• June 18, 2017
• Upslope Brewing
• no comments

A Zero-Leaf IPA Using Innovative Hop Products

There’s a significant focus on innovation among craft breweries, which gives them an advantage and added appeal over larger breweries that are more steeped in their ways. New and exciting experimentation keeps our staff on the move and our fans on the edge of their seats to see what’s coming next. We encourage our brewers to attempt new styles and hone tried and true recipes, which is what allows us to tap at least one new beer every week in our Flatiron Park Tap Room. Our compatriots at Odd13 Brewing in Lafayette, CO share this spark and it was only a matter of time before we worked together on something that was bound to be a little out there.

The idea that the team of brewers settled on was to showcase some new hop technology in a brew, rather than just to supplement traditional leaf hops. That meant that one beer would only contain lupulin powder, and the other would use hop oil. It also made sense to make this leaf-less IPA New England style, as the new forms of hops are perfect for the cloudy and fruity style of ale.

Hop Oil and Lupulin Powder

For anyone unfamiliar with the newly emerging lupulin powder, it’s basically powdered hop concentrate. A cryogenic separation process is used to pull the lupulin away from the leaf of hops, which contains resins and aromatic oils. This allows for more intense use of hops without the complications that can arise from a large volume of vegetal material.

Hop oil is also a new product extracted from leaf hops with a similar intention. Basically, the most desirable aspects of a hop are the alpha acids and essential hop oils. This product is produced by extracting both the alpha acids and essential oils to produce a sort of concentrate that only contains what a brewer finds most valuable in a hop flower, similar to lupulin powder.

Mosaic and Simcoe New England IPA

With the introduction of these two new hop products, Upslope and Odd13 decided to make IPAs that exclusively used them for hopping. The oil and powder were both derived from Mosaic and Simcoe hops. Odd13’s Captain Ka-Powder uses exclusively lupulin powder with the malt, water, and yeast. Upslope’s brew is a nearly identical recipe using hop oil in place of the powder, and is simply called the Odd13 Collab Hop Oil IPA in our Tap Rooms.

While both beers have identical grain builds, and the hops used are the same varieties, the two forms of the hops instill different flavors. You’ll have to try both beers yourself to decide what you think and which you prefer, but we found that the powder produced a more resinous flavor and assertively bitter IPA, while the oil resulted in a sweeter beer that accented the malt and fruitiness of the hops. Upslope’s Hop Oil IPA is available on draft at our Tap Rooms and Odd13’s Captain Ka-Powder is available in cans and on draft in their tap room.