Owing to post-2020 inspiration, Beardslee Brewing's Drew Cluley releases a hazy pale ale in Blaze On.
There’s an old saying, you can’t teach old dogs new tricks. It’s cliche but there are some perennial brewers, who, after years of brewing Northwest and West Coast-style India Pale Ales, have elected to give Hazy India Pale Ales a go. Not shy to share his motivations, Beardslee Public House’s founding brewer, Drew Cluely, opined his motivations for the Public House’s most recent india pale ale. Well, more like a pale ale. It’s confusing so here’s his take on the genesis of a Beardslee-brewed hazy india pale ale.
Several years ago, hazy/juicy beer became a thing. All of my professional career in brewing I have strived to make NOT hazy beer, and suddenly it became nearly mandatory to offer an East Coast Style IPA. Well in the Spring of 2019 I told my friend and fellow brewer Carter Camp, who had recently left his position as Head Brewer at Port Townsend Brewing Co., to come and brew a collaboration beer with me and he could pick the style. Of course he chose a hazy East Coast style. Since we already had 3 IPA’s pouring ( out of 12 taps ) at Beardslee Public House; I insisted we make it more a pale ale. I snobbishly consider a 40 to 50 ibu pale colored beer not worthy of the IPA designation anyway.
Having done the research in cooperation with Carter Camp, Cluley was admittedly intimidated and bothered by the use of unmalted grains, oats, and salt (consisting of calcium chloride and calcium sulfite), resulting in a, personally, unappealing pint. But one cannot blame the man who worked at prestigious Seattle breweries like Pyramid, Pike, and Big Time, prior to his stewardship at Beardless Public House. After all, these breweries are known for their support of Northwest and West Coast-inspired pale ales and india pale ales. But with Carter Camp guiding him through the process they developed a recipe. Again here’s Cluley, reflecting on the process to develop a recipe.
Carter assured me we could play down the salts, and strive to get our haze from wheat and oats and lots of dry hops. And we did, and batch #1 in the spring of 2019 was quite popular. I liked it well enough, but still preferred a classic non hazy West Coast IPA.
image courtesy Beardslee Public House
Inspired by a combination of post-2020 optimism, due to the global pandemic, and Beardslee’s sixth anniversary, Drew’s Blaze On (as he has dubbed it) Juicy Pale Ale, is now available, once again.
And that name? Well, as it turns out Carter Camp and Drew Cluley have a love of not only brewing but are also huge fans of the improvisational ensemble band Phish.Which is pretty much how the name Blaze On came about, after recalling the song title of the same name. But like any self-respecting brewer, Cluley revisited his previous attempt and tweaked things a bit.
This time I wanted to try a new (hazy) yeast I had recently heard about, Cosmic Punch – from Omega Labs in Chicago. https://omegayeast.com/yeast/ales/cosmic-punch-ale [ read about the yeast – and thiols and biotransformation here ]. I thought that using a dedicated hazy yeast instead of our house ale yeast, may improve our efforts.
We switch up the hops to truly tropical ones, Nelson Sauvin, Citra and Mosaic. We also hopped the mash (yes you read that correct) with 3 pounds of Nelson Sauvin and 2lbs of Cascade hops.
…
Well I have to say, I think we may be on to something. This Cosmic Punch yeast is quite interesting and enhances the tropical hop presence immensely. I even appreciate this beer well enough to drink a 32oz crowler. In fact I think I will fill many crowlers to bring out to the Gorge Amphitheatre in late August; there I will find many Phish fans to sample our Blaze On Juicy Pale Ale; and if Phish fans appreciate it . . . well then I will appreciate it even more!
Now available at Beardslee Public House on draft or in crowlers, you’re invited to share in Drew Cluley’s journey towards learning to love the hazy india pale ale.
image courtesy Beardslee Public House
Beardslee Public House is located at 19116 Beardslee Blvd in Bothell, Washington. For more information including menus, hours, and the latest news, visit https://beardsleeph.com/.
About Beardslee Public House
Chef John Howie’s Beardslee Public House is known as a Pacific Northwest-inspired and family friendly eatery that specializes in high-quality, made-from-scratch comfort cuisine crafted from locally sourced ingredients.
Beardslee Public House’s world-class signature brews and hard seltzers are made on site in the 10-barrell brewery. Head brewer Drew Cluley is an award-winning master brewer with 20+ years of extensive craft brewing experience and designed Beardslee’s beer program to appeal to a variety of tastes – from the most discerning craft beer lover to a newbie ready for their first craft beer experience.
Beardslee Public House is located at The Village at Beardslee Crossing, 19116 Beardslee Boulevard. The Village is along Beardslee Boulevard, at the NE 195th Street and I-405 interchange at Exit 24.
About The John Howie Restaurant Group:
The John Howie Restaurant Group includes (Bellevue, 2002); (Bellevue, 2009); in.gredients (Microsoft Redmond campus, 2014), ; and Along with being the chef/owner of the John Howie Restaurant Group, John Howie is also author of the cookbook Passion & Palate: Recipes for a Generous Table. Chef Howie has been honored with an invitation to cook at the prestigious James Beard House in New York City on five separate occasions, represents Washington state annually at the Super Bowl in The Taste of the NFL, and is a sought-after culinary expert featured in local and national media, including Martha Stewart Living, The Today Show, The CBS Early Morning Show, Cooking Channel, Food Network, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
Chef Howie and his restaurants are as recognized for philanthropic generosity as they are for culinary achievements. Since 2002, the John Howie Restaurant Group has received numerous awards for philanthropy and community involvement, and has given more than $6 million to hundreds of charitable organizations.
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