The Brew SiteReceived: Shock Top Wheat IPA
I have to say, one style I wouldn’t have expected the big breweries to delve into (even as part of their smaller “craft” branches) is the relatively-new Wheat or Belgian IPA… but that’s exactly what Anheuser-Busch has done with their latest Shock Top release: Shock Top Wheat IPA, which I received a six-pack of this week.
This is slated to hit the shelves nationally on the 6th (Monday), and at first blush—it’s rather interesting and actually not bad at all. I’ll be drinking more and writing up review notes for it this weekend sometime.
(And no, I don’t automatically turn my nose up at macro-brewed brands remember—I’m a beer geek, not a beer snob, and I’m always interested in trying new beers—whether from A-B or the newest nanobrewery down the street.)
Some details from the press release:
The newest full-time addition to the Shock Top family, Shock Top Wheat IPA is a unique hybrid style that brings the refreshment and smoothness of a wheat beer and marries it with the crisp, hoppy bitterness of an India Pale Ale (IPA).
To create the new beer, brewmasters started with Shock Top’s signature recipe, adding citrusy Cascade and Magnum hops and dry hopping the beer for several days to give Wheat IPA the rich, hoppy aroma that is the signature of IPAs. Containing 5.8% alcohol by volume (ABV), Shock Top Wheat IPA will be sold nationwide in six- and 24-packs of 12-ounce bottles and on draught.
Which interestingly puts it at about the same level as Deschutes‘ Chainbreaker White IPA (just recently announced as the newest year-round addition to their bottled line-up).
More soon.
I haven’t seen the beer (nor, obviously, tasted it). The ABV may be the same at Chainbreaker, but I’m pretty sure the IBUs are approximately half in the Shock Top.
Oh, definitely not as hoppy by any stretch; though there is more bitterness than I would have expected. The point about ABV speaks (in the back of my mind) more to the (anecdotal) fact that people expect something labeled “IPA” to be stronger (at least 6% or more), which I’ve heard naysayers point to beers like this to say they aren’t “real” or legitimate somehow, but with Deschutes Chainbreaker at the same level it would be hard to argue that point.
Of course, leaving aside what a “real” Belgian IPA is at all………..