We’ve made some big changes to LOAH.
LOAH marks 1 and 2 were good, but we want to keep pushing things forward. We’re one of a handful of brands at the forefront of of non-alc brewing making innovative gains, and trying new things in every round of brewing. Our last brew was a notable step forward, so I thought I’d tell you about it.
For background, it’s a really hard process getting yeast to ferment to 0.5% and no further. Naturally in a brewing environment it wants to go higher. So we have to change the playing field. Feed it with enough sugars to get the process going and unleash all the good yeasty flavours, but not so much that it creates a full strength beer. We want enough sugar so that it hits 0.5%, but we don’t want anything left over once we bring the the temperature down and eventually get it packaged. If those sugars get into the cans, we’ve learned to our peril (and some of yours) that we end up with refermentation and explosive cans – add to that the fact we’re playing around with fruit and it’s a real conundrum (a sincere thank you to all who had to learn to open your LOAHs over the sink, you won’t have to do that again).
LOAH mark 1 was about brewing a single beer – Lager Lime – and getting somewhere near drinkable.
LOAH mark 2 was about building a range and introducing a little more flavour through a mild use of hops.
LOAH mark 3 (what we’re about to drop!) is a step change. We now understand 0.5% beer, and how to impart flavour through hops and fruit extracts. And we’ve even learned how to stabilise it without the dreaded pasteurisation. Now we’ve got that canvas to work from, it’s about having fun with flavour.
We’ve looked at the trusty old Lager Lime and given it a reboot. Where we were using a pretty simple, ‘does the job’, yeast variety, we’ve switched in a really interesting Kveik that starts to impart a background melon-y, citrus structure. We decided to keep the same zippy Centennial hop treatment before adding in our natural lime flavour – with a cheeky twist of lemon to really add some punch!
Lager Peach gets a funky tropical yeast that does what it says on the tin, whilst Rakau and Wai-iti hops do their stone fruit thing. This one really starts to taste like a peach fruit cocktail before we give it the peach and apricot treatment which makes the nose explode.
Blood Orange has morphed somewhere between a lager and an IPA. So to differentiate we’ve called it IPA. A similar Kveik yeast starts that background canvas of interesting citrus driven flavour. Then we’ve switched up the hops to Chinook and Columbus. These guys really drive a long finish on the beer – you can taste it for a long time after. Plus a more subtle blood orange and tangerine medley to top it off. It’s refined, still incredibly crisp, but just a bit more complex than before.
I can’t tell you how excited I am by these beers. All of which will be in cans, and kegs (!) very soon.
Take it easy and keep it breezy,
Hugo and the LOAH Crew x
