Kveik, Strata, and Roll!

We like to play with new ingredients at Drake’s, particularly with new hops and yeast strains. One of the new hop varieties on the market is Strata, and one of the newest yeast strains made commercially available is Kveik.  So naturally, we made a beer out of exactly those two ingredients!

Strata, formerly known as X-331, was developed at the Oregon State hop breeding program, and derives from an open pollination of Perle. We’ve been running into this hop talking with brewers we’re tight with, and realized we had to play with it. Smelling it fresh out of the bag presented a significantly dank aromatic profile. Think Grand Daddy Purple (cannabis strain), with maybe a touch of garlic chives? Once it gets into the beer, it really opens up, with significant tropical and berry-like aromatics. Nice hop! We’re looking forward to getting more.

Kveik is an ancient yeast of Scandinavian origins that has been passed down for generations, and has only been recently made publicly available. It’s a fantastically neat strain of yeast, with some really unique attributes. It ferments quickly at high temperatures. Temperatures that would cause most yeasts to throw off yucky off-flavors and headache-inducing higher alcohols.  There are a couple of different varieties of this yeast, and we chose the one with the most aromatic character, the Hornindal variant. This produces absolutely swell notes of tropical and citrus fruit, which (looping it back around) ended up being very complementary to Strata hops.

So that’s pretty much it.  A new beer, brewed with Kveik yeast and Strata hops, cleverly called Kveik and Strata. It has what beer knerds crave!

– John Gillooly, Drake’s Brewmaster

RELEASE INFO

Kveik and Strata will be released in 16oz. cans and on draft, June 21 at Drake’s Barrel House. Drake’s Dealership will only have draft available. Drake’s BARN will have cans and draft starting June 26th. This beer is limited and will be available while supplies last.