Robin Shepard
Pearl Street Brewery of La Crosse has just released Linalool IPA, a new beer that’s memorable not just for its assertive taste, but for the new Wisconsin hops that help create it.
What is it? Linalool IPA from Pearl Street Brewery of La Crosse.
Style: The India Pale Ale (IPA) is all about hops. The aroma and flavor varies with the variety of hops used, but expect herbal, citrus and piney qualities. IPAs are medium-bodied and often golden- to copper-colored. They range from 5.5% to 7.5% ABV.
Background: The beer gets its name, Linalool, from a chemical compound that contributes to the aroma and flavor of hops. The hops that Pearl Street uses to make this beer have an unusually high amount of the substance, over two times what most other hops have. And the hops that Pearl Street uses actually come from wild plants, found a few years ago on a Sun Prairie farm.
Paul Stang and his father discovered them while building a road through a wooded section of their farm; they named them Northern Discovery hops. “As we cut away the trees, we found the hops growing in the middle of the forest,” says Stang. Fortunately, Stang is an avid homebrewer, and his father, Eldon Stang, was a retired UW-Madison horticulture professor (he passed away a few years ago). Stang’s interest in homebrewing led to using the hops to make beer, while his father’s scientific interest in plants led to creating a whole field of them.
“In 2007 we started with 11 plants and a terrace,” says Stang. This year Stang harvested about an acre of his Northern Discovery hops, and next year he expects to have about three acres mature enough to pick. Stang has trademarked the hops with the Northern Discovery brand.
Stang became acquainted with Pearl Street Brewery owner and brewmaster Joe Katchever a couple of years ago through the Wisconsin Hop Exchange, a farmer cooperative that helps growers like Stang process hops and find buyers. Katchever says he was looking for a way to make his IPA stand out, and when he heard the story of Stang’s wild Northern Discovery hops he knew there was a beer that needed to be made with them. “I’ve been itching to brew this beer for years,” says Katchever, who developed and tweaked recipes for over the last two years while he waited for Stang to grow enough hops. A few of his early experimental brews included a hoppy lager and a pale ale, but he says those just needed more hops. The fall release of Linalool also coincides with the annual harvest. “We were waiting for the hops, and as soon as they came in we were ready to go,” says Katchever.
Getting the amount of Northern Discovery hops needed to make the beer year-round is a limiting factor. He estimates that this year’s harvest was enough to make about a half-dozen batches of beer, but not enough to make Linalool a year-round product just yet. “We’ll keep brewing it until we can’t brew it anymore because we run out of hops,” he says. However, there’s a strong likelihood that Linalool will be on store shelves throughout the winter months.
Northern Discovery hops have some of the same citrus tones you find in other hops, along with hints of apricot and orange. However, what’s really different about Northern Discovery hops is that Katchever believes that the high amount of the compound linalool allows this IPA to age well. Aging hoppy beers is generally difficult, and is even discouraged by brewers because hops are perceived at their most flavorful in beer when they are fresh. Katchever and Stang, through their experimental brews using Northern Discovery, feel the hop profile in this beer will stay relatively constant for several months. In their test batches, they also found complementary floral qualities such as lilac and pear, that come out more as the beer matures. Even Katchever says he’s amazed by the shelf-life of the beer, considering its high-linalool hops. “I’ve never dealt with a hop that ages so nicely and interestingly.”
Katchever is so excited about the unique flavors from the Northern Discovery hops that he’s already contracted with Stang for his 2016 and 2017 crops.
While Northern Discovery is the major hop that goes into Pearl Street’s Linalool, it’s not the only one. He won’t say what the other variety is, only that it’s there to fill in the gap. This beer is a showcase for Northern Discovery.
Pearl Street’s Linalool finishes at 6.5% ABV and about 65 IBUS. Linalool is sold in six-packs for around $9.
Tasting notes:
Aroma: An earthy-piney nose, with a hint of citrus-floral fruitiness.
Appearance: Clear, deep copper color and a thick, tan head.
Texture: Medium-bodied, soft and bubbly.
Taste: A solid, earthy-resiny hoppiness that blends very nicely with the citrus hints of orange, pear and apricot. It’s more tropical and juicy than the sharp dry hoppiness of many IPAs.
Finish/Aftertaste: Hop flavor continues with a light lingering dryness.
Glassware: The Willi Becher will gently focus the hops under the nose, while showing off the brilliant copper body.
Pairs well with: This is a good beer to match with spicy foods ranging from Thai to pizza. It also goes well with aged cheddar.
The Verdict: What really caught my attention, even before I knew of the wild hop back-story, was the solid hop aroma. It’s an intriguing blend: piney-resiny, woody, earthy, with orange, pear and apricot notes that draw you in. Its assertive hop character is different from other IPAs; I recommend it for hop lovers. I did find myself looking for that hint of lilac, which is in the background if you concentrate hard enough. But just to confirm what Katchever and Stang claim I’m putting a couple bottles in the back of the refrigerator to see what happens in 3-6 months.
