ix. The Hermit

Description

Hazy IPA
Brewed to celebrate our ninth birthday. The Hermit was brewed with a blend of pils malt, raw oats grown right here on the farm, and a sprinkling of chit and wheat malts.
Hopped right up with Nelson Sauvin from @eggershops and @yakimachief Citra and fermented with a haze positive ester forward English ale strain.
As usual with our IPAs we’re after making a balanced beer, where the hops, yeast and malt all sing in harmony. Fairly dry - not cloying and sweet. Bitter - but not aggressively so. Complex - but not muddy. Of course this being a birthday IPA we’ve gone slightly overboard with the hops, pushing all the fruity notes and pulling every lever we’ve learned over the past few years of brewing hoppy beers to let the hops sing. We’re getting tropical notes of pineapple and passionfruit, with a little bitter grapefruit and a touch of hoppy dankness.
For those wondering about the name, the Hermit is the Ninth major arcana in the tarot deck, representing the pursuit of inner (hoppy) wisdom as well as a nod to local folklore around our neighbour the Hermit of Warkworth.