Beer of the Week: Galactic Dolphin

From the Beer Writer: They say that if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. I truly love what I do. Writing about my hometown’s amazing brewing industry and the passionate people behind the county’s wealth of breweries is an enviable occupation and the best job I could ever ask for. But let me tell you…it is a lot of work. Granted, that’s partly because I have a relentless, iron-fisted boss who demands a lot of me. (I’m talking about myself, of course.) Mostly, though, it’s due to me wanting to perform this job to the best of my abilities, do right by the industry professionals whose stories I have the privilege telling and those who are kind enough to read what I write, and push beyond established beer-outlet norm with special programs and initiatives. So, yes, it’s a lot of work, but that’s alright. I’ve never been afraid of that. The same can be said for local brewers like Blake Masoner, the ex-Pizza Port brewer who ventured out on his own to open a brewpub marrying SoCal-style beer and taco-shop-style Mexican food. Even though he, too, loves what he does, it’s clear it took a lot of hard work to bring his business to live. Fortunately, it’s been a rewarding pursuit. His passion project, Craft Coast Beer & Tacos, has been a hit from day one, enough that he could probably rest on his laurels. But that’s not his style. Even though his beers are a hit with his clientele, he continues to refine them. Case in point, this week’s featured beer, Galactic Dolphin. This 6.5% ABV (alcohol-by-volume) double dry-hopped hazy IPA has been a work-in-progress that’s taken on different aromas, flavors and, most notably, textures, over the past two years. The current edition pours pale and opaque like something sourced from an East Coast beachfront community instead of Oceanside. Despite looking thick, it’s light-boded and rife with tropical flavors of pineapple, papaya and guava. There’s no telling if further adjustments will be made, but as far as this worker bee is concerned, Masoner can keep good old Delphinus (look it up) as-is.

From the Brewer: “We’re super-stoked to bring back our original hazy IPA, and we’ve made a few tweaks to the recipe in order to continue to push the flavor profile to where we want it. This is the third or fourth time we’ve brewed Galactic Dolphin, and each time we’ve made minor adjustments with hop and malt combos to find what we like. For this iteration, we beefed up the adjunct percentage in the grist to about 40% to soften it up and give it more body. The base malt is still split between pilsner and 2-row, giving the beer a very pale-yellow appearance. We changed the whirlpool hopping schedule, taking out the Citra and replacing it with a knockout Mosaic Incognito addition, bringing the bitterness to pretty much zero while enhancing the oily, sticky hop flavors and aromas. This beer is dry-hopped twice with Bru-1 (we previously used Galaxy here), Mosaic Cryo and Citra Cryo, delivering huge aromas and flavors of tropical-fruit juice. The goal for our hazy beers has always been to make them as juicy and tropical as possible, and I’m pleased with the results of this one. You can get it on tap or to-go in crowlers at Craft Coast or find it on draft at select locations in North County. Enjoy!”–Blake Masoner, Co-founder & Head Brewer, Craft Coast Beer & Tacos