Berghoff's Upcoming Releases Include A Winter Ale (And An IPA?)
By Ben Kramer in Food on Dec 1, 2014 4:30PM
Via Berghoff Brewing
Winter Warmer. It’s got a good feel to it (alliteration too) and is how Berghoff Brewing owner Ben Minkoff describes his Winter Ale. Minkoff paints his holiday beer, which is on shelves today, as “not overly heavy...more in the medium body profile with a slight hop character.”
In the way KISS was made for loving you, this beer is made for wintertime consumption. It’s dark, but not as dark as midnight. It boasts having notes of cookie, caramel, and toasted marshmallow and, at 7 percent ABV it’s enough to give your body a pleasant buzz and warmth—two things necessary to overcome this winter.
Berghoff plans on keeping the beer around for only a few weeks, so come mid-January it will be gone. But Minkoff has something special in store for February: an India Pale Ale.
For the first time in their 127-year-old history, Berghoff will be releasing an India Pale Ale. The beer will be available year round, and the move is a part of Berghoff’s, “need to expand our repertoire to the modern drinker,” says Minkoff. With hundreds upon hundreds of IPA’s on the shelves, Minkoff understands “we have to make it stand out, we have to give people a reason to drink it. Otherwise, it’s another IPA.”
One way Minkoff intends to separate his IPA from others is to keep it balanced. It won’t be a, “hop monster.” Minkoff believes in giving the beer medium body and milder hop character because he doesn’t want Berghoff to “jump in with a super hop heavy beer that some people might like and for others might be too much.”
Berghoff has been known throughout its history as a German-style brewery, so naturally its IPA will have some Teutonic elements to it. According to Minkoff, his crew has been “trying to find certain European hop varietals that can give it a nice differentiating factor, that’s not like everyone else, that’s more European, German style.”
Berghoff’s Winter Ale can be found at Plum Market (1233 N. Wells St.), while the IPA is set for a February release.