Robin Shepard
It’s not a revelation that hoppy beers get a lot of love from craft beer enthusiasts. Any survey of the tap handles at a favorite bar or the shelves of a neighborhood liquor store and the trends are pretty evident with descriptions of citrus, topical, fruity, juicy and hazy, to mention just a few. This evolving quest for hoppiness has one local brewer taking a step back and thinking about how it got to this point. One Barrel Brewing’s newest beer, Fanny Pack, is intended to take some hoppy beer fans for a walk down memory lane. It hits local taps and shelves this week.
What is it? Fanny Pack IPA from One Barrel Brewing.
Style: IPAs are medium-bodied and often golden- to copper-colored. They commonly range from 5.5 percent to 7.5 percent ABV. IPAs emerged in the 1700s when British brewers found a market for hoppy beers in India and territories of the British Empire. The American spin on IPAs began to capture widespread appeal in the U.S. by the late 1990s. Those early versions in the craft beer movement often focused on sharp citrus and pine flavors. They were intentionally unbalanced and sometimes unabashedly bitter. More recent trends favor hops with a range of fruity, tropical and juicy flavors resembling orange, tangerine, lemon and sometimes even grape, strawberry and mango.
Background: “In the past four to five years there’s been a lot of interest in adding crazy fruity and juicy hops,” says One Barrel Brewing owner Peter Gentry. “I feel people have gotten pretty far away from the type of hoppiness that got them into IPAs in the first place.”
Fanny Pack is based on citrus, pine and bitterness that’s more common to IPAs of a decade ago. “Old-school IPAs are among my favorites, and the more we’ve gotten away from it the more I think the taste for it is coming back,” says Gentry. “There’s actually room for both, those hazy Northeast IPAs and those with more piney and resiny flavor.”
Fanny Pack’s hop bill features Chinook and Simcoe in a ratio of roughly one-to-one, and combined for about 2.5 pounds per barrel. Both are sought after for their earthy, piney aroma and flavor, which is a clear signature of Fanny Pack.
One Barrel regulars will remember the early taproom version of this beer as Pine Fox. It first appeared in summer 2016 and quickly started outselling brewery’s flagship Penguin Pale Ale and Commuter Kölsch. That convinced Gentry that it could likely gain a following in bottles, so it’s joining One Barrel’s year-round lineup.
Fanny Pack finishes at 6.5 percent ABV and around 70 IBUs (International Bitterness Units). Six-packs sell for approximately $8; in the taproom it’s available for $5/pint.
Several release parties will be taking place soon: At Cork ‘n Bottle from 4-7 pm on Feb. 9, at Trixie’s Liquor from 2-5 pm on Feb. 10 and at the Up North bar from 6 pm onward, on Feb. 21.
Tasting notes:
- Aroma: Earthy, piney and sharp.
- Appearance: Slightly hazy amber-copper color with a thick, frothy, tan head.
- Texture: Medium-bodied.
- Taste: Pine and resiny tones throughout. It’s not overly aggressively hopped, there are just solid contributions from the earthy bitterness of the Chinook hops.
- Finish/Aftertaste: Piney and spicy with a mild, yet firm, dry bitter ending.
Glassware: The Willi Becher is ideal to gently coax the hoppy aroma under the nose while showing off the vivid copper color of the beer.
Pairs well with: a sharp Wisconsin cheddar or entrees with some spiciness. There’s enough hoppiness in this beer to go well with foods that will compete on the palate. My pick for this beer is modestly spiced Thai cuisine.
The Verdict: This beer takes me back nearly two decades to one of my first forays into IPAs while traveling in the Northwest and discovering Bridgeport Brewing’s IPA in Portland. Both are similar in resiny and sharp hoppiness. The contributions of Chinook and Simcoe in Fanny Pack deliver a distinctive amount of pine character. While it’s assertive with earthy, almost woody, aroma and flavor, it is not overly aggressive in the raw bitterness. I like the old-school hoppiness of Fanny Pack — it reminds craft beer drinkers that the more things change, the more they stay the same.