Sauvin come together to give it a passionfruit and grape-like citrus hop character in what blurs the lines between a sour red ale and an IPA. This is one of the more unique ways I have approached a beer, so I was excited to see it all come together in this style-bending IPA.