Fresh grind ale is newest year-round offering

By Steve Graham

You might expect a brewery executive to make brewing less expensive and more efficient.

Not Odell Brewing Co. COO Brendan McGivney. Last year, he had a crazy idea that made brewing more expensive and less efficient.

He wanted a new way to optimize the hops in a beer, so he asked his staff to make a custom mill and grind fresh hop flowers on-site. The milled hops were brewed into Rupture, a whole new style of beer Odell is calling a fresh grind ale.

“It’s a wildly inefficient process, but once we tried the test batches, we knew it was worth the effort,” said brewing manager Bill Beymer. “What we grind that day, we use that day. There’s a bit of a ticking clock that starts as soon as you rupture the lupulin. To get the hops at their peak, you need to move fast. It’s a lot like coffee. We all know fresh ground beans make for a more complex cup of joe. Rupture applies those same principles to hops.”

Most beers are brewed with hops pellets shipped from off-site, or with whole flower hops. Whole flower hops are fresh and stable, but the lupulin and other oils are locked in and can’t contribute their full aroma and flavor. Oils are released as hops are ground and formed into pellets, but the aromas and flavors can fade quickly as the pellets are stored and shipped. Odell quality manager Eli Kolodny said the smell of the hops oils takes over the brewery every time they make a batch of Rupture.

“It’s such an intense and deep aroma while we’re grinding,” he said. “The oil comes right out. You almost feel it in the air.”

The Rupture grinding process takes about six hours from raw hops to the brew kettle.

“It’s so much less efficient at every possible step,” Kolodny said. “There are so many good reasons not to make this beer. There are a lot of obstacles, but we are willing to take a chance on something like this.”

Rupture has complex flavors and aromas, but without the bitterness of a typical IPA or other hop-forward ale. Odell is so confident in these qualities that it introduced Rupture as the newest year-round offering after a couple of summer test batches.

It’s working so far, at least for some customers. On a recent Saturday afternoon, Fort Collins newcomer Andrew Dubin enjoyed a taster tray that included Rupture alongside some beloved Odell mainstays, including the IPA and the 5 Barrel Pale Ale. Dubin said Rupture was his hands-down favorite.

“It’s got that citrus-y taste to it,” he said. “I would definitely order it again.”