Way back in early 2020, we had a little homebrew competition here at Tröegs. We turned 8 local clubs loose on a batch of LolliHop wort to see who would capture our hearts and palates.
It’s been awhile, but it’s finally time to celebrate the winning recipe. A paloma ale by Brian Mills of Palmyra!
A traditional paloma cocktail is made with tequila, lime juice and grapefruit soda, and those are the flavors Brian set out to capture.
“I added the LolliHop wort on top of an IPA I had fermenting on kveik yeast,” says Brian. “And I dry-hopped with some grapefruit-y hops. It was tasting pretty good. But then I was listening to a podcast and learned about palomas. I thought, I bet I could add some grapefruit and lime right into the keg and that would spruce this up real good.”
Sure enough, our brewers loved the idea.
“The fruit character was really good and something we wanted to try,” says Tröegs Brewing Manager Tim Mayhew. “We went a different direction with the grain bill to sweeten the malt component a bit.”
And here we are, with the release this Thursday of Scratch #437, a Paloma Ale brewed with honey malt, pale malt and pils malt with additions of grapefruit and lime. It clocks in at 6.6% ABV.
“Extremely quaffable,” says our Scratch Beer team. “Very fruity. Very fresh.”
We don’t have much of this, so if you want a taste, stop by our Tasting Room starting at 11 a.m. Thursday. Draft-only, and no crowlers, please. (Well … except for you, Brian! Congrats, buddy!)