With all the young, flirtatious upstarts popping up around Alberta, gathering the attentions of the wandering-eye beer consumer, one wonders what the established craft breweries need to do to re-capture some of the attention that used to go their way. Looking at the recent activities of Wild Rose, Alley Kat and others, the plan is to (at the risk of taking this metaphor too far) spice things up a little. The more established breweries are ramping up their approach to one-offs and seasonals, trying to both offer more of them and to make them more eye-catching in their ingredients, approaches or styles.

Case in point: Alley Kat’s new Back Alley Series which launched this summer. These one-off beer, I am told driven by suggestions from the brewers, attempt to play around in a way that Alley Kat, known for their steady hand and sound decision making (except for the Full Moon oopsie), is usually careful not to do. The first out was a spruce beer made with hand-harvested spruce tips. I don’t recall a prairie brewery attempting a spruce beer before (but could be wrong), so that was newsworthy.

Second up, released last week, is High Level IPA. An IPA may not seem like a way to spice things up, and ordinarily it isn’t. However, the Alley Kat brewers experimented with hop bursting for the beer – again (I think) a prairie first.

For those unawares, hop bursting is a process where the bulk of the hops are added late in the boil. Usually beer achieves its bitterness from early additions of hops to allow time for isomerization. Late additions in the last 15 minutes are made to add hop flavour and aroma. Hop bursting eschews the traditional timing and instead adds high volumes of hops late in the boil – 15 minutes and less. The theory is the method reduces the sharpness of the bitterness and allows hop flavour and bitterness to blend more into the beer. At least that is the theory – I admit to never having tried it at home and can’t recall sampling a commercial example (again, that could just be my bad memory).

When I was told by the rep that they hop burst the beer, my ears pricked up. Why do I suspect the eye of many beer aficionados will dart Alley Kat’s way upon that news?

Of course, theory is one thing and practice is another. How did the beer turn out? First, they report using three hop varieties in the beer: Eldorado, Mandarina Bavaria and Jarrylo. The IBUs are in the IPA zone at about 52 IBUs. [edited Sept. 12 to correct IBU number.]

The beer pours dark gold with a big, rocky, consistent white head that leaves some lacing. Carbonation might be a bit subdued, but still decent. Really, it looks gorgeous in the glass. The aroma is strongly characterized by fruit. I pick up peach, mango, orange, some other vague citrus and hints of red berry. A lightly toasted malt along with some sweet toffee complement the fruit. I also detect hints of graininess. The aroma is a really nice start. It has a really smooth hop character that blends really well with the malt and fruity esters.

In the taste first impressions are strong stone fruit and citrus blend, with a bit of pine blended in for good measure. The malt has a highly recognizable Full Moon malt character. Light toffee, some toast and biscuit and soft graininess. Then there is the hop flavour, which is the dominant feature of this beer. I pick up at various moments evidence of peach, pine, grapefruit, orange and pineapple. It is a complex interplay of flavours. The finish is balanced with both a noted malt sweetness and an assertive hop character. The bitter linger is surprisingly smooth and fruity. It might be more about what it is missing – that resin-y, sharp, almost astringent quality many IPAs have. It really softens the overall impression of the beer.

I like that in addition to a complex and intriguing hop profile, the base beer has that classic Alley Kat character as well, making it seem comfortingly familiar while charting into unexplored regions of beer flavour. In a way it is scarily drinkable.

Will hopheads approve? I don’t know. Those looking for a lupulin kick might be disappointed. But if you want to experience other dimensions of what hops can bring to beer, this one might offer something of value. As I say my lack of hop-bursting experience limits my ability to offer a definitive conclusion on whether High Level IPA is a success or not. It seems to hit all the notes that a hop-bursted beer should achieve. And I certainly know I wouldn’t turn it down if someone offered me another.