When chatting with Eugene from Totopia, we decided that we both wanted to make a beer featuring Dolcita. This is a newer hop on the market that has an intense candied citrus and tropical flavour. With any collab, we like to incorporate something from the other brewery as well, especially if that something pushes us out of our comfort zone. Totopia is known for making quite big impactful beers, with a lot of layers of flavour; subtlety is not something often associated with their beers to say it lightly. We wanted to capture that essence in this beer and really go over the top. When we first sampled this hop it reminded us quite a bit of orange creamsicles we might have had as kids, and so we decided to use that as the inspiration for this IPA. Starting with the malt bill, we layered in base pilsner with oats, 2 types of wheat, and some dextrin malt for some unfermentable sweetness. While Dolcita is the main feature of this beer, we paired It with other citrus forward hops such as Krush, and Southern cross, to add layers of depth to the citrus flavour, while Sabro was added to compliment the creamy texture. Being likened to a candy, we really needed to boost the sweetness in this beer so we added lactose and malt dextrin to ensure the beer had a sweeter flavour with plenty of body. Last but not least, this beer was fermented out with a Pineapple Passion yeast to enhance the bright citrus character some more. Everything about this beer is over the top: hop usage, ingredient amounts, and sugar profiles, all far above what we typically aim for in a beer. We feel this beer really captures some of the essence that makes Totopia special, and it’s always a pleasure to make a new creation with them!