Scratch Beer 133 - 2014 (India Pale Lager)
Tröegs Brewing Company

Scratch #133 represents our first-ever IPL (India Pale Lager), a relatively new hybrid beer style combining lager yeast and cold fermentation with an assertive hop bill. We begin with a Helles Lager base using our house lager yeast strain, which represents the “Lager” characteristics of the beer – crisp body and mouthfeel with a sturdy malt backbone. The “India Pale” traits are a result of the copious amount of hops used in the recipe. Nugget hops, a tried and true variety used frequently at Tröegs, provide the green, leafy bitterness found in Scratch #133. We then dry hopped the finished beer twice – first with Summer hops, a new hybrid variety from New Zealand, and then with El Dorado, an extremely versatile and complex variety. The result is a Scratch Beer that combines the best of both worlds and poses the question: “Do you want more hops in your lager?” Answer: “Daaamn right!”