Beer of the Week: It’s All in the Hops

Growing up, we didn’t have much. My mother and I lived in a cheap apartment, and that household was of the single-income variety. Of course, I didn’t know that. In childhood, life is just life. It’s not until we grow up and start comparing ourselves to others that we determine our socio-economic standing. My mom and I got by just fine, but looking back we did so without all that much in the way of entertainment. In the beginning there was network television. I still remember channels six, eight, ten, fifteen, thirty-nine, fifty-one and sixty-nine…it’s not too tough to recall a grand total of seven stations after all. I more fondly recall when we first got cable and our rented TV-top box with a dial going all the way to something like 36 digits (even if some of them were just snow). Oh, happy day! And it was. I loved TV – and I still do. Movies are cool, too, but they weren’t really all that big of a thing for us, probably because they cost money. Looking back, almost all the films we caught were at a Chula Vista theater called The Vogue, where you could catch two-to-three late-in-their-release-cycle movies for a couple bucks. Even after we finally got a VCR, it didn’t get much use. We were TV people, by budget and, hence, by nature. I still don’t have much use for movies and have missed more iconic films than most will see in their lifetime. Classic quotes sail right over my head and I harbor zero excitement for the new Brat Pack doc. I haven’t seen the majority of the Star Wars movies, any of the Rocky franchise and I’ve watched a total of two Adam Sandler flix…ever. All that’s to say I can’t pretend to understand the type of love for a supporting character behind this week’s featured beer, It’s All in the Hops, but I can certainly appreciate the liquid. Brewed by Bay Ho’s recently reopened Latchkey Brewing, this is one in a line of IPAs featuring rotating hop bills. This iteration is brewed with Mosaic and HBC 586, resulting in overripe mango and sweet papaya on the nose, followed by pineapple and guava on the palate with a touch of dankness in the finish. I would call this a West Coast IPA – and it is – but the Latchkey team refers to the beers in this series as Chubbs’ IPAs. They’re named after a character from one of those Adam Sandler gems I’ve never seen, Happy Gilmore. (Don’t worry, I’ve at least watched the part with Bob Barker.) The actor who played Chubbs (and Apollo Creed and other memorable characters, not to mention professional football before Hollywood came calling) passed away earlier this year. If this is a tribute beer, it’s a darn good one. Even it it’s not, it’s still a darn good one, and you’ll likely find me enjoying one while I’m watching TV.

At Latchkey, we are constantly on the lookout for new and exciting hops to play around with, which is what led us to HBC 586, an experimental hop from Yakima Chief Hops. We felt that the inherent characteristics of that varietal would be complemented nicely by Mosaic, so we decided to pair those two hops together. The beer is hopped in the kettle on the hot-side at over two-and-a-half pounds per-barrel, most of which is in the whirlpool addition. The beer is then triple dry-hopped at four pounds per-barrel, first on day two to promote biotransformation, then at 62 degrees after terminal is reached before a final dry-hop and recirculation at 50 degrees prior to chilling and carbonation. This beer was named in honor of actor Carl Weathers‘ iconic character, Chubbs, in the film Happy Gilmore. In place of calling it a West Coast IPA, we dubbed it ‘Chubbs’ IPA’, and have plans to do a series of Chubbs’ IPAs using other hop profiles later this year.” 

Gerald Dollente, Co-founder, Latchkey Brewing

Latchkey Brewing is located at 4170 Morena Boulevard, Suite F, in Bay Ho