Alpha Experiment #291
Country Boy Brewing

 

 

 

 

 

And with new hop varieties hitting the brewer's cabinet seemingly every day, the Country Boys has a series of beer's built for the discovery of these hop's secret characteristics. Alpha Experiment #291 is fresh enough not yet to be named, however its taste is both unique and familiar.

With lighter impressions, its faint caramel, crust and honey taste gives the malt a sweet grain flavor with subtle bread support- a perfect springboard for fruity, tangy and herbal hop flavors to bounce. As notions of lemon, pepper and leaf waft about, early impressions a mildly of white wine and gin.

As the bready sweet infrastructure dissolves, the hops gain steam- refreshing the middle with tangy lemon, verbena, tea leaf, and under-ripened citrus. As its berry-like juniper flavor brings about crushed pinecone, white wine, and fresh-cut grass, its fruity upstarts begins to trend bitter.

And those bitter tendencies continue with something just shy of resin. Its stemmy, leafy and spicy bitterness overshadows the beer's drying malts with ease and refreshes the palate with ease. Returning with red currant and gooseberry in a quick aftertaste.

Meant as a lesson learned in new hops, the IPA catagory works best to demonstrate these hop's uniqueness best. But much like Sorachi Ace and Nelson Sauvin type hops, #291 is likely best suited for Belgian golden ale or German pilsners; or perhaps in tandem with other more citrus and tropical forward hops in American pale styles.