Stone / Ecliptic Brewing – White Asteroid IPA

Some updates from our pal Mitch Steele:

In my last post I talked about how a buddy and I went backpacking after representing San Andreas Brewing Co. at the Oregon Brewers Festival several years in a row in the late 80s and early 1990s. After one of those backpacking trips, we found ourselves driving through Bend OR, and stopped by the Deschutes Brewpub. That’s where I first met John Harris, who has since went on to do some great brewing for Full Sail, and just recently opened his long-awaited brewery, Ecliptic. John and I have been friends ever since we first met, and have had many beers together over the years at industry conferences and festivals.

So for the first time, we got to brew a batch of beer together. John came up with the idea of doing an Imperial Wit, and of course, without hesitation, I agreed (I usually don’t object to any collaborative beer ideas unless it’s physically impossible to do, or its a style I don’t like-which eliminates about 0 beers). Having never brewed this style before, I was really looking forward to it. We talked a bunch about the recipe, and I suggested using New Zealand Motueka Hops, and we agreed on abv and IBU targets, as well as the use of orange peel and coriander (big surprise) as additional spices.

The recipe!

I thought the decision to use chamomile in an Imperial Wit was inspired. Nice job John!

This was the first time John had brewed with wheat at his new brewery, and of course, the lauter stuck. I’m getting a reputation: clogging wort chillers in the UK, and clogging lauters in the US. After much raking with a boat oar, the runoff finished and the rest of the brew progressed without any issues….

So the beer itself-John suggested the name White Asteroid, and despite several other ideas brought forth, it stuck. It ties in nicely with John’s theme-Astronomy, and our name (Stone). All these years I have known John and never knew how into astronomy he is. It’s pretty cool, all his beers at Ecliptic have astronomically themed names. So White Asteroid-totally appropriate.

The Ecliptic Brewery is a fun place to visit. John’s beers are fantastic, and the astronomy theme can be seen throughout the restaurant. And the food is great!

John’ s amazing beer list. I really enjoyed the NGC 881 Pale Ale, brewed w/ ADHA 881 experimental hops.

John sent us a keg of the beer so we could try it, it’s been pouring in our QA lab for a few days now and it is delicious. Spicy and fruity, the coriander and orange peel are stellar, the bitterness is firm, the beer is nice and dry and the chamomile subtleties are wonderful. I love how the beer turned out, and am pleased to have had the chance to finally brew with John. I hope we get to do it again soon.