You've probably heard of microdosing when it comes to drugs. This isn't that.
But our head brewer and co-founder DJ borrowed the term as it aptly describes what he's doing with our hop regime and given no one else has done it before, we get naming rights!
So what exactly are we doing when we say we're microdosing beer?
Well, we're experimenting with our hop regime.
Normally when we brew we add a couple of big hop additions - one in the brewing process and one during fermentation (or maybe two in a double dry hop).
And for these hop additions we usually only combine a maximum of two different hops to create the flavour we're going for.
But with microdosing, we're turning all that on its head.
Firstly, we've created our own Mountain Culture Hop Blends by combining at least four different hop types together.
Then, we've added small doses of those blends lots of different times during the brewing process, mostly during fermentation.
This means that when the hops have contact with the beer, they're being activated with different pH values because of where the beer is at in the brewing process and different levels of yeast activity throughout fermentation.
This theoretically strips different flavours and characteristics from the hop pellet.
As mentioned, we don't know anyone who is microdosing so the experimental nature of these brews is high but so far, we're stoked with the results.
We'll keep you posted on exactly how to microdose if you're a homebrewing in a later blog.
The result of this microdosing experiment can be tasted in our Microdose Series beers - Psychonaut WCIPA, Ego Death NEIPA, Bicycle Day OCIPA, Afterglow NEIPA