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France, and its Love for Craft Beer.

While mainly known for wine, France is also the beating heart of craft beer.  Taking inspiration from the USA, the French brewers are creating some of the best beers on the planet.  All these amazing brewers and beers come together every year for the Lyon Beer Festival.  Held in April, and in its 7th year, the Lyon Beer Festival brings together 110 breweries, and thousands of beer lovers. This year’s theme is West Coast IPA and lager.

Crisp Malt and BrewWorks are a big supporter of the festival and we have teamed up with Yakima Chief Hops and White Labs to brew an amazing West Coast IPA with the ‘Godmother Brewer’, Hoppy Road. Born in 2016, in Nancy, by three enthusiastic homebrewers, Hoppy Place has come on strengths throughout the years and now stands proudly with a team of eight, offering a wide choice of beers, where quality and creativity are the focus.

A classic West Coast IPA deserves the best malt any brewer could wish for – North Norfolk grown, and Crisp Malted, Maris Otter. Paired with Torrefied Wheat and Cara Gold, this simple grist will be the perfect combination for Hoppy Road’s West Coast IPA. The Maris Otter Malt brings wonderful notes of baked bread and toffee, while giving a fuller flavour to balance out the West Coast IPA bitterness. The Torrefied Wheat will promote head retention and improve mouthfeel, while the Cara Gold is the icing on the cake, adding fruity aromas helping those hops shine.  Sometimes simplicity is the key.

In the brewery, the team enjoyed the easy open bags and were impressed with the overall appearance of the Crisp malts. They just looked nice. When the mash was transferred to the lauter tun, the brewhouse was filled with aromas only Maris Otter can produce.  The wort was bright and filtration was fast and uneventful. Maris Otter is just easy to brew with, and the increased efficiency allowed the brewers to yield an extra 200 litres of wort.

The Crisp malts are paired with classic ‘C’ hops supplied by Yakima Chief Hops, with three pellet additions before the wort was cooled back to 75oC and the new liquid hop trial added.

The wort will be fermented with three different yeasts, all supplied by White Labs and all bringing different attributes to the fermentation to add to the flavour and aroma.

mikeb
Posted by
Mike Benson
on 09/04/24

About Me

Mike is the sales manager for Wales and the West of England and is located in Wigan.

You can read my bio by clicking the button below

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A massive thank you to Julian, Charles and the team for putting up with me during the day. This awesome West Coast IPA beer will be served at Lyon Beer Festival, so be sure to have a taste if you’re going! Our other Technical Sales Manager, Sarah, will be also be attending the festival and will be presenting on one of the days, so be sure not to miss her!

À bientôt!

mikeb
Posted by
Mike Benson
on 09/04/24

About Me

Mike is the sales manager for Wales and the West of England and is located in Wigan.

You can read my bio by clicking the button below

Read Me
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