Name: DDH Braincake
Brand: Parish Brewing Co.
Availability: InStock

Braincake was already a hybrid before Parish Brewing Co. went back in. The brewery describes the original as "a diabolical juxtaposition of two Parish classics, Ghost & Canebrake." Those are Ghost in the Machine, its Double IPA, and Canebrake, its wheat ale. Braincake takes the hops from one and the wheat from the other. DDH Braincake keeps that arrangement intact and doubles the dry hop.

The wheat side is the part worth slowing down for. Parish builds Braincake on three different forms of the grain at once: wheat malt, flaked wheat, and unmalted wheat. Each contributes protein in a slightly different way. That is what produces the haze, the head retention, and the cushioned texture that the brewery calls a feathery, golden-fleece-like mouthfeel. It is also, practically speaking, a soft landing pad for a lot of hop aroma.

Parish lists Cashmere, Citra, and Strata on its page for the original Braincake, and has not published a separate hop bill for the double dry-hopped version. Those three help explain the tasting notes the brewery is quoting: sweet berry cobbler, bright mango, and guava. Strata in particular is the variety most often credited with berry character. That is not a note wheat beers usually go looking for. Doubling a dry hop raises aroma and flavor intensity without adding bitterness, since the hops go in cold and after fermentation. The brewery's claim that everything gets bigger and bolder rather than sharper is consistent with the technique.

Parish has not listed an ABV for this version; the brewery lists the original Braincake at 8.4%.

The presale opens Wednesday, August 26 at noon CDT through Parish's online shop. Release day is Friday, August 28, with taproom pickup from 11am and cans sold first-come, first-served at $23 per 4-pack of 16-ounce cans. UPS direct shipping starts the following week to consumers in Washington D.C., Kentucky, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont, and Virginia. The beer is also slated for the September Parish Beer Club box.

Editor’s Take

DDH has quietly become craft beer's director's cut - a three-letter prefix promising the same film with fourteen extra minutes and a remixed soundtrack. Usually you take it on faith. Here you can at least see the machinery.

What holds this beer up is the grain, and the grain bill is faintly ridiculous in the best possible way: wheat malt, flaked wheat, and unmalted wheat. Which is to say wheat, wheat, and wheat again - three forms of the same cereal, each stacking protein into a beer that Parish reaches for the phrase golden fleece to describe. That is a bed built for the express purpose of carrying an enormous amount of hop aroma without any of it turning scratchy. Then they doubled the dry hop into it. Berry cobbler and guava on a mattress of wheat, going on sale at eleven in the morning in Broussard. There are worse ways to spend a Friday.

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.

DDH Braincake Doubles the Dry Hop Over Three Kinds of Wheat

Parish has doubled the dry hop on Braincake, the beer that already mashed Ghost in the Machine's hops into Canebrake's wheat. Same triple-wheat grist; the brewery says the berry cobbler and guava now hit twice as hard.

Source & Editorial