Beer of the Week! 09/13/22

Elder Pine Vague Illusions

Regularly $18.99 / Now on Sale for $17.96
Hazy Wheat IPA

Elder Pine Blending & Brewing Company in Gaithersburg, MD describes their brewing pursuits this way, “Built on our family farm, we brew, and we blend, focusing on classic styles with a modern twist.” This kind of statement is not uncommon in the craft world (No craft brewer says, “We abhor innovation and will only brew the same old same olds.”), but something just feels different in the way Elder Pine goes about it. For instance, they’re not ones to throw themselves into “mad scientist brewing.” Rather, their beers suggest a beer geeky quirkiness about them — small tweaks that produce big results.

The Vague Illusions is brewed with Idaho 7, Galaxy, and El Dorado hops — all known for producing various tropical flavors and aromas, all familiar players in the Juicy IPA game. However, the Vague Illusions is not a New England Style IPA. Oh, no! It’s a hazy wheat IPA.

Elder Pine uses both malted wheat and malted spelt (a heritage wheat strain) to make this brew. They also throw in some flaked wheat to beef up the haze. They then “super saturated” this batch. The result is a hazy IPA that manages to be both delicate while simultaneously delivering its dry fruit notes with a level of depth and intensity.

We’ve had hazy IPAs before and we’ve had wheat IPAs before. We’ve never tried a hazy wheat IPA. Clearly, it was only a matter time, though. Leave it to Elder Pine to decide that our time was up. Good decision, too.

Bonus Beer of the Week (‘Cause two times beer equals fun!)

Oozlefinch Sunrise at Perihelion

Regularly $19.99 / Now on Sale for $17.96
Double New England Style IPA

Logan Morris started out at Oozlefinch Brewing Company working part-time. Eventually, he became their cellarperson and pasteurizer. Then, in mid-fall of 2021, Morris became the Oozlefinch Assistant Brewer. Though his first recipe in the role was a honey & marshmallow stout (eventually named Baby’s First Hand Grenade), his first beer to hit the tap room (at the beginning of that December) was this Double IPA. Now, Oozlefinch has released Morris’ inaugural effort to distribution so that those of us living outside of Hampton, VA can enjoy it.

The Sunrise at Perihelion is a Double IPA with Nelson Sauvin, Sabro, and Huell Melon hops. That’s one New Zealand hop, one American hop, and one German hop — all of them throwing off various fruit notes with the Sabro capable of imparting citrus flavors as well. No wonder the gestalt hop flavor suggests a mild melon-like juiciness with the zip of citrus zest building at the finish.

Finally, something good that we can associate with traveling too close to the sun.

Remember!

You can see our entire beer inventory on Untappd.com!