Beer of the Week: Lupulin Lust

From the Beer Writer: Many are the beerophiles who believe that beer recipes exist in a vacuum, kept just as they were upon initial development. Furthermore, fans tend to view recipe tweaks in a negative light. Unsuccessful overhauls of iconic ales, largely of the hoppy variety, are primarily to blame for that lack of consumer confidence. The truth is, most beers, especially IPAs and other hop-forward ales, undergo small changes to keep them smelling and tasting the way they’re supposed to. Hops are agricultural products that vary from crop to crop. There’s a reason brewers inspect varietals so closely at harvest time. It’s imperative the hops they select exhibit as much of the sensual characteristics they’re looking for as possible to maintain beer consistency. Sometimes that’s just not possible or hops change at some point as they age. In those cases, adjustments are needed. And sometimes, the resultant beer tastes even better than the original. Regardless, it’s rare for a brewery to talk about massaging a recipe lest it inspire naysayers to belt out every brewer’s least-favorite critique: This beer isn’t as good as it was before they changed the recipe. (Second only to: Parking here sucks…one star.) But the team at San Marcos-based Rip Current Brewing sees recipe analysis and alteration as tools to ensure the highest quality and consistency. Case in point, this week’s featured beer, Lupulin Lust Double IPA, which has been produced non-stop for eight years and adjusted numerous times without most people noticing a change in the citrusy, evergreen 9% hophead pleaser. A new batch will be out by the first week of December…and it just might be the best yet.

From the Brewer: “Over the last several years, we have noticed a drift in flavors imparted by several of our core hops, particularly when combined with the new San Marcos (largely desalinization-water-impacted) water profile. Like most breweries, we are constantly looking at tweaking recipes and our brewing processes to make the best beer we can. For example, our award-winning flagship Lupulin Lust double IPA has undergone several recipe changes in regards to the hop varieties used. A few years ago, we noticed our lot of Centennial moved from big orange and tangerine characteristics more towards piney and vegetal. In the fall of 2018, we selected a much fruitier lot of Centennial that largely addressed the issue, but we still noticed more piney, woodsy character then we prefer. Recently, we dialed back the amount of Simcoe hops that we use to achieve that character and replaced it with more fruit-forward Citra, adjusting our brewing processes, so that we now get a beer much like the Lupulin Lust we remember from the past. We are very excited about the last few batches and hope everyone has a chance to try it (again).”—Paul Sangster, Co-founder & Brewmaster, Rip Current Brewing