The Brut IPA

There's no mistake that IPAs dominate the current beer climate when it comes to styles. From West Coast hop bombs to juicy North Easterns, the category spans a vast variety and no style has been more innovative.

Now, thanks to Kim Sturdavant, the brewmaster at Social Kitchen & Brewery in San Francisco, IPAs are getting another makeover. The Brut IPA, a champagne-inspired India Pale Ale that is bubbly, bone-dry, refreshing and highly crushable!

This unique beer and its dryness is achieved by the unconventional use of an amylase enzyme, which most breweries use to lighten up the body of a heavy stout or porter without watering the alcohol down. Instead, used with light malts and on occasion, flaked rice or corn, this enzyme helps the yeast fully break down any remaining sugars left after the brewing process. This technique mixed with a solid post-boil dry hopping is what results in a low bitterness while still complimenting the hop aroma and contributing to the champagne-like mouthfeel. 

“They’re inevitably going to be really refreshing to drink and probably easy to drink more of. When you drink a brut IPA, you look down and your glass is already half gone. It’s kind of the refreshing sparkling wine elements in a beer form. It’s easy to drink and also, the balance is different because it’s all about the hops.” - Kim Sturdavant

It will be interesting to watch the beginning of what could soon become a recognized style from the Brewers Association and whether the style is as sought-after as the Hazy New England's or it becomes another niche. What we do know is that here at MadeWest we're really excited about the Brut IPA and we wanted to take a stab at it ourselves...

Introducing Effervescent! A Brut IPA hopped with Mosaic and Simcoe that is bursting with notes of pine, passion fruit, and citrus. This champagne-like character is refreshing, bubbly and highly drinkable.