Snoqualmie Falls Brewing has a couple of new beers they want you to know about. One is this year’s summer seasonal beer and the other is a special, one-off IPA. Like most good beers, there’s a story behind each.
Summer Beer
First up, the brewery has now released Summer Beer, its summer seasonal offering. This Pre-Prohibition Pilsner is available now through August. Each year Brewmaster Rande Reed tweaks the recipe just a bit to keep things exciting. This year he worked with brewer Kevin Gesell on the recipe.
“Kevin had this idea to increase the Saaz hops we use for flavor and aroma,” says Rande Reed. “We threw that around a bit and decided a 20 percent increase was about right, and went with that. When we tasted the finished product, we were wowed! The herbal and spicy nature of the Saaz really pop out!”
Dave Eiffert, Snoqualmie’s General Manager, is also excited about the beer, as well as the new label. “We had some pretty good arguments about whether the new label is appropriate to our general style,” he says. “Some of us thought ‘We don’t make lawnmower beer!’, but others felt the new label evokes a certain feeling of a lazy summer day, and that opinion won out. Up here in Snoqualmie, we get twice the rain Seattle does, and when those balmy days happen during those few short weeks in summer, you have to drop everything and enjoy them.”
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Summer Beer
28 IBUs
5.6% ABV
Two Row, and C-15 malts as well as flaked rice for a light body
Bittered with Columbus hops
Saaz hops for aroma and flavor
Sunny Si Citra-Hopped IPA
Snoqualmie Falls Brewing’s Wildcat IPA is a local, longtime favorite. Recently, Brewmaster Rande Reed encountered an opportunity to perform a major tweak on the beloved recipe. Sunny Si Citra-Hopped IPA is a special release beer, available through August in 22-ounce bottles, quarter-barrel kegs and 50-liter kegs.
“What we’ve done is recreate our flagship Wildcat IPA, but instead of using Columbus hops for flavor and aroma, we substituted Citra hops, which have a marvelous citrusy and tropical flavor profile,” he explains. “We use an entire pound of Citra hops in each barrel of Sunny Si.”
Dave Eiffert notes, “The Citra hops entirely change the character of the recipe. The aroma I get from the hops reminds me of papaya and mango. It is a wonderful mellow aroma.”
Citra hops are noted for producing notes of grapefruit, melon, lime, gooseberry, lychee and passion fruit. It is a highly coveted hop variety. Not easy to find. Rande Reed had been looking to get his hands on some Citra hops for some time and when the opportunity arose, he jumped on it.
Eiffert says, “We’d been looking for some [Citra] and when Rande saw the post it must have taken him about 37 seconds to check with me and contact the other brewery to arrange the sale. He was really excited”.
Eiffert says that Sunny Si Citra-Hopped IPA pairs excellently with grilled or coconut shrimp, pico de gallo and corn chips, cebollitas and tilapia.
Sunny Si Citra-Hopped IPA
75 IBUs
6.6% ABV
Pale Two-row, Munich, Carapils, C-15 and Aromatic malts
Bittered with Columbus hops
Citra hops in the flavor and aroma additions
