Mother Earth Brewing Company has released the latest in its rotating Hazy IPA series: Hop Monster.
Hop Monster leans into its bitterness quite a bit more than the typical New England style of hazies, with 60 IBUs and Rakau, Nelson and Citra Hops.
“We’ve been having a lot of fun with these Southern Hemisphere varietals lately. The sweet/tropical/stone fruit characteristics really lend themselves well to the style,” says Chris Baker, Director of Brewing Operations, Mother Earth Brew Co. “The increased bitterness also helps to balance that perceived sweetness. We typically don’t use lactose in our hazy beers, which is often done to assist with haze stability and to increase body, but we’ve found that we can achieve those qualities through brewing methods rather than loading the beer with adjuncts. The result is a medium to full bodied beer with tons of hop aroma and flavor but without the cloying sweetness.”
As for the other half of the collaborative project — the label art — Mother Earth enlisted Ecuadorean artist, Gabo Zeta, to illustrate the can. Gabo’s “lowbrow” art is defined by its bright saturated colors, psychedelia, 80s & 90s cartoons, punk rock, horror and toy culture and is inspired by the work of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, the creator of Rat Fink, the company says.
Hop Monster HIPA is available now on draft and rolling out in 16-oz. cans throughout August and September. Customers can locate it using Mother Earth’s beer finder at findmotherearthbrewing.com to locate near them.
