From Slovenia to Utrecht: Circus Maximus
Drifting Daisy is the latest edition in the Circus series of Maximus Brewery. A series of temporary beers inspired by Maximus' vision of bringing people together. That suits us very well, which is why we selected three hop varieties from our Slovenian hop grower Blaz, bringing together the brewer, hop grower and beer lover!
Savinjska / Styria
The centre of Slovenian hops is the region of Savinjska. Styria in English, and for this reason the hops from this region are often given the prefix Styrian, with Styrian Golding as the best known example. Our hopfarm is located just outside Zalec, in the middle of Styria and a 10 minute drive from Celje, a beautiful town that is older than our calendar.
Blaz
The hops in Drifting Daisy come from our grower Blaz, 4th generation hop farmer with a healthy passion for hops. Like no other, he knows how to cultivate the soil for a good hop harvest in terms of yield and excellent quality. This goes far beyond watering the plants on time. Bio-mass in the soil, the level of acidity and the minerals present are some examples that Blaz analyses down to the last detail and we then work on together. For example, he first plants buckwheat on new fields to enrich the soil with bio-mass. Everything to allow the plants to grow into metre-high vines full of leaves and flowers that turn into hop cones.
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Blaz between his hop plants in mid-July 2022. During this period, the plant grows in volume, not in height.
Hops
For the second edition of Drifting Daisy, we were looking for hops for a Belgian IPA. A hoppy beer that is balanced like a Belgian blonde with a slightly spicy character from Belgian yeast. We ended up with an ABC:
Aurora
A popular hop with a powerful aroma of blossom, pine and lemongrass. Aurora is seen as the powerful sister of Styrian Golding, which is why this variety is also called the Super Styrian. Its floral character is often found in Belgian beers, which is why we chose this beautiful hop from the Floral & Green aroma profile.
Bobek
To match the spicy tone generated by the yeast, we looked for a suitable hop from the Herbs & Spices profile. We quickly came up with Bobek, a hop with a spicy character with nuances of citrus and pepper. Perfect for pilseners and it is that classic, spicy aroma that we were looking for.
Cardinal
Then we wanted a strong fruity hop that could carry the whole hop profile. Cardinal is perfect for this, especially as we went for the N10 pellets, a concentrated form of hops that you can read more about here. A fairly new variety with a powerful citrus aroma with hints of peach and gooseberry.
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All Circus Maximus beers are canned.
Circus Maximus Drifting Daisy II
We tasted the result fresh from the canning line and we are very positive about it. As said, the brewers of Maximus wanted to brew an IPA with characteristics that we know from Belgian beers, but not necessarily from the sweet part of their spectrum. The yeast has perfectly created a nice dry character with a spicy touch. The hops complement this beautifully, making it a well-balanced, tasteful and yet refreshing beer.
The entire series of Circus Maximus can be found here. Drifting Daisy is available at the better beer shop, the webshop of Maximus and of course in the tasting room at the brewery.