Beer of the Week: The Labyrinth

To say San Diego beer fans are spoiled is an understatement. For decades, we’ve had breweries stocked with extensive lineups of stellar core beers…yet still we thirst for more. This has a lot to do with brewing companies that opened within the last decade or so with multiple weekly or bi-weekly new releases as a cornerstone of their business plan. Modern-day drinkers have come to expect a perpetual stream of new, new, new hitting taps across the county. I’m not poopooing that…I love it! When it comes to reliable core beers, I believe they are the lifeblood of the industry and the best way craft breweries have gained traction with everyday traversers of grocery, liquor and big-box store aisles. But as someone who has tasted the vast majority of San Diego’s core beers, what I get excited about are seasonals, one-offs and items going beyond year-round staples. (As I type this, I feel like a whiny baby, so no need to email me about that.) Even when I worked for Kearny Mesa-based Societe Brewing, which boasts a robust roster of cores, ranging from IPAs to takes on Belgian, Czech, English and German-style beers, I longed for something more. So it’s been exciting to see them embrace the introduction of a brand-new IPA on a quarterly basis. The most recent of those is this week’s featured beer and goes by the name The Labyrinth. A West Coast IPA hopped with Chinook, Chinook CGX, Tangier, El Dorado and Comet, it comes on strong post-pour with a downright lustrous bouquet of sweet citrus, papaya and mango. There’s even a soft touch of daisy-like florality, which is unexpected and lovely. The Labyrinth is just as layered on the palate, blending navel orange, peach and passionfruit with a touch of pine and a restrained resiny bitterness. It has all the hallmarks of a Societe IPA – big aromatics, a lasting head and that unfiltered yet nearly crystal clear appearance – but with a hoppiness that’s unlike anything that 14-year-old company has produced to date. Enjoy it now, then join me in wondering aloud (and somewhat annoyingly): So, when are they going to come out with their next new beer?

Every quarter we brew an IPA that stands apart from our regular lineup, and the real gift of that is getting to work with hops we don’t normally get to use. It’s a great opportunity for us to work with hop-growers and learn about new varieties, which also lets the brewers get creative and creates a fun way for customers to try new hops. The Labyrinth leans into big, ripe tropical hop character up front, finished dry but with enough backbone to hold up to all those hops ‒ a classic Societe-style IPA through and through. At 7.3% (alcohol-by-volume) it’s got some strength to it, but drinkability has always been the standard we hold ourselves to, because the best compliment a beer can get is somebody wishing their glass wasn’t empty. That’s what this quarterly series is really for ‒ it keeps us restless, and I think San Diego drinkers can taste the difference between a brewery going through the motions versus a brewery that’s still chasing something. Just because you get a black belt doesn’t mean you stop training and learning; in fact that’s when the learning begins. If you like West Coast IPA done the way this city made famous, this one’s worth finding while it lasts.”

Doug Constantiner, Owner & CEO, Societe Brewing

Societe Brewing’s taprooms are located at 8262 Clairemont Mesa Boulevard in Kearny Mesa and 2415 San Diego Avenue in San Diego’s Old Town neighborhood