From the Beer Writer: Wet hop season is not yet fully upon us, but as of last week, a quality wet hop beer is already available at a local brewery. Thunderhawk Alements recently released a classic West Coast number called Clean Slate IPA. That 6.3% alcohol-by-volume throwback tastes like a subdued trip back in time to the late-nineties when IPAs had extremely earthy, foresty flavors and substantial malt backbone to support them. Clean Slate’s aromas of pine, dry grass and orange rind segue nicely to flavors of grapefruit pith, lemon rind, pine resin and an herbaceous note that reminds me of Angostura bitters. It has all the classic components of an old-time IPA but is less bitter, more balanced and goes down easier than the semisweet, high-IBU West Coast hop-bombs of yore. It even has a cool origin story rife with name drops…
From the Brewer: “Clean Break IPA emerged from a failed five-gallon test batch. Burning Beard Brewing has been hosting quarterly homebrew sessions and me and Brian Scanlon from Nickel Beer Co. have brewed four beers together at those events. One of those didn’t come out, because I broke the carboy full of wort and we lost the batch. Shannon Lynette from Burning Beard was kind enough to Crowler my eight-ounce sample and labeled it ‘Clean Break IPA’. I told Brian we could make a two-barrel batch at our spot. When we finally got around to it, we were lucky enough to get a few pounds of Cascade wet hops from our friend Solo Salsido at Hopmentation Farms. Our IPA represents an old-school, piney, resinous, malt-balanced IPA with medium crystal malts and classic ‘C’ hops, including The 7C’s blend and fresh Cascade.”—Bill Lindsey, Head Brewer, Thunderhawk Alements
