Sierra Nevada & Bitburger to release Triple Hop'd Lager

Does it matter if it supports your original presumption (meaning, you actually won the bet 'cause 30 IBU is lower than SNPA or Hoponius' IBUs)?

 

I will certainly be looking for this one down here in Florida.

 

The US keg collar for the beer lists the use of "hop extract" in addition to "hops". Not a particularly Sierra-Nevada-ish ingredient, considering they have long promoted their use of whole dried hops. (IIRC they're the largest user of whole hops). Perhaps Bitburger's proprietary and unique hop blend "Siegelhopfen" is a hop extract?

 

The European label for Bitburger lists both hops and hop extract (in that order). I think it is more likely that their Siegelhopfen are used as pellet hops late boil (or potentially in the whirlpool), and that the extract is used simply for bittering.

 

Reading some on their website they note that their Siegel/seal hops come from both the Hallertau and from the area around Bitburg. They also note that "their" raw hops are turned into either pellets or extract. It's unclear to me whether they consider the Siegelhopfen to be separate from the hops that are turned into extracts or if all their hops are Siegelhopfen, regardless of the final form of the hops. One would imagine that varieties like Magnum, Herkules or Zeus make up the extract hops for maximum alpha production, while something like Hallertauer Tradition with a normal alpha acid content make up the pellet hops (or something like Perle which is a bit higher in alpha acids but is also used as a aroma hop) .

I found an online article from the German hop growers association, Deutscher Hopfen, about the Bitburger gruppe and on the last page they note of the hops used:

 

Did the Jacks Abby German Porter come in a 6 pack format? The keller series last year was sold in 4 packs. I'm hoping they upped it.

 

My thoughts exactly.

 

6 pack of 16oz cans for $11 something.
It's very good. A little on the dry side and a nice alternative to a Baltic.

 

Should we expect Gambling Advocate to go on-line soon? You're on a roll!

 

Maybe!?!

Cheers!

 

I'd like to try this because of how much I like both breweries, but I doubt it will make into the OKC area. I just went to 3 liquor stores looking for a 6pk or 12pk of Torpedo cans, and none of them had it. I got asked at two of them if Torpedo was a seasonal, and the last one said they hadn't carried it in months due to people buying local. That's all well and good, but the local equivalents are worse than Torpedo and more expensive.

 

I got the collaboration Oktoberfest Sierra Nevada and Bitburger, but this, I doubt that I will see.

 

While the furor over the looming 100% tariff on alcohol imported from Europe has subsided a bit (and may now hover closer to 25%), and was generally thought to apply mostly to wine, beer could also be impacted. Germany specifically. Any alcohol content below 14% specifically. Wonder how that would apply to collaborations such as this? Just as producers need to have a plan to react to curveballs from different sources, they also need one to react to interventions from governments. All that bulls*** aside, I'm definitely looking to trying this one!

 

Oh yeah for sure it will be more $ wouldn't be surprised to see it double that. Marketing = Perceived value.

 

I've been disappointed so many times by these collabs. That being said that Festbier collab was one of the best I tried from memory last year. I get the feeling this may turn out to be an India Pale Lager, which I would be fine to try. What would be outstanding though is if they keep the hops subtle and focus more on the malts and Lager like qualities. That would be a winner. we shall see...

 

I personally would prefer the 'second option' (i.e., more malt/lager like) but I will be happy either way (as long it is reasonably priced).

Cheers!

 

Another beer I’ll never see here, but it looks like a cool twist.

 

It doesn't seem particularly unlike Sierra Nevada to me actually. Do they still brew Hop Hunter? That one used steam distilled hop oils. A CO2 hop extract is more similar to whole hops than steam distilled oils are. I wasn't present for this speech, but a friend of mine was at a presentation that Ken Grossman did a few years ago and according to my friend, Grossman said that if pellet technology was as good 30 years ago as it is now, they would have used pellets instead of whole hops. Personally, I think of hop extract as being far superior for bittering qualities than pellets or leaf hops. I was using Bravo hop extract for a long time to create a bitterness that didn't linger in beers at my last brewery. I don't use bittering hops enough anymore to have it made these days, but I'm thinking I'll place an order for 10 cans or so which is probably enough for a year's supply for me.

 

Yeah, their website says it is (but I'm sure a survey of BA's would turn up lots of "haven't seen it fresh in a long time" replies). But, in that case they were steam distilling "fresh/wet" hops in an attempt to be able to offer a year-round "fresh/wet hop" flavored IPA, rather than using oil or extract to replace standard whole flower dried hops. (I don't think SN ever recognized that the same concept was used in the late 1950s by Blatz Brewing Co. for their Tempo Beer - advertised as "The first beer ever brewed with Fresh Hops not dried hops" using a typical solvent extraction process.)

Hmmm... that is interesting, given SN's emphasis on "whole flower hops". Seems like it would be easy enough and not too controversial to move to pellets for much of their products (say, keeping SNPA, Celebration and Bigfoot whole-hopped). That's what AB (pre-InBev) apparently did for Budweiser, while one assumes the rest of the portfolio - cheaper beers like Busch family, malt liquors, etc. - were likely converted to pellets/extract over the decades.

From what I've read in industry publications, pelletized hops (circa 1970s) were seen as an improvement over the extracts that had been available up until that period, but even extracts had improved and its use had increased right before pellets hit the market. (Having "grown up" in the beer scene of '60s and '70s, I'm still a bit taken aback when "craft" brewers display pellets in their promotional material. )