Far Yeast Brewing Company have just released the latest addition to their “Tokyo” core range of beers, “Hop Frontier”.
The Yamanashi, Japan, based brewery added the Juicy IPA to their Tokyo Blonde, Tokyo White and Tokyo IPA regular offering’s in early March and will be making it available internationally from early April.
Far Yeast Brewing was founded in 2011 with the establishment of their core “Tokyo’ range in 2015. The Hop Frontier – Juicy IPA is the first addition to the core range in 6 years.
Wanting to produce something special for this new addition they looked to the cutting edge research of hop suppliers Yakima Chief Hops (YCH) to help them develop a new beer and at the same time set new brewing standards in Japan.
They felt the Juicy IPA style was the perfect medium that would enabling them to use a brand new product that would accentuate the bold hop aromas and flavours that are the hallmarks of the beer.
Talking with the Asia Brewers Network Takuya Mizutome, Far Yeast International Sales, notes “Our new Juicy IPA is full of fruity and tropical aromas, made by maximizing the “aroma components” of hops using a scientific approach”.
He went on to explain how the Far Yeast Brewing production team were encouraged to try new YCH varieties as well as some experimental cryo hops after a visit to the hop supplier’s hop selection event in Washington, USA, in 2019.
They learnt that after several years of research into hop “survivables” (flavour and aroma compounds that have the greatest staying power through to the finished beer) YCH had created an experimental blend known as TRI-2304CR.
The ‘cryo-cocktail’ contains high levels of geraniol, linalool, 3MH and methyl geranate from several hop varieties and helps deliver a resounding flavor pop to beers. Ideal for their new juicy IPA.
“In addition to three of our favorite hops, Idaho 7, Citra and Mosaic, our brewers added proprietary hop blend TRI-2304CR and the new Talus hop to maximize the impact of “survivables” in Hop Frontier – Juicy IPA.” Mizutome told us.
Relying on biotransformations performed by the yeast during fermentation the brewing team also added new aroma components that could not have been generated by hops alone.
They selected Imperial Yeast’s Flagship A07 Ale Yeast which they felt would favourably alter some but not all of the dissolved hop compounds into new aromas and found the beer emerged with an complex and floral aroma of citrus peel, tropical, orange, pineapple, mango and banana.
“We maximized aroma compounds that brewers have had difficulty producing in the past, creating an “unprecedented” aroma. The resulting beer is a Juicy IPA with a fruity, tropical aroma bursting with a creamy, juicy flavor.” Says Mizutome.
Such an endeavour deserves a good label so they came up with a design to emphasizes the three core concepts behind this beer: “experimental”, “science”, and “advancement”, reflecting the importance of the research and theory that went into the product development.
Elaborating on the label design Mizutome remarked “The label illustrates our efforts to pursue unknown flavors and aromas through the imagery of colorful liquids being mixed. The mixture of various shapes represents the complex and delicate taste of “Hop Frontier”. In contrast, the symbol mark is simple and powerful, representing a new challenge. The symbol combines elements from the shape of hop cones and the appearance of the skeletal formula of organic compounds associated with beer aroma.”
The Hop Frontier has a rich floral aroma and a smooth mouthfeel with hints of coconuts and vanilla alongside tropical fruit.
Designed as a beer accessible to dedicated craft beer fans and beginners alike it showcases the latest trend as well as industry leading advancements in Japan’s rapidly evolving craft beer scene.
