Rock City Double Europe Pale Ale

"These hops are a great example to show what good European hops can do in a big Double IPA."
- Koen Overeem, Rock City Brewing -

Read all about the first beer in the Hop Trophy series below.

Rock City has built an excellent reputation with their hoppy beers. Big IPAs with a punchy flavour experience, fruity, rich and creamy in terms of mouthfeel. Koen: " By now, we have figured out what a good flavour profile is for these kinds of beers. We want that character, but just with European hops".

So a bold IPA, full-bodied and creamy. Koen knows better than anyone how to achieve that, starting with the basics: the malts that set the stage for the hops. "A very good English Extra Pale malt is always the biggest part of the malt bill. We also use ingredients for viscosity: oats and flaked wheat. And then some dextrin malt to improve the mouthfeel. We brew this beer with our own yeast, Rock City Hazy."

Hops

When it comes to hops, we go full-on for flavour and aromas, so the vast majority goes into the dry-hop. Koen: "In terms of bitterness, we go for as little as possible. A pinch of hop bitterness goes in, which helps with foam stability. And there is so much going into the Whirlpool that it always brings some bitterness, but even there we mainly take out the hop aroma."

The hops were selected after careful smelling and comparing. The hops chosen were used right away, as brewing took place on the same day.

Rock City's brewing team Sebas, Melle and Koen during hop selection.

Wolf is a hop from Slovenia and has a tropical aroma with notes of passion fruit, mango and banana. Ernest comes from English soil and the aroma can be described as apricot with peppery grapefruit. These hops are backing up the Slovenian star of the club: Cardinal. Of these hops so-called N10 pellets have been used, a concentrated form of hops. It creates a powerful aroma of citrus and multi-fruit juice.

Fruit cocktail

Koen is very pleased with the result, admitting that he did find it somewhat thrilling. "Normally such beers are brewed with American or New Zealand hops. But Hollands Hophuis said this can also be done with European hops, so we took that challenge. I must say it turned out great. The beer has an aroma of a fruit cocktail, exactly what we were aiming for. The European hops additionally impart a character of their own, which manifests itself in a spicy touch that you taste in the underlayer of the flavour profile."

Tasting notes from the tasting panel

"Pineapple juice, fruit explosion, beautiful hazy, tropical fruit, creamy, freshness wins", just some quotes from our independent panel of beer experts. You can read their full findings here!

Want to taste it yourself?

The Europe Double Pale Ale is a one-off brew, so be quick! The beer is available at Rock City's brewpub and Webshop.

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