GENEVA, IL – Penrose Brewing is excited to celebrate #HopHypeWeek throughout the week of October 16th, showcasing the numerous experimental and groundbreaking ingredients from Yakima Chief Hops being used in upcoming releases.
“As the summer turns to fall and leaves begin to fall from the trees, we’re getting super geeked at the brewery over some groundbreaking hop innovations. As most craft beer die-hards know, hops are known as the soul of beer and they can provide a wide array of aromas from fruity, and floral to grassy and woody,” Penrose Brewing Co-Founder and Head Brewer Tom Korder said.
Geneva’s Finest – Wet Hopped Saison – YCH 301 Trial – Fresh Frozen Hop Cryo Hops®
Brewed up in collaboration with fellow Geneva, Illinois brewery, Art History Brewing, ‘Geneva’s Finest’ features a ground-breaking product, YCH 301 Trial – Fresh Frozen Hop Cryo Hops®. YCH 301 Trial is part of the Yakima Chief Hops Elite Product Trial program. It combines the groundbreaking concept of Frozen Fresh Hops and the innovative technology of Cryo Hops® to pioneer a new way to brew fresh hop ales with a pelletized product. In past brewing traditions, brewers used Wet Hops once per year during the harvest time in the hop fields. These hops are picked from the field and immediately sent to a brewery for use in a beer, generally within 24-48 hours of being picked and bypass a drying step to reduce the moisture in them and maintain their freshness. They’re unbelievably delicate at this point and contain so much moisture, you have to use almost 6x more to receive the same effect on the final beer. Due to recent advancements, YCH is experimenting with Cryo® freezing and pelletizing wet hops to maximize the usage window. The breweries are able to store them longer, get intensified flavor and use them with standard dry-hopping methods. Penrose altered the brewhouse process and used the Lauter Tun as a makeshift Hop Back or straining vessel. The wet-hopped saison is brewed with Pilsner, wheat and Munich malt to make up this autumnal saison inspired by harvest season in the hop fields. You’ll notice a Dank, green resin with a typical saison dryness.
Geneva’s Finest was brewed for release at Hops for Hope run benefitting Project Mobility earlier in October at Mount St. Mary’s Park in St. Charles. It is currently available on draft in the Penrose and Art History Taprooms.
Phantasy East & Phantasy West – IPAs
Brewed up in collaboration with More Brewing, from Villa Park/Huntley, Illinois, the ambitious goal was to make a beer so fully saturated with tropical aromas that it surpassed what either brewery has been able to achieve before. Craft breweries strived for the aroma limit in Hazy IPA styles over the last few years, but the two breweries wanted to make a clear IPA that could stand up to the best of them. An aroma compound called Thiols, a sulfur based compound that kicks off mango, passion fruit and papaya aromas was the target and the two beers have an out of this world aroma.
Phantasy East – Hazy Double IPA with YCH 303 Trial – Cryo Hops® x Phantasm Blend & HBC 586
YCH 303 Trial is a combination of concentrated lupulin from the Cryo Hops® process and Phantasm that has been blended to create one co-pelleted hop product. The blend of hop varieties include Citra®, Simcoe® and Mosaic® brand hops. This co-pelleted product was designed to leverage the high degree of “survivable” compounds presented in both Cryo Hops® brand pellets and Phantasm and synergize the aroma benefits of these two powerful products in one dose. Via the research done by both Yakima Chief Hops and Phantasm, their teams believe they’ve created a highly-effective pellet which delivers massive amounts of beer-soluble aromatic compounds. Once released these Sulfur-based compounds can be described as intense tropical fruit characters typically found in New Zealand white wines. Precursors to Thiols can be found in malt and hops but also in a concentrated form in pressed grape skins. The new product mentioned, Phantasm comes out of New Zealand is derived from Sauvignon Blanc Grapes and blended with Cryo® hop varieties at the hop processor for a supercharge of Thiol precursors. Also included is HBC 586, an aroma hop known for a large medley of fruit aromas including mango and citrus as well as herbal notes, especially when used for whirlpool and dry hopping additions.The haze matrix of a Hazy IPA is the perfect carrier for these hop aroma compounds. Cram that together with Experimental and Cryo Hops® and it’s a candied pineapple / dried gooseberry / lychee juice medley that Penrose and More are exuberantly excited about.
Phantasy West – Clear Double IPA brewed with Motueka, NZ Revolution Hop Blend and Star Party Thiolized yeast & HBC 586
The secret key to the West style is to unlock these thiol precursor compounds using a unique yeast strain from Omega yeast. This engineered yeast can take the precursors found in hops (and even malt) and shift them into the ultra aromatic fruity tones. Mash hopping with traditional varieties and dry hopping with Southern Hemisphere hops highlight that thiol note and even though it sounds weird, it smells like an exotic cup of fruit sorbet. Phantasy West also features HBC 586 to help powerize the fruit aromas.
Local artist Shannon Conway created the artwork for the two different Phantasy can designs. The illustrations tell the story of the two brewers competing for tropical aroma supremacy.
Phantasy East and West IPAs release on October 28 in the Penrose Taproom and will be available at your local retailers, bars and restaurants the following week.
Snow Boots – Hazy Winter IPA – YCH 602 Trial Blend & Cryo® Citra
The Midwest winter weather is about to turn frightful but this beer is so delightful. Juicy, super ripe, dripping mango aromas with a sticky Citrus base all pile onto the accumulation of hop aroma. Returning to the Penrose holiday season lineup in 2022, Snow Boots features Cryo® hops from YCH that are a way of intensifying the hop components that contain the good hop aromas that we’re trying to pack into our beer. As the processor breaks down these hop pellets, they’re able to measure and blend to hit certain flavor targets. This particular blend focuses on a Mango profile.
Snow Boots arrives in the Penrose Taproom on Wednesday, November 9, in coordination with the release of Penrose’s 2022 Barrel-Aged offerings and a pick-up day for the Lodi Advent Calendar.
“We can’t wait to share all of these latest advancements in the hop industry with the Penrose community. We always aim to provide new and exciting releases to Penrose Brewing drinkers statewide, and beyond,” Korder concluded.
