Tuesday, January 04, 2011

US Versus Them x Cthulhu Brewing (IPA)

Add this to the list of unexpected colloborations that I am excited about - the fella's from Temecula, UVT, hooked up with Cthulhu Brewing on not only the beer, but the label itself. Details below via UVT.

Matt and Ryan have won numerous awards for their complex and unexpected brews, and we wanted to continue with that by doing a twist on the ever popular IPA. They selected premium 2 row barley, coloring and caramel flavor comes from 2 speciality malts with a C-60 coloring rating and the blackness comes from a special de-husked roasted malt called Carafa Special 3 which is the darkest malt out there. Being that the Carafa malt is de-husked, it does not impart that very roasty, astringent or bitter coffee flavor you’d find in a stout, however it does leave a deep, dark tone to the appearance. It was bittered with Chinook and flavored with Amarillo Centenial and Simcoe (Those three hops varieties make up the main flavoring). The Simcoe and Amrarillo varieties were dry hopped. It was fermented with a California Ale Yeast to accentuate the clean bitterness and hop flavors. Has about a 75 IBU rating (how they rate the bitterness).

And of course, hand drawn artwork for the label.