When brewing a collaboration with anyone, we like to take inspiration from what they already do well and incorporate that into our brew to ensure we have some of their character in the beer. So when it came to West Coast Brewing, we decided this time to lean into that idea heavily, and went for what they are really known for. Yes, we decided to brew an 8% Hazy Double IPA! In keeping with their flavour, we used a blend of malts and sugars to boost the ABV and ensure this beer was loaded with body.
Being a collaboration, one other element we wanted to bring to the fore was the hop selection. We travel yearly together to try and select the best hops for our breweries, and one of our favourite suppliers on our trip to Yakima Valley and Portland has been Indie Hops. Since we are making one beer on our side and one beer over at West Coast, we wanted to make sure the beers wouldn’t turn out too similar, and so we restricted ourselves to Indie hops plus one “wildcard”.
We did this partly because we knew we would both be using Strata and Luminosa, with these varieties being two of our favourite Indie hops both here and at West Coast!
This beer has a high amount of malt dextrin giving it plenty of body and sweetness. As mentioned, we used a heavy amount of Strata and Luminosa late in the boil for aroma, with a touch of Azacca hops as a differentiator. We thought Azacca’s resinous tropical fruit character would pair well with the berry fruit characteristics of the other two hop varieties. A nearly equal blend of these hops were used in the dry hop, making sure we used the huge amounts needed to ensure that we satisfy the greatest of hop lovers. Fermented out with a hazy London Ale strain, this beer is surprisingly easy to drink despite its ABV and intense hop character. Inspired by WCB, and refined by KBC, this collaboration is a delicious treat for fans of big IPAs.