Total Internal Reflection Hands a Whole Sour Double IPA to One Hop

Hudson Valley Brewery runs a series built on a restriction: one hop, one beer, and a new variety each time around. Total Internal Reflection is that rotating single hop Sour Double IPA, and the current edition belongs entirely to Simcoe.

The beer arrives at 8 percent, brewed with wheat, oats, and milk sugar and heavily dry hopped with 2025 Simcoe from Yakima Chief Hops. The brewery says the lot was hand-selected, which is the same sourcing route it took for HELLMOUTH earlier this month. Hudson Valley has now made two trips to the Pacific Northwest to choose hops in person during harvest, and both beers it built from those lots have named the practice up front.

Single hop beers are less common than they sound, particularly in this style. Most modern IPAs run three or four varieties precisely so the blend can cover for any one component. Handing the entire dry hop to a single variety removes that safety net and turns the beer into a fairly direct statement about the lot itself.

Simcoe is a reasonable candidate for the assignment. It is one of the older American craft varieties still in wide use, and it reads piney and resinous where newer hops tend toward soft tropical fruit. The brewery's notes follow that closely, citing limeade, pine, and resin, along with peach yogurt.

That last one points at the base rather than the hop. Wheat and oats build a full, hazy body, and milk sugar adds unfermentable sweetness and a creamy texture. Set against the acidity of a sour, the result lands closer to something cultured than to a straightforward fruited beer.

What is in the glass

• Hops: 2025 Simcoe, hand-selected, used alone

• Grain and adjuncts: wheat, oats, milk sugar

• Brewery tasting notes: limeade, pine, resin, peach yogurt

Total Internal Reflection: Simcoe is available now through Hudson Valley Brewery in Beacon, New York.