TORONTO, ON – Beer Academy has announced the release today (July 8th) of a new seasonal IPA, as well as the start of a competition between two other IPAs to see which will become – or remain – part of the brewery’s core line-up.
The new seasonal release is Summer Harvest IPA, a 5.8% abv and 50 IBU ale described as “a clean IPA brewed with pure grapefruit juice and lots of cascade hops (that) shows off grapefruit very well.” Summer Harvest IPA will be available starting today on draught in the Beer Academy taproom to drink on site or to take home in 1 litre “growlettes”.
Also launching today is the Beer Academy IPA Faceoff, which pits the brewery’s current IPA – code-named “Alpha” for the competition – against a new “Beta” IPA to find out which one is preferred by patrons. The beers are described by brewmaster Stephen Rich as follows:
The original IPA (Alpha) is a balance of malt and hops in an IPA that shares both English and American traits, i.e. solid malt backbone, with citrus and tropical hops balanced alongside. IPA Beta is an American-Style IPA, the same style that was primarily responsible for leading the Craft Beer boom, and is still the highest selling craft beer style in the US. It’s got just enough malt character to support the hops which show big citrus, grapefruit and lemon zest, and are very aromatic. This new balance leans much more heavily to the hops. The beer is also drier (less sweet), but not more bitter. So it ends up being a more refreshing IPA.
Samples and snifters of both Alpha and Beta will be available at Beer Academy until July 18th, and those who try both can pick their favourite via ballots and various social media channels. Whichever of the two comes out on top will be kept as the official Beer Academy IPA recipe going forward.