Fruits & Flowers

I grew up with a liquorice candy, flavoured with violets and this was one of my favourites. Fifteen years ago I brewed a stout at home and had the idea that I wanted to make it even yummier, by adding candy flavour. At Blue Coast, I tried to recreate this brew, and voilá, that's our Purple Haze, one of the four new beers that we decided to put in cans. It's a full bodied stout with a little higher level of alcohol (5,8%) than a traditional Dry Irish Stout, to add some sweetness (without the beer being cloying) and balance the candy aromas/flavours from the violet. I don't think you have ever tried a similar beer before, so please do!

Another new beer that we have put in cans is the Barbe Rouge. It's brewed with lots of hibiscus flowers added to the boil; which I was inspired to use after living in Bangkok, where hibiscus tea is common, and something I drank often. Boiling the hibiscus, like you boil hops, gave the wort a pinkish tint but we wanted a red beer! In the mash I used CaraRed, which is a crystal/caramel malt that also gives a red hue to the final beer, but most of the red colour comes from the addition of 60 kilos of cranberry purée into the fermenter! So, the name then? Well, the hops that we used is a French variety, and it's called Barbe Rouge, so we thought it was a name fit for a red beard, sorry, beer!

As many of you already know, we have an IPA (India Pale Ale) in our core range; it was, together with the Blonde, the first beer we brewed and launched, as this is a MUST for every craft brewery worth the name. To some people, who are new to the style, it might be too bitter, because of the high hopping rate, but most people's taste buds adapt and the connaisseurs get addicted and demand even higher bitterness. This is where the Double IPA (DIPA) comes into the picture! It's not, as the name implies, double of everything but the alcohol level is higher and the bitterness can be out of this world (over 100 IBU), leaving your mouth coated with a lingering hop taste, which is why I always suggest to try a DIPA last in a beer tasting, as it will overpower everything you drink after it. Our Honey DIPA is not that "in your face", but more moderate in the bitterness, at 75 IBU (our regular IPA has 50 IBU) and with a rounded softness from the local honey, that we used a fair amount of!

The other new IPA in our range is a "New England India Pale Ale" or "Hazy IPA"; we simply call it NEIPA. This style gets its soft and rounded character from the use of wheat and oats in the mash and the use of crazy amounts of hops! However, most of the hops are not boiled but instead, three different hops (Azacca, Citra and Galaxy) are added to the fermenter, so called "dry-hopping", which keeps the bitterness at moderate levels, but you get all the citrusy and tropical fruitiness that these hop varieties provide. Using this amount of hops is not cheap, but there are no shortcuts when it comes to creating a tasty beer!

Cheers!

Robert Bush

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