Ten volumes in, The Cleveland Experiment has become the place Masthead Brewing Co. files the IPAs it wants to tinker with. Volume 10 arrives Friday as a West Coast IPA at 6.7 percent ABV, built on what the brewery calls hand-selected Nectaron, Citra and Simcoe.
That phrase is doing real work. Hop selection means a brewer sampling specific lots rather than ordering a variety off a spec sheet. It involves rubbing bales from different farms and fields and picking the ones that smell right for the beer in mind. Two lots of the same hop, same season, can pull noticeably apart. For a series whose entire premise is changing the variables, picking the exact lots is the logical next lever.
The trio itself is the more interesting choice. Simcoe is the piney, resinous backbone that helped define the West Coast style in the first place, and Citra is the citrus note nearly everyone reaches for. Nectaron is the outlier: a New Zealand variety with a tropical, passionfruit-leaning profile. It turns up far more often in hazy beers than in a style built on bitterness and a dry finish. Putting it in a clear, bitter IPA is the kind of small swap that changes the whole shape of the drink.
Masthead is not overselling it. "While this experimental West Coast IPA might not send you into different dimensions," the brewery wrote in its newsletter, "the hop character will certainly transport your taste buds through time."
Volume 10 goes up for preorder through Oznr on Friday, August 28, at 11:30 a.m., with pickup starting the same time at the brewery's Superior Avenue taproom. Four-packs are 11.99 dollars plus tax.
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.