What that all distills down to, as it relates to their newest Spring release, is a decadent chocolatey  Bourbon Barrel-aged Brown Ale with a big body and a sweet finish, with notes of toffee candy  and macadamia nuts. The base beer would be complex enough on its own, but in the spirit of the  Four Seasons program, Mother Earth’s brewers had to take it up a notch further. Overall, Spring  is ...

Having erred toward the sweet fruit and coconut flavors of their last Project X Series release,  Mother Earth’s brewers decided to swing the pendulum, calling for more traditional IPA flavors  with Metamorphosis. Mosaic and Citra hops leave passionfruit and strawberries on the nose,  while Strata punches up with flavors of dank marijuana and citrus. A heavy wheat addition and  dextrin malt add ...

“We’ve reached the point as a brewery where we are getting access to some pretty cool stuff,  like priority hop selection and experimental varietals. HBC 1019 is one of those examples. We  were really impressed with its characteristics at hop-selection last year.”  -Chris Baker – Director of Brewing Operations, Mother Earth Brew Co. 

“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. 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.” 

-Chris Baker – Director of Brewing Operations, Mother Earth Brew Co.

“We had a couple objectives when designing the next gen of cans: First, although it would be  tempting to scrap everything and start over, we knew we had built a certain amount of brand  equity we weren’t willing to just walk away from, especially in the Cali Creamin’ Family. We  felt that with iconic imagery like the VW bus, we needed to pull in legacy elements that folks  could recognize, while also introducing some fresh ideas. The second important consideration,  was how the new cans would fit within the rest of our core lineup, especially since we had just  designed three new cans somewhat recently. As it turns out that design template would pave the  way for the new can design – particularly in the Cali Family.” 

“New Horizons and Four Seasons [Summer] are such different beers. While New Horizons leans  on a pillowy body and a soft, drinkable impression, the collab DIPA is much more intense, with  an additional 45 IBUs to go along with a more robust hop profile that’s led by notes of sweet  fruit and grapefruit pith. It’s fun to have them out at the same time to give folks a choice on what  kind of experience they want to have.” 

“Combining modern hopping techniques along with the right yeast strain is critical to achieving the right balance of juicy-meets-clean. Head Case is the first beer we’ve brewed to feature our new crop year of Citra and Galaxy, which are showing really strong aromatics, especially in the tropical and stone fruit categories. In order to take advantage of this, we use hops in almost every part of the hot and cold side, including whirlpool, intra-fermentation, and dry-hop additions. Then, of course, our house ‘Juice’ yeast strain is used to give the beer a nice full body while not being overly sweet like some can be.

-Daniel Love – President, Mother Earth Brew Co.

“Customer input and R&D have always been the key to the success of these beers, and Peaches  & Cream is no different. After years of collecting feedback, and an exhaustive pursuit of the right  peach/vanilla/cream ratio, we finally landed on a product that is going to please old school fans  of the original Cali but also bring in those looking for something fresh and exciting.”  

-Daniel Love – President, Mother Earth Brew Co. 

“We’ve learned a lot over the last few years about striking the right balance in terms of flavor  and appearance in these beers. Upping the ABV allowed us to push the hops a bit harder while  avoiding any unclean bitterness, and turning up the wheat gives us some extra body and haze  without having to back-sweeten with lactose which can be common for the style.” 

-Chris Baker – Director of Brewing Ops, Mother Earth Brew Co.