AURORA | With their cloudy hue, IPAs made popular in the northeastern United States are pretty unpopular among some brewers.
That cloudiness, the argument goes, is a sign that the brewer didn’t pt forth the necessary effort to get a crisp, clean brew.
At Ursula Brewery in Aurora, head brewer Dave Olson disagrees. The cloudiness of those IPAs with low bitterness and tropical notes is the result of a heavy dose of oats and wheat, not a brewer’s laziness.
“It’s really more of a result of the process,” Olson said.
Last week, Olson tapped Ursula’s new Lazy Brewer IPA, a northeastern IPA with a tongue-in-cheek name aimed at the style’s critics.
Olson said the beer has been popular so far, even though it didn’t have quite the cloudiness he was going for.
“It cleared up a little more than I thought it would,” he said.
Also this week, Ursula unveiled their Ship Without a Rudder English mild. The light brown ale comes in at 4.2-percent ABV, and Olson said it’s especially easy to drink.
The beer is a “second running” brewer with some of the leftover ingredients from a Baltic porter that Ursula has yet to release. Olson said they chose the name because the crew there wasn’t sure what to expect when they brewed this one, so they felt a little like a rudderless ship.
IN OTHER NEWS
- Soon you’ll be able to find some new cans from Copper Kettle Brewing Co. The brewery near South Valentia Street and Parker Road this week announced they were canning their IPA and Milk Stout, with both set for a May 21 release.
- Some city big wigs got a taste of Dry Dock Brewing Co.’s special Aurora Ale this week. Bottles of the beer, brewed to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Aurora’s founding as the town of Fletcher back in 1891, were among the centerpieces at this week’s State of the City speech by Mayor Steve Hogan.
