For years, IPA has been the number-one-selling beer style in the country according to scan data collected at larger retail outlets. Number two? Seasonal. It’s a catch-all term that speaks to beer fans’ thirst for something new or here-today-gone-tomorrow. As such, many brewing companies schedule seasonal selections into their production calendars as Vista’s Mother Earth Brew Co. did when it launched its Resinator Series of rotational IPA (merging the top two best-selling styles) back in 2017. That series is being phased out to make room for a Project X series of hazy IPAs, meaning it’s the end of the line for one of the Resinator Series’ most popular offerings: Kismet IPA. But first, one last hurrah.
Mother Earth will release the first of the final batch of Kismet tomorrow, August 6, which, not coincidentally, is National IPA Day. And because of its popularity among fans, they are doubling the availability period to last through the end of 2020. This decision was made, in part, due to the company’s faith in how well this year’s version turned out, the result of a good crop year for the hops used to produce it.
“We are really pleased with the way this vintage of Nelson and Idaho 7 came out from the farm,” says Director of Brewery Operations Chris Baker. “The aroma on this batch is loaded with citrus as opposed to some of the grassy qualities these varietals gave produced in the past. This is a fantastic version to end the series on. We are really getting to experience all the best qualities of two choice hops on full display.”
When speaking to the difficulty of removing Kismet from Mother Earth’s portfolio, company representatives say there is only so much room in their brew schedule and that it is important to make sure they are producing the types of beers customers are interested in based on purchasing habits. High on that list at present are hazy, Northeast-style IPAs.