His predecessor in the head brewer role always professed to a love of black beers (and wasted little time knocking one out at his new home), but the new occupant of the role at Hargreaves Hill seems to have quite the affinity with hops. Since moving across the Yarra Valley from White Rabbit earlier this year, Kai Dambergs has made the Pale leaner and more hop forward, created an imperial IPA, a hopped up American Wheat and a number of IPAs, of which this is the latest. It's the result of a collaboration with US legends Deschutes that took place around the time they were taking the Oregon brewery's Kris Scholl for a beery cruise on Puffing Billy during Good Beer Week. It features ingredients from both brewery's home regions and takes its name from a 'hopburst' late kettle hopping regime made up of Australian Vic Secret, New Zealand Rakau and a promising new US hop variety Equinox. They're added to a selection of American caramel and toasted specialty malts to produce what we're told is "an IPA of smooth bitterness and harmony between malt and hop." If you'd like more, then Kai adds that we should be expecting an experience akin to this: "Sunday morning marmalade on toast rides alongside sweet caramel, accompanied by fresh spruce tips, Valencia orange and garden mint. A lively coppery-amber colour for a beer best observed and enjoyed on a cold and sunny winter's day." The odds on him winning the 2015 AIBA Media Award shorten by the minute...
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