The birth of a new beer style is a rare thing. Most are developed over centuries. You can count on two hands the number of new styles since the influential beer writer Michael Jackson developed the first taxonomy of suds in 1977.
So the advent of Brut IPA is a special thing.
The bone-dry, pale yellow and extra bubby style was created last year by Kim Sturdavant of Social Kitchen & Brewery in San Francisco. Following the rise of the juicy, hazy IPAs from New England, Sturdavant wanted to take the traditionally clear, dry and hoppy West Coast IPA to its logical extreme.
A few local versions have popped up in the last year, but the one to try is Cashmere Lightening at the brand-new City Barrel Brewing in the Crossroads.
Like other Brut IPAs, this recipe employs an enzyme called amylase, which aggressively breaks down sugars so they can be consumed by yeast and turned into booze. This is the enzyme used to make beers like Bud Light, which are lower in calories because they have less residual sugar than a traditional lager.
When you dump the enzyme into a hoppy craft IPA, you end up with a pale, ultra-crisp and intensely hoppy brew. City Barrel added the enzyme to its fermenter and allowed it to work until it’d gobbled up every last drop of sugar — the beer finished at zero gravity.
City Barrel used cashmere, a new breed of hop that’s prized for its extreme smoothness and clean tropical bitterness, plus a light sprinkling of citra. The end result is a Sahara dry 6.5 percent ABV beer. As the torrent of fizz flows, you’re treated to a truckload of citrus and a refreshing smattering of floral and herbal notes.
