HELLMOUTH Is Built From Hops the Brewery Picked Out by Hand

Hop selection is one of the less visible parts of making an IPA. Rather than order a variety by name and take what arrives, a brewer can travel to the warehouse during harvest, rub lots between their palms, smell the difference between one field's Citra and another's, and claim the specific lot they want. Hudson Valley Brewery has just done that for the second year in a row, and HELLMOUTH is the beer it made about the trip.

The Sour Double IPA is a three-way collaboration with Brujos and Root + Branch. The brewery describes it as an ode to the Pacific Northwest, and the ingredient list follows that idea closely. There are three components, all of them regional: Marionberry, Comice pear, and Citra and Simcoe hops that the brewery selected by hand in Washington through Yakima Chief.

Each of those carries some local history. Marionberry is a blackberry cultivar developed at Oregon State University, and it remains closely associated with the state. Comice is the pear Oregon growers are best known for. The hops come from the Yakima Valley, which accounts for the large majority of American hop acreage.

The trip behind the beer is only a year older than the tradition it started. Hudson Valley says its first-ever hop selection came last September, at Anthony's urging, on a trip through Oregon and Washington. That visit is also where the brewery met Sam of Brujos, whose approach to his own brewery it says it admires. Having just returned from this year's selection, the brewery wanted to brew something to mark the occasion.

Citra and Simcoe are a long-established pairing, and putting them against Marionberry and pear in a sour double IPA is the part worth watching. Simcoe tends piney and resinous where Citra runs citrus-forward, and dark berry and soft pear pull in a rounder, sweeter direction. No ABV was given for the release.

HELLMOUTH is available through Hudson Valley Brewery in Beacon, New York.