Beer of the Week: Murky Poetry

Collaboration beers offer an opportunity for breweries to not only reach beyond their standard operating procedures and production tendencies, but also build excitement among their fans as well as those of the brewing companies they partner with. Having put on the much-loved and dearly missed Collabapalooza beer festival, which brought together scores of local breweries to serve unique cooperatively produced beers from 2017 to 2019, Karl Strauss Brewing knows a thing or two about the power of the collab. As great as those beers tend to be – I mean, there’s not just one, but two and sometimes even more breweries’ reputations on the line – they tend to be one-time-only treats. It’s the one negative in this extremely positive process. But every now and then, a collaboration beer is so good that it’s brought back from the obscure depths of limited-editionism. Such is the case with this week’s featured beer, Murky Poetry. Originally brewed in 2020 (a year that seems thankfully far away), it’s a collaborative creation of Karl Strauss and Pure Project Brewing. The latter refers to their hazy IPAs as “murky” IPAs, hence the handle of this hop-bomb, which has a companion collab beer called Liquid Allusion. That murky IPA was rebrewed at Pure Project’s Vista headquarters, making for a double resurrection. Both beers are extremely tropical on the palate, with Murky Poetry coming across with notes of guava, passionfruit and pineapple, plus a lingering touch of tangerine. Soft in texture, it rates higher on the drinkability scale than most hazy…er, murky…IPAs and would be a good everyday drinker. If, that is, it were available year-round. But it’s not, so (much like next Tuesday…vote!) now is the time to act if you want to enjoy the second coming of a high-quality collaboration.

We love working with the team at Pure, and brewing with them again has been such a fun ride. We love what the team stands for, and of course, enjoy their beer, especially their famous murky IPAs. We are reviving a fan-favorite we released back in 2020 with Pure Project: Murky Poetry. They are releasing their version of that collaboration from the same year, and we couldn’t be more stoked to share these brews with San Diego as SD Beer Week kicks off. They are releasing their version of that collaboration from the same year, and we couldn’t be more stoked to share these brews with San Diego as SD Beer Week kicks off. Murky Poetry is bursting with tropical notes of orange, guava and fruit punch, and leaves you with a soft, lingering fruit finish. Brewed with Amarillo, Citra, Nectaron and Krush hops, Murky Poetry finished with an ABV (alcohol-by-volume) of 6.3%, making it the perfectly sessionable hazy that still packs a punch. Murky Poetry is truly a celebration of San Diego beer with friends old and new; some already love this brew and some get to experience that crisp first sip for the very first time. Now that’s poetry. Cheers!”

Paul Segura, Brewmaster, Karl Strauss Brewing

Karl Strauss Brewing’s San Diego County public venues are located at 1157 Columbia Street in Downtown San Diego, 9675 Scranton Road in Sorrento Valley, 10448 Reserve Drive in Rancho Bernardo, and 5801 Armada Drive in Carlsbad