On Sunday March 28th  we’ll be tapping the first of 5 firkins of  Yakima Red, each dry-hopped with a different variety of American hops. Each firkin will be immediately followed by the next until we work our way through all five.  It will be a great opportunity to see exactly what each variety tastes like in a beer.

We were casking off our Yakima Red last week and I told Jeff to dry hop the firkins with whatever American variety he wanted.  He almost immediately replied “Can I do them all different?”  Thus was born the first anual Study in Hops.  Yakima Red by the way is nothing more than cask-conditioned, dry-hopped Irish Red.  Any cask beer at Iron Hill has a mother batch that we pull a few firkins from before filtering the rest, carbonating it in the tank and putting it on tap.  Usually though, we dry hop the firkins in a similar manner to what we do to the rest of the mother batch.  The Irish Red, however doesn’t get any dry hops.  It’s a balanced beer but definitely leans toward the malty side.  The Yakima however is all about hops, American hops, and lots of them.  We’re not trying to fool anyone by naming the beer something different, but once you add all of those American hops it becomes a new beer, and one you can not call an Irish Red by any stretch.  Hence the alias.

Back to the Study.  Each firkin got 120 grams of a different variety of American hops; Cascade, Chinook, Centennial, Columbus and Amarillo.  Once I tap the first one I’ll do my best to ensure that the next firkin is always on deck and ready for the current one to kick.  That way when one kicks we’ll switch right over to the next variety.  If you’re lucky enough to be in the restaurant when that happens you may be able to get two different varieties in front of you at once and compare them side-by-side.  If not, you’ll just have to come in the next day and compare from memory.

This idea is not a new one.  It smacks of the now-retired Sly Fox IPA project.  That was something I thorougly enjoyed as a beer drinker and considered a part of my education as a brewer.  I’m excited to do something similar here.  I’ll give you specifics on what time we’ll be tapping that first firkin and on what variety it will be, closer to the 28th.

Cheers,

Chris