Firestone Walker's latest edition of Luponic Distortion provides "explosive fruit flavors of peach, pear drop and dragonfruit"
image courtesy Firestone Walker
If you’re a fan of Firestone Walker’s Luponic Distortion series, then you’ve judged each edition with both eagerness and curiosity. Afterall, each is different, inviting, and above all, polarizing. So ask yourself what’s been your favorite so far? Now that you’ve given it some thought, get ready for the next edition.
Luponic Distortion is not a single beer, but rather an ongoing series of beers that rotate approximately every 120 days. While the base beer always remains the same, each release features a different hop blend built around new and experimental hops, designed to showcase the growing possibilities of pure hop aromas and flavors without any assist from fruit or other adjuncts.
With a focus on six hops, from three continents, the brewers at Paso Robles have created an India Pale with notes of stone fruit, pears, and dragon fruit.
Focussing on their favorite hops from New Zealand, Germany, and the Pacific Northwest, Brewmaster Matt Brynildson explains his recipe like this.
“It’s all about showing how these distinctive fruit flavors can be achieved solely through 100-percent pure natural hops.”
But it’s important to recognize that Luponic Distortion was never designed to be one beer, but an ongoing exhibition, a roadshow if you will, showing what a beer can be with that malt, experience, and a unique juxtaposition of hops combinations. With a new edition every around 120 days, this edition of Luponic Distortion latest edition goes “new school” with its approach.
The latest Luponic Distortion includes three “new school” Pacific Northwest cultivars—two with a softer, juicier character, and one with a more edgy citrus quality.
Again, Brynildson justifies Firestone Walker’s motivations to use these hops.
“The alchemy of these three hops resulted in this cool tropical dragonfruit character,”
Besides hops from the Pacific Northwest, the brewery sought two hops from Germany, owing to a discovery during his many trips to hop farms in Hallertau. For him the combination of fresh fruit character intermingling with a pure dankness, reminded him of ripe peaches.
Lastly, it was a hybrid hop, grown in New Zealand, a sort of marriage between German and the United States, that caught Matt’s attention. Recalling the characteristics and the basis for this being a bookend to this edition of Luponic, Matt said:
“It has this fresh peach and pear drop character that’s really distinctive... It’s the perfect way to tie this blend together … Luponic Distortion is this beer that can keep morphing and stay interesting and remain out in front of this crazy new hop wave,”
Available now, Firestone Walker’s latest edition of Luponic Distortion awaits your judgment and enjoyment.
About Firestone Walker
Founded by brothers-in-law Adam Firestone and David Walker in 1996, Firestone Walker Brewing Company is an innovative California beer company with three state-of-the-art brewing facilities. Firestone Walker’s main brewery in Paso Robles produces a diverse portfolio ranging from iconic pale ales to vintage barrel-aged beers. The Barrelworks facility in Buellton makes eccentric wild ales, while the Propagator pilot brewhouse in Venice specializes in R&D beers and limited local offerings. Firestone Walker is also the brewery behind 805, one of the nation’s fastest-growing beers. Firestone Walker was recently named “Best American Brewery of the Decade” by Paste Magazine. More at FirestoneBeer.com
