A meeting of the Craft-Beer Minds
Imagine for a second that our beloved Cream Ale Acres & Acres and our flagship West Coast IPA Sea Change had a little beer baby. That offspring would taste very much like our new experimental IPA, Radiant City.
Cold-conditioned, this brew is a shining example of the emerging India Pale Lager (IPL) style. These beers are generally clearer in color and more crushable than other types of IPAs.
IT’S A COLD, COLD WORLD
India Pale Ales have undoubtedly lifted the craft beer genre to new heights. It is the most sought-after style, only second to lagers. Lagers still reign supreme in their general approachability, and they are very consistently produced by breweries. Although only in the early stages of existence, IPLs represent the best of both worlds– marrying the hop-centric complexity of an IPA with the crisp, clean drinkability of a lager.
A “Cold” IPA is made with lager-style adjuncts, like corn or rice. In this case, our brewers used Cumberland Corn Malt (yellow corn). A cold-conditioned beer is fermented at colder temperatures, similar to a Kolsch style. Radiant City is especially unique in that our brewers used only experimental hops in its creation. Yakima Chief Hops, one of the biggest hop producers in the country, sent our brewers their newest products to play around with. The primary hop they used is HBC 586– only a year old, and the 586th hop developed by Yakima. They dry hopped with Cryo Pop, a proprietary blend. Big, fruity hop aromatics prevail.
A Cold IPA is fermented with lager yeast, which accentuates the hop character and pushes malt flavors (rich, nutty, almost desserty) backwards. The use of corn as an adjunct also contributes to lightness of color and body– ultimately, the overall drinkability. Radiant City is undeniably the most accessible, easy-drinking IPA to grace our draft line.
This particular experimental gem shares its name with an ambient, beautiful Robin Guthrie (formerly of Cocteau Twins) tune. It’s also an appropriate nod to the soon-to-be radiance of the season set to encompass our lovely city.
