Published May 13, 2021
It’s a big week here at GLB. We are releasing two IPAs TODAY – Continental Rift – 1 West Coast, 1 East Coast – featuring Cryo Pop™ Original Blend, a new innovation from our friends at Yakima Chief Hops (YCH) in Yakima, Washington.
Our staff are excited about these beers, and had a lot of questions, so we posed them to Mike Lackey, Brewing Operations Manager.
Both beers go live TODAY at 4pm. You’ll be able to scoop some up through the GLB online shop and/or retail store. Pricing – $3.50 each, $78.00 case.
GLB: Continental Rift – an East Coast IPA and a West Coast IPA featuring Cryo Pop™ Original Blend. What can you tell us about these beers?
LACKEY: I can tell you that we’re very excited to launch these two IPAs. We’re humbled that Yakima Chief Hops (YCH) asked us to participate in the roll out of their exciting innovation. Obviously, they are two different IPAs, as you’ve asked, West Coast (American style) and East Coast (New England). The yeast profiles, malt bills and hop schedules are different, so it’ll be fun to try them side by side. In effect they are single hop brews for us. But of course, YCH has done some legwork to mix up some of their heavy hitters to achieve this product that brewers can use in their arsenal.
GLB: You and the brewing team have worked closely with YCH on these beers. Tell us about that experience.
LACKEY: “Closely” would not be the best way to describe this process (with the “lockdown”), but yes, we have a great relationship with them. We’ve been chatting throughout the process – brewing, label creation, and, you know, sciencey stuff. 90% of the hops we use here at GLB come from YCH because we love what they are doing. We have a healthy trust in one another as well. They do a great job allowing a relatively small company like us to select hops annually and try out new shit like this.
GLB: Cryo Pop™ Original Blend – what’s the deal with these hops?
LACKEY: As mentioned, this is new for them and us. We’re the only Ontario brewery to get this blend, at this time, to play with. It’s a cool initiative from YCH and as you’ll see below, YCH has blended some of their best hops, targeting aroma and flavour efficiencies, and thus reduced brewing weight for us by 50%. Cryo Pop shows off massive tropical, stone fruit and citrus aromas – bright, juicy, fruit forward hop characters that we love using in our beers.
“The whole idea is that we’re taking what we now know are impactful components… and looking at 40 million pounds (harvest bales) and asking ourselves, ‘of all these bales, which ones are going to create the highest component concentrations and most impactful synergies?’ You could say that we’ve frankensteined a super pellet to make flavours POP in beer.”
Spencer Tielkemeier, YCH Brewing Innovations Lead
GLB: Why did we decide to brew two different styles of IPA?
LACKEY: The team wanted to see how Cryo Pop would work with both styles. The West Coast version is pale golden in colour and pretty clear, while the East Coast is everything you’d expect in a hazy, juicy IPA. Obviously both beers feature their own unique to the style yeast strains, so experimenting with the hop blend was top of mind. We wanted to see how the different yeasts played off the hop blend and we are very curious to hear the feedback from customers. We think the blend works extremely well with both styles.
GLB: Back to the Cryo Pop blend – what were you and the brewing team looking for in these hops?
LACKEY: Firstly, we are always excited to see a new hop come into the brewery – it’s just like Christmas morning. We were expecting a punchy blend of some of the best things coming from Yakima – Pineapple, Grapefruit, Coconut, Pine – and that’s what we got. All these are showcased very well in both beers.
GLB: As you mentioned, YCH approached GLB to brew with this exciting hop blend. That’s pretty cool, eh!
LACKEY: Yup. YCH is one of the biggest and surely the most innovative hop suppliers, globally, so when they reached out to ask us to participate, we were tickled pink. Also, thanks to our rep Luc Beaulieu* who helped make us the only Ontario brewery to participate in this launch.
GLB: Want to do a live tasting on Instagram this Friday at 12:30pm?
LACKEY: Sure. Let’s do it. That means I can drink some beers with Luc? As long as we’re both not on our bikes, I’m in. (GET DETAILS BELOW)
*Luc is incidentally one of Quebec’s top amateur cyclists.
TASTING NOTES
WEST COAST
6.5% – 70 IBUs
A clear bodied pale golden IPA? What have we done? Once you get past the lovely, springy, bouncy, dense white head, your nostrils will pick up huge notes of juicy grapefruit, passionfruit, skinned peach and ripe mango, thanks to the generous amount of ‘super pellet hops’, Cryo Pop. Pineapple, grapefruit and very subtle pine are the stars upon each sip. The dry, bitter finish brings out some of that wonderful pine we love so dear along with 70 bittering units to boot. If you’re looking for old school, so cool, west coast fuel from GLB, like our IPAs of yesteryears, we got ya with this one.
EAST COAST
6.5% – 20 IBUs
Unlike the West Coast version, this New England IPA is as hazy as all get out! Light yellow in colour with a fluffy white chapeau, aromas of peach, pineapple and freshly zested orange pop from the glass. The soft bodied, creamy IPA offers up flavours of more pineapple, strawberry, mango and evergreen. It’s juicy. Juicy as heck. It’s bright and light, and frankly, quite crushable, even at 6.5%. At 20 IBU, the tropical aromas and flavours are the highlights of this party.
