A sharp, tropical, and highly aromatic Belgian IPA
[Character]
This Belgian IPA soured with Lactobacillus is pale in color, has low bitterness and an array of tropical and citrus hop flavors, along with a tart dry finish thanks to the Belgian yeast esters and the lactobacillus.
[Food Pairing]
Sharp and spicy foods, as well as fruity and cheese-based desserts.
・Grilled shellfish with lime or lemon
・Salad with mango and pineapple
・Rare cheesecake
[Naming]
The name of this beer is inspired by an old Chinese tale, but the overriding image is that of a dream of being a butterfly, floating around with all the lighthearted freedom in the world. We thought this made a somewhat fitting metaphor for the lactobacillus, the souring bacteria that we let loose in our tank, doing their work on the beer.
[Brewer's Voice]
This is a beer that has caused us a fair bit of worry since its inception. For any collaboration we work together and look to incorporate the partner brewery’s trademark or an element of their character into our beer. This can be anything from ingredients they use well, yeast varieties they are known for, or processes that we have never tried. When talking with Vertere, a brewery known for doing a lot of souring using the Lactobacillus bacteria strain, we wanted to go along with this. The challenge, though, was that unlike the "kettle souring" that we have done in the past, where you eventually boil the bacteria before transferring to a fermenter, Vertere puts this straight into their tanks. While the character of this Lactobacillus Brevis is great, it also has the potential to infect your brewery, making other beers sour as well! We had to isolate and meticulously clean everything and anything that interacted with this tank to prevent even 1 cell from making its way over to its neighboring tanks potentially spoiling all our other beers, and also to rely on our QC lab to a whole extra degree to ensure everything was clean and there was no chance of cross contamination.
These stress inducing factors aside, onto the beer!
The base beer is a wheat and oat-heavy Belgian IPA, and for the hops, we discussed together and decided to focus on the dual impact punch of tropical/citrus of Citra, and passionfruit/citrus of Eggers' Riwaka. As a differentiator, both sides then looked into our respective US Indie Hops (a small, independent hop company) goodie bag. KBC settled on Luminosa for its peach-mango lemonade profile and Vertere went with Lórien and its tangy fresh-fruit character. Lastly, KBC snuck in some Simcoe for further citrus layering to meld with the lactobacillus fruit acidic flavors.
The bitterness was kept low, and the Belgian yeast esters blend right in with the tropical fruit and citrus aromas from the hops and Lactobacillus. The result is a truly one-of-its-kind IPA for Kyoto Brewing, made with plenty of love and sweat (and stress)!
Style
Sour Belgian IPA
Series
Nakama
ABV
7.5%
IBU
5
Gas Volume
2.65
Category
Beer
JAN
4589718742458
Shipping Start
2025/03/18
About shipping dates
Please note that, when multiple items are ordered together, they will be shipped out after the shipping start date of the latest product in the order.
Best Before
2025/09/14
