Beer of the Week: Can We Be Friends?
Artifex Brewing selecting 8 Bit Brewing as IPA collaborators leads to a recounting of a special day spent at that op's beer-enhanced arcade
Last week, an IPA with a name referencing a ‘90s-era video game made for a particularly fun writing project for yours truly. I had a blast thinking back to some of the arcades and video-cabinet-equipped haunts I used to frequent when going on pixelated adventures. Well, wouldn’t you know it…this week I get to do it again thanks to another IPA. This one not only features artwork channeling the Super Mario multiverse, but was brewed in collaboration with back-in-the-day arcade-themed, 8 Bit Brewing. I often think back to a satisfying day when my wife and I ventured to that Murrieta business and spent hours in their onsite arcade. Not only was that spacious pleasure-dome stocked with old-school games from various eras ‒ which, frankly, would have been good enough for me ‒ but many of them also have cup-holder stands so we were able drink ales and lagers while playing hyper-speed Ms. Pac-Man and Mortal Kombat. It was rad! And so was their beer, so it’s no surprise that Artifex Brewing reached out to 8 Bit for an assist on the latest edition of their collaborative IPA series Can We Be Friends? This one is about as experimental as it comes, having been brewed with a hop bill that’s both lengthy and varied, and fermented with a lesser-seen type of dry yeast. The result is an extremely fragrant IPA bursting with stone-fruit aromas, followed by big flavors of navel orange, mango and passionfruit. It’s big in every way, except ABV (alcohol-by-volume), coming in at 6.5%. You know, the kind of IPA you can enjoy without impairing your ability to effectively hammer fire-ghosts into oblivion on Donkey Kong!
Can We Be Friends? is by far my favorite series of beers I’ve ever brewed. I mean, not only is it a banger of a beer every single time, it also showcases the collaborative nature of our industry here in San Diego and surrounding counties. That aspect is just as important as the beer itself, and I truly think that it’s manifested in the beers that we produce every single day. We had an epic time hosting 8 Bit in our brewhouse. Liam Wynn is as sharp as they come and you can definitely tell how much thought those guys put into their beers. We hope you all love this one, it is quintessentially West Coast: crisp, stone-fruity and there’s almost a little blueberry thing going on that just really sets this beer off. Cheers, Friends!”
Keith Showalter, Brewer, Artifex Brewing
Personally, this was a special brew as I’ve been going to 8 Bit since the early years and we’ve since become close friends. We collaborated on a West Coast IPA recipe, but instead of only focusing on a strong hop profile, we decided to do something fun and use a yeast we all hadn’t used before. We chose to ferment this beer with SafLager SH-45, a dry lager yeast designed to maximize hop thiol release, producing aromatic, tropical and citrus-forward beers. What we got was a clean, 6.5% ABV (alcohol-by-volume), West Coast IPA that we’re really excited to share with everyone! We let the SH-45 bolster a whole bouquet of hops: Riwaka, Cascade, Rakau, Motueka, Amarillo, Krush Lupocore and Cryo Columbus. This beer bursts with ripe berries and a touch of dank pine, and delivers layers of grapefruit, passionfruit and stone fruit over a crisp, dry finish.”
Danny Garcia, Brewer, Artifex Brewing
Artifex Brewing is located inside the Freeman Collective at 1940 South Freeman Street, Suite 102 in Oceanside