Brewed this with a single pack of Bry-97. It was our first time using this yeast and it was a pretty slow kick off, almost three days. We mashed a bit on the warmer side too, staying around 160 for 65 minutes. Once fermentation began, we fermented on the low end of the temp range and it was slow and steady. No real blow off. The yeast took so long to start and finish that it threw off our schedule so we had to dry hop for a shorter duration than the recipe called for. We did half in bottles and half in a 2.5gal keg. We fined with gelatin into the fermenter about 24hrs before kegging. Didn't have time to cold crash first as we had to fly out for a cruise. We left the keg to carb in the fridge for two weeks while we were out of town and came back to a delicious beer. It was just a touch bitter in the after taste, but after another week it really mellowed out. The beer is a beautiful west coast IPA dark gold, crystal clear and seriously crushable. Final ABV was 5.2. The flavor is lightly fruity. Think of Sierra Nevada Pale but with slightly fruitier notes and lower IBUs.

Was looking for the HBC-438 hop when I saw this on sale for less than $30. With that, I got 7 precious ounces of HBC-438, and that alone was worth the money. I tweaked this recipe, dropped some of the 438 hops for some galaxy. (Saved the remaining hops for other brews.) I also added 2lb of Munich malt to give it some malt backbone. Fermented with Gigayeast Vermont Ale, and dry hopped after primary was done to keep the beer brite. The end result is AWESOME! Straw colored, hop forward but balanced, great “juicy” hop character, with heavy amounts of tropical fruit aromas and flavor. There is a strong pineapple juice character this hop brings, especially when combined with Galaxy that I just love. I may order another kit just to get some more of these hops before they can’t be found anymore.