Oskar Blues IceyPA & KOALAfied IPA Coming For Southern Hemisphere Hop Festival

Oskar Blues has confirmed around 20 craft breweries signed on to showcase their beers in the fest. Each brewery has created two Southern Hemisphere Beers, some specifically for the event itself, and event attendees will get the chance to sample each one and vote on their favorite. The winning beer will be placed on tap at Stoney’s for a full month. Because Southern Hemisphere Hops are still incredibly hard to find, Oskar Blues Director of Brewing Operations, Tim Matthews, helped many of the breweries source the hops for the beers showcased.

Aside from the Oskar Blues IPA, OB will offer two other Southern Hemisphere Hop beers at the fest – IceyPA, a collaboration with Denver-based Icelantic skis. For this brew, the brewers turned to New Zealand’s more herbaceous hop offerings in Pacific Gem, Rakau, Nelson Sauvin and Dr. Rudi. KOALAfied IPA is a new Belgo IPA with a deep ruby red malt color and loaded with Ella, South African, and Galaxy Hops at around 40 IBU and an ABV of 8-9%.

The fest will offer early access to VIP attendees starting at 6:00pm, GA will open up at 7:00pm and run until 10:00pm on February 27th. The VIP attendees will also be given a chance to taste some Southern Hemisphere foods provided by Stoney’s Bar and Grill. Live music from Boulder based funk band, Hot Soup, will kick off at9:30pm. There will also be a booth onsite where attendees can check out actual Southern Hemisphere hops – as well as some American hops – so you can getchyer hands dirty and experience the difference. Brewers will also be on hand to answer questions as well. 

The other breweries participating in this inaugural festival of specialty hops are mainly from Front Range breweries. The initial expected list of participating breweries and their Southern Hemisphere Beers are listed below:

Jagged Mountain Craft Brewery 

Dingo Ate My Baby! & Another Shrimp on the Barby Mate! using experimental South African hops

Mockery Brewing 

G’day Hombra Oaked Black Pale Ale – 6.0% ABV using Chilean malts and NZ and Aus. Hops. & Cocoa Coconut Stout – 7.7% using Chilean malts and NZ and Aus. hops

Upslope Brewing 

Imperial IPA – 10.0% ABV & Topaz S.M.A.S.H. Pale Ale using Galaxy hops (Aus.)

Call to Arms Brewing Company

Freedom Fries Intercontinental Saison – 7.6% ABV & Great Gam Gam, Imperial IPA, 10.5% ABV using Nelson Sauvin hops (NZ)

Lone Tree Brewing Company

Latitude 41S Imperial Red IPA -9.0% ABV using Motueka hops (NZ) & TBD

Strange Craft Beer Company

Southern Cross single hop Belgian Pale – 4.0% single malt single hop Belgian Pale. (Patagonia base malt and Galaxy hops fermented with Westmalle yeast)

Nebulous Red IPA – 8+%Red IPA with Patagonia malts and two SAB hops (92P2/4 and XJA2)

City Star Brewing

Aces and Eights Imperial Red Ale – 8.0% ABV with Vic’s Secret and Enigma hops (both Aus.)

Avery Brewing Co. 

Raja Double IPA – 8.0% with Galaxy and Vic’s Secret (both Aus.) & TBD

Crazy Mountain Brewing Company

Boohai Red Ale – 6.0% ABV with Nelson Sauvin and Pacific Gem hops (both NZ)

Odd13 Brewing

Sir Joshua Black IPA  – 6.1% ABV and Interpatagalactic Tart Dry-hopped Sour Blonde – 6.5% ABV using Galaxy (Aus.) and Kohatu (NZ) hops

Comrade Brewing Company

TBD (but will be using a 100% Southern Hemisphere hop bill with Patagonia Malt and Extra Pale Ale Malt from Chile)

Grossen Bart Brewing

TBD

Wits End Brewing

TBD

Ratio Beer Works

TBD