Anniversary lineups tend to escalate. A brewery marking ten years reaches for the biggest thing it can fit in a can, and North Park Beer Co. did precisely that with a 10 percent triple IPA. The third can in the set moves in the opposite direction. NPBC10 West Coast Pilsner sits at 5.6 percent, in a peach-colored can, and the brewery's stated reasoning is simply that a hoppy pils had to be in the mix.

The dry hop is described as a trifecta: Citra DynaBoost, Mosaic Cryo, Mosaic and Krush Cryo. Three varieties across four entries, since Mosaic goes in twice. Citra arrives as DynaBoost, a pourable hop extract designed for the whirlpool. The two Cryo additions are lupulin-concentrated pellets, made by freezing whole hops and separating out the resin glands that carry most of the aroma.

Krush is the name worth knowing here. It spent years in trials as HBC 586 before the Hop Breeding Company, a joint venture between John I. Haas and Yakima Chief Ranches, released it commercially in 2024. Growers describe mango and peach alongside mixed berries and fresh orange. North Park's notes for this beer run to lemon-lime, dark berries, grape and fresh pine.

Dark berries and grape are not the usual vocabulary for a pale lager, and that is the point of the style. A West Coast pilsner keeps the clean, dry lager base and treats the hops the way an IPA would, which leaves room for fruit character a traditional pils would never carry. At 5.6 percent it also has the least alcohol to hide behind, so the hop selection has nowhere to go but forward.

The three NPBC10 cans opened for pre-order today, with taproom pickup or shipping within California. The anniversary weekend follows: tap takeovers at the Bankers Hill taproom on Friday September 4 and the Crown Point Pizza Shop on Saturday September 5, then a sold-out ticketed party at the brewery on Sunday September 6. The North Park taproom reopens to the public that evening at 6pm.

Editor’s Take

North Park calls the hop bill here a trifecta and then lists four things, which is the sort of detail that looks like a slip until you actually read it. Citra, Mosaic and Krush. Three hops. Four line items, because Mosaic turns up twice in two different formats. The brewery is counting varieties, the label is counting deliveries, and both are entirely correct. I find this quietly satisfying in a way I am not going to try to justify.

The rest of it is straightforward good sense. Somebody at that brewery, planning a tenth-anniversary release, looked at a 10 percent triple IPA and a 7 percent West Coast IPA and asked the only question that matters at a party running from Friday to Sunday: what is the third one going to be. The answer was a 5.6 percent pilsner, described by its own makers as crushable as heck. Ten years is long enough to learn that the beer people thank you for on Sunday afternoon is rarely the strongest one on the list.

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.

Krush Cryo Brings Dark Berries to NPBC10 West Coast Pilsner

The third NPBC10 can goes the other way from the 10 percent triple IPA beside it. North Park's anniversary pilsner lands at 5.6 percent and carries a hop called Krush, which only reached the market in 2024.

Source & Editorial