Corporate Ladder Brewing Company timed a five-beer release to a Pokemon trivia night at its Palmetto, Florida taproom, and Pikachu leads the lineup. It's a hazy IPA at 7.5 percent ABV built on Citra, Mosaic, and Idaho 7, with the brewery adding fresh cold-pressed Nelson hop juice into the mix as well.
That combination points toward the tropical, citrus-forward profile hazy IPA drinkers expect from those hops, and Corporate Ladder describes the result as bright citrus and tropical haze with a soft finish.
Thinking about the hops and flavor profile
Citra, Mosaic, and Idaho 7 is a fairly standard modern hazy IPA trio - reliable for tropical fruit, stone fruit, and a bit of pine - but the Nelson hop juice is the more interesting choice here. Pressing hops for their juice rather than relying on dry-hopping with whole cones or pellets is a technique aimed at pulling out aromatic oils while leaving behind more of the vegetal, grassy matter that whole-cone dry hopping can carry into the beer. Nelson Sauvin in particular tends to bring a white-wine, gooseberry-like note that can read as almost savory next to Citra's candy-citrus brightness, so the juice addition looks like it is there to sharpen the aromatics without muddying a beer that is already carrying three other hop varieties. It is a small production detail, but it is the kind of thing that suggests a specific reason behind the choice rather than just throwing more hops at the tank.
Pikachu is available tonight on draft and in 16oz crowlers at the brewery, while supplies last.
Source & Editorial
JollyPint independently prepares release articles using information published by breweries through newsletters, websites, and other official public communications. Brewery-supplied descriptions and tasting notes are reported as provided, while editorial context is added by JollyPint.