Saint Arnold Icon Green 7220 Pale Ale Coming Next Week
Story by:
MyBeer Buzz
We brought you an early look at this beer, and now the details from Saint Arnold:
If you loved the Icon Blue – Coffee Porter, grab it quickly because it is currently disappearing from the shelves. The next in our Icon Series, Icon Green – 7220 Pale Ale will begin appearing on shelves next week. Here is the story behind this beer.
Every year when we go to Germany to select our Hersbrucker hops, the hop growers co-op we purchase from brings out some experimental hops for us to rub. We give feedback on the hops and have gotten small amounts sometimes for test brews and even have been early users of some of these hops, as we were with Mandarina a couple of years ago.
This past October we rubbed a hop that intrigued us. It had a lush tropical character that overlayed a nice floral/fruity noble base. The hop had no name, just a number: 2010/72/20. Only a few hundred pounds of this hop were grown last year but we were excited about it and were able to secure about half of the harvest which was enough to brew a single batch. This is the beer we are calling 7220 Pale Ale.
This is a single hop pale with 72/20 used in the kettle for bittering and finishing as well as for dryhopping in the fermenter. The grain bill is just pale 2-row and a small amount of light caramel malt. The beer has a medium light body with a pleasant bitterness and a floral and tropical hop flavor and aroma. We are describing it as an American/German Pale Ale hybrid (if such a thing were to exist).
Because we only had enough hops for a single batch, this beer will be available for a briefer period than most Icon releases. In other words, get it quick! We hope you enjoy it.
As an aside, this hop was given a name earlier this month: Ariana. While we’re not sure of the marketing wisdom of it, Brock keeps saying he’s going to wear a mini-skirt, cat-ears and brewers boots to help people remember the Ariana name. It might be impossible to forget!
Our Icon series is available on draft and in six packs of 12 oz. bottles.
This Update (26 April 2016) From Saint Arnold:
HOUSTON, April 26, 2016 – Saint Arnold Brewing Co. (www.saintarnold.com), the oldest craft brewery in TX, is shipping its latest creation: Saint Arnold Icon Green – 7220 Pale Ale. The brew, described as an American/German pale ale hybrid, features an experimental hop from the Hop Research Center in Huell, Germany, that until a few weeks ago was known only as Hop No. 2010/72/20. The researchers have since named it, "Ariana."
Saint Arnold Icon Green – 7220 Pale Ale is being shipped this week and will begin appearing on draft and in six packs of 12 oz. bottles as supplies of Saint Arnold Icon Blue – Coffee Porter run out. Only a few hundred pounds of Ariana hops were grown last year and Saint Arnold secured about half of the total harvest, which was enough to brew just a single batch.
"We look forward to rubbing experimental hops every year when we visit Germany," said Saint Arnold Founder/Brewer Brock Wagner. "When we rubbed 2010/72/20 last October, we loved the tropical, fruity nose and immediately started imagining what we would brew with it. We used it in the kettle for bittering and finishing as well as for dryhopping in the fermenter, contributing notes of citrus, tropical fruit, and a hint of mango to the aroma and flavor."
The Hop Research Center in Huell has been developing hop cultivars since 1926. During the past decade, new breeding efforts have developed several experimental lines that impart multifaceted floral, fruity and citrusy aroma impressions to beer. In recent months, Ariana was chosen as one of two new Special Flavor varieties for large-scale field trials, the results of which convinced the board of the Society of Hop Research to apply for registration of Ariana as a new cultivar.
Saint Arnold is helping to gather feedback for the researchers and is encouraging those who try Saint Arnold Icon Green – 7220 Pale Ale to complete an online survey. The simple 5-question survey asks about the aroma and flavor of the hop as well as other impressions. Here is a link to the survey:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1HnqdPH5ZNsz_uGzB7XZuyPkuLWBP77vToHWZLw5coUQ/viewform.
More information on the Saint Arnold Icon Series is available at http://www.saintarnold.com/beers/icon.html.
Saint Arnold Icon Green – 7220 Pale Ale:
Alcohol Content: 6.1% ABV
Bitterness: 43 IBUs
Comments 0
No Readers' Pick yet.