Beer of the Week: Phased Hoppiness

From the Beer Writer: Life is complicated enough…why does craft beer have to be, too? Pre-sales, lotteries, early-bird ticket deadlines, discount codes, limited-edition this-and-thattery…there’s nothing wrong with any of it, but sometimes you just want to drink some beers and have a good time that requires little thought and zero hoop-jumping. It’s a sentiment shared by Cameron Ball, the fun-loving, freewheeling owner of Helix Brewing. Every August when his anniversary comes around, he opens his doors, taps a specialty IPA, busts out some specialty merch patrons can purchase or disregard, then welcomes all who venture to his La Mesa tasting room. There are no tickets or things to know before you go; just show up and join Ball in toasting another year of beers. This year’s soiree will be Helix’s eighth such simple-yet-sublime affair and will take place this Saturday from noon to 10 p.m. Ball’s celebratory liquid offering will be this week’s featured beer, Phased Hoppiness IPA. Aptly hopped with insanely popular hops from different phases of the modern craft-beer era–Citra, Mosaic, Strata and so-bleeding-edge-it-has-yet-to-be-named HBC 586–it’s a fruit-forward IPA bursting with citrus and tropical notes. Enjoy it while jamming to live rock, jazz and R&B. Or don’t. There are no hard fast rules at this party. Just show up, do you and have fun!

From the Brewer: “Helix Brewing tethers our numbered anniversary parties to a special beer incorporating the same number found in nature. At Year Eight, we clink our pint glass to the Eight Phases of the Moon and built a beer that exhibits changing flavors and aromas, similar to how the moon changes as it phases across the night sky. Phased Hoppiness, our eighth-anniversary IPA, beams a spectrum of changing hop flavors and aromas in each sip. This tropical IPA is built on a light malt profile enhanced with wheat and oats to allow the hop oils to remain suspended in the finished beer. Common stars of Citra and Mosaic hops are teamed with Strata hops in the whirlpool to develop a citrusy, tropical canvas. Additional heavy doses of Citra, Mosaic and Strata are added during active fermentation along with an abundance of experimental HBC 586 hops. This same dry-hop is added again prior to spunding in order to infuse all the hop aromas into the naturally occurring CO2 carbonation. The finished beer reflects sweet tropical-fruit flavors and aromas of mango, guava and passionfruit over citrus-hop dankness!”—Cameron Ball, Owner & Head Brewer, Helix Brewing