Trying in vain to align your chakras? Tired of reading inaccurate tea leaves? Open the WILD CARD ASTROLOGY BOX. Harness the arcane power of the stars to find out what YOUR FUTURE holds.
To produce our next series of beer, we turned to one of the world’s oldest and most sophisticated systems of divination – ASTROLOGY. We commissioned artist Roma-May Daly to illustrate these cans; her work is predominantly linear and textured illustration, traditionally in fine liner, pen and ink. She drew on her usual inspirations of the natural world, esoteric knowledge and lore, creating beautiful line-drawings of Scorpio, Sagittarius and Capricorn – the celestial bodies which rule the Autumn Zodiac.
The first of our trio of beers is Scorpio, a 5.4% Black IPA. Head brewer Jaega Wise’s recipe had a clear objective – her beer would have the dark rich colour associated with roasted malts, but retain the flavour only slightly, and finish with a zesty, refreshing, oat-forward profile. To do this, Jaega reworked our mash-in and sparge processes; she built up a lager and oat malt base, and then added just a smattering of the roasted barley Carafa III, sprinkling it in such a way as to impart colour rather than flavour. The light roast, oat-forward characteristics of this grainbill was counterbalanced with the hop combo, using the intense Waimea hop on the hot-side and finishing the dry hop with Cryo-Loral, Cryo-Mosaic and Cryo-HBC 472.
The earthbound Capricorn, cardinal sign of the Zodiac, rules our new special NEIPA. We wanted to brew a really classic New England IPA, with the characteristic big mouthfeel and thick pour. To craft the base, we used a combination of carapils, lager, malted and flaked oats, to give the beer a creamy, yoghurty texture. On the cold side, we added a double dry hop to infuse the beer with wonderful tropical aromas – Loral hops for tangy, sweet apricot juice, Citra and Azacca for zest and pine. The beer finishes bitter, off-setting the sweetness of the stone-fruits wonderfully.
Sagittarius, the Archer, presides over our Pale Ale. To give this beer its very special sweet finish, we created a whirlpool in the kettle, and then added Cryo-Citra, getting a sherbert-y, piney aroma without any bitterness. The result is a pale ale which is full-bodied, soft and pillowy, but still sessionable.
The full series is available as a bundle or in single cans on our webshop.
Press release from Wild Card Brewery
Contact: ellie.edmonds@wildcardbrewery.co.uk