Beer of the Week: Guava 250 kWh

From the Beer Writer: Much like an elaborate restaurant dish, a brewery’s beer recipes often get many tweaks along the way. Sometimes, there are enough adjustments that an entirely new beer is spawned. Such is the case with this week’s featured beer, Guava 250 kWh from Kilowatt Brewing. Over time, what started as an experiment adding guava to the Kearny Mesa-based company’s house IPA, has spawned a small-batch one-off that’s become as popular as its progenitor. While 250 kWh IPA is West Coast in style, the fruited version is a creamier New England model, which works well in that it allows the citrusy character of the hops to sync with the guava. So, instead of being some one-note wonder, the fruit the beer rests on marries with the hops’ orange- and lemon-candy flavors to make for a citrusy, tropical fruit-cup profile that’s delightful and nicely contrasted by a firm, bitter finish.

From the Brewer: “Our Guava 250 kWh IPA began as a fruited version of our flagship 250 kWh West Coast IPA, and as we’ve tweaked the recipe over time, it has become a true fruited hazy IPA. We condition the beer on high-quality white guava that we source from Maharashtra, India, which adds an intense guava aroma and flavor with a nice, soft[-but-restrained sweetness to complement the blend of Pacific Northwest and New Zealand hops varieties we use to dry-hop. We add one pound of guava per gallon of beer, which results is an intensely fruit-forward beer that has a lot to offer any craft-beer drinker whether they love IPAs or just want something fruity and refreshing to drink a warm sunny day.”—Brian Crecely, Head Brewer, Kilowatt Brewing