Turning Off Unwanted Flavors: How Berkeley Yeast’s Fresh Strains Create Low Diacetyl IPAs and Lagers
Like most brewers, Danny Priddy has a pretty discerning palate. The director of brewing operations at Riip Beer Company in Huntington Beach, California, is particularly sensitive to diacetyl, an organic compound that, at low concentrations, can mute hop notes in beers like Riip’s aroma-charged IPAs. At high concentrations, diacetyl can add an unwanted buttery note.
How Tropics Strains Are Helping Brewers Create More Aromatic IPAs
J.C. Hill, the cofounder of Alvarado Street Brewery in Monterey, California, wanted to make a hazy IPA that’s welcoming in both flavor and price point; increasing the hopping rate increases a beer’s price tag, and a $24 four-pack is a hard sell to many drinkers. So he built a recipe around Tropics London and three hop varieties that impart flavors evocative of kid-favorite candies including Lifesavers, gummy bears, and peach rings. “They line up super-well with the passion fruit and guava flavors you get from the yeast,” says Hill, who calls Tropics “a game changer.”
How Berkeley Yeast’s Superbloom Builds Highly Drinkable Hoppy Beer
Over the last decade, boom-and-bust cycles have defined the IPA category. Sour IPAs, overly bitter palate wreckers, and bone-dry brut IPAs have mostly disappeared, a dry-hopped gold rush that didn’t quite pan out. Session IPAs also fizzled out, even though the concept seemed like a certain winner. Drop an IPA’s alcohol by volume to a more restrained 4 or 5 percent, keep flavor and aromatics high, and count the profits. Outside of Founders All Day IPA, many session IPAs were too dry and thin to support hop bitterness.
Berkeley Yeast tailored Galactic’s genetics to finish around 3.5 pH, meaning that instead of melting tooth enamel, it can bring fruit to life. (Some fruits like mangoes and strawberries are acidic, so increasing tartness can accentuate the perception of fruit character.) The pleasant acidity produces a palatable sour ale, eliminating the need to blend with a non-sour beer or pop a Tums before taking a sip. Fruit additions will slightly intensify acidity, but the results remain as welcoming as a summery glass of fresh-squeezed lemonade.