Recipe: Polaris IPA

As part of our San Diego Homebrew Summer program, San Diego Beer News has published homebrew-scaled recipes for beers professionally produced by craft breweries throughout the county. Today, we’re closing out an extraordinary three months with our twenty-fourth such recipe, and it’s a very special one brought to us by our sponsors at Ballast Point Brewing and Home Brew Mart (HBM). It goes by the name Polaris IPA, and it’s a West Coast IPA that served as the jumping-off point for one of San Diego’s (and the country’s) most well-known beers: Sculpin IPA. Polaris IPA is the product of three long-tenured HBM staffers. One of those innovators is George Cataulin. For more on him, see my notes below. For more on the beer, see the summary from HBM’s Derek Lauridsen (who we owe a debt of gratitude to for transcribing all 24 SD Homebrew Summer recipes into easy-to-use, educational and downloadable PDFs for our readers). And to try your hand at brewing this stellar (or is it interstellar?) IPA, download the recipe below.

We hope you have enjoyed San Diego Homebrew Summer as much as we have and that you have fun trying out the recipes. Here is a quick list of everything local brewers shared with the homebrew community through the program. Click on any of them to get the recipes.

• AleSmith IPA | West Coast IPA, AleSmith Brewing (Miramar)
• The Apprentice | West Coast IPA, Societe Brewing (Kearny Mesa)
• Awkward Morning | Scottish-style Ale, Home Brew Mart (Linda Vista)
• Beast Coast | New England-style IPA, Home Brew Mart (Linda Vista)
• Bird Park | Bohemian Pilsner, North Park Beer Co. (North Park)
• Birthday Beer | West Coast IPA, Home Brew Mart (Linda Vista)
• Burst | West Coast IPA, Mikkeller Brewing San Diego (Miramar)
• DB | Brown Ale, Home Brew Mart (Linda Vista)
• Double Dry Hop Hazy IPA | New England-style IPA, Home Brew Mart (Linda Vista)
• The Dreamer | West Coast IPA, Latchkey Brewing (Mission Hills)
• Factory of Dreams | West Coast IPA, Eppig Brewing (Vista, Point Loma, North Park)
• Ginger IPA | West Coast IPA, Home Brew Mart (Linda Vista)
• Glorious Glide | Blonde Ale, Home Brew Mart (Linda Vista)
• Homework #6 | Robust Porter, Home Brew Mart (Linda Vista)
• India Pale Whale | West Coast IPA, Harland Brewing (Scripps Ranch, Bay Park, Carmel Valley)
• Monsters’ Park Mega Stout | Imperial Stout, Modern Times Beer (Point Loma)
• Polaris IPA | West Coast IPA, Home Brew Mart (Linda Vista)
• Randonneur | Belgian-style Saison, Rouleur Brewing (Carlsbad, North Park)
• Red Devil | Amber Ale, Home Brew Mart (Linda Vista)
• Santa’s Little Helper | Imperial Stout, Port Brewing / The Lost Abbey (San Marcos, Cardiff-by-the-Sea)
• Take Off Tripel | Belgian-style Tripel, Rip Current Brewing (San Marcos, North Park)
• Toast of Croydon | Pale Ale, Home Brew Mart (Linda Vista)
• Tropical Mist | Misty Citrus Blonde Ale, Pure Project Brewing (Vista, Carlsbad, Miramar, Bankers Hill)
• 2112 IPA | West Coast IPA, Home Brew Mart (Linda Vista)

George Cataulin

Notes from San Diego Beer News Executive Editor Brandon Hernández

Before I wrote about brewing, before I worked in the industry, before I’d even drunk my first beer, I was a guy in my late-teens working my first real job as a production-control clerk at a microelectronics manufacturer in Kearny Mesa called Kyocera America, Inc. Much like the craft-brewing industry I would come to love, the best part of that company was its people. Even though there were over 1,000 employees at that plant, I was able to get to know a great many of them, including a friendly, long-haired guy from the Plating Department named George who had a wealth of hobbies. Among them were hiking, softball (we played on several iterations of the company team together) and…homebrewing.

Though a stranger to beer, another co-worker friend of mine who was also an avid homebrewer took me under his wing care of his homespun ales and numerous trips to nearby O’Brien’s Pub. And come the San Diego County Fair each year, we’d attend the awards ceremony for its homebrewing competition, where we’d often bump into George…typically on his way up to the stage to collect a medal for his beers. While my homebrewing friend and mentor reveled in crafting all styles of beer, George went a completely different route. He was only interested in brewing, rebrewing and refining one style: IPA.

I didn’t really understand that obsession with a single style. I was similarly perplexed when, one day, George announced he was quitting Kyocera to go work as a clerk at a homebrew-supply store in Linda Vista. But he was so elated about it that I figured it must be feeding his passion on a level beyond my non-beer-obsessed mortal comprehension. And that was more than OK.

Many years and workplaces later, my food- and beer-writing career took off. Pretty soon I was spending a great deal of time at breweries, forging relationships with industry personnel and amassing an informational foundation that serves me well to this day. For a number of reasons, I always enjoyed stops at Home Brew Mart, one of which was the chance to reconnect with George and tell him, “I get it now!” Each time, he’d be wearing a smile as big as the day he told us he was switching jobs. It made me happy for him to have realized his vocational dream.

And it was especially cool when one of his fine-tuned IPAs started HBM’s parent company, Ballast Point Brewing, down a hop-studded road to a destination called Sculpin IPA, a beer that would go on to be one of the best-selling in the country. I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know all three of the HBM stalwarts who had a hand in that beer and they’re all exceptional people. But only George pre-dates the Brandon Hernández who didn’t drink and had no desire to until nice people like him showed me how great craft beer and the friendships forged through it can be.

Polaris IPA

A summary from Home Brew Mart Assistant Manager Derek Lauridsen

Is this the ale that launched a thousand beers and snared the minds of countless brewers? Yes, it is. This gold-medal-winning IPA, smelling of apricot, peach and mango, with just the right amount of stinging bitterness, was brought to us by three award-winning homebrewers at Ballast Point: George Cataulin, Doug Duffield and Colby Chandler. Sweet Sculpin, make me immortal with a sip.

San Diego Homebrew Summer is brought to you by our partners at Ballast Point Brewing, and you can find all of the ingredients to make this pair of beers at Home Brew Mart.