Brewing R&D
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We shifted our legacy all-natural, premium ingredient recipes to exclusively organic ingredients in 2023 and continue to partner with accomplished brewers to scale our current organic "core" and "National" IPA selections as well as other beverage formulations.
Our original "Brew Lab" for recipe development was located in Connecticut, at Shebeen Brewing, from 2013 to 2020 - it was one of the pioneers of a number of its own IPA varieties and its talented brewmasters even coached fellow brewers at larger breweries in the region on some of their unique flavor-harnessing techniques over the years.
This Brew Lab is where our 2017 NYC IPA™ debut offering and 2019 NYC IPA™ varietal iterations (pictured below) were formulated - and, where we learned a lot about not just about brewing but also other less apparent yet just as important, aspects of operating a brewery - from sustainability initiatives for spent grain via collaborations with local farmers to energy and water conservation methods and more. To that end, hot-water recovery techniques, unique mash filters and other methods were helpful in considerably reducing the 6 gallons of water utilized to brew each gallon of beer to 4 gallons or less. For recipe development, experimentation ran the gamut, we sourced Tri-State grains, worked with yeast culturists in the NYC metropolitan region and even grew some hop varieties at the brewery. Our team certainly appreciated the brewing expertise and insight gleaned since first collaborating with them for product development back in 2013 for our first offering - a hop-forward, nutrient-infused IPA.
Our Private-Label program began in 2018 and expanded our network of production-ready brewing facilities to other regions throughout the country the following year.
Our pre-requisites for partner brewers include:
- Consistent quality with the ability to scale to meet demand and otherwise ensure timely production of our IPA recipes - all of which utilize only highest-quality, all-natural, organic (as of 2023) ingredients.
- Access for our in-house team and regional consultants to calibrate the water utilized in the brewing process for our IPAs to have the pH (7.2 - 8.0) and approximate mineral composition to the baseline data for our lab-tested NYC tap water (based on samples drawn in winter months from the borough of Manhattan) in order to ensure consistency no matter where within the NYC Watershed area or in other regions of the country we brew.
It is worth noting, each of our contract-brewing collaborations always seem to arm us with some blend of recipe-scaling know-how, regional recipe development insight, unique ingredient twists and various other production benefits which, in time, become part of our standard procedures (such as, not to get too technical, reduction of overall grain-to-can brew time techniques which serve the purpose of increasing per batch yield) - but, most importantly, symbiotic synergies aside, our brewing collaborations (along with connoisseur and cicerone feedback) provide us the capability to meet the needs of Private-Label clients nationwide - as well, we always seem to make some new friendships along the way.
Consistency, reliability and creativity are staples of all of the breweries we partner with as such characteristics ensure our 4 "core" IPA recipes - NYC IPA, Session IPA, Double IPA and Imperial IPA) and "National" IPA iterations - Cold, White, Black & NA - are made with the highest-quality standards in addition to the nuance of some geographical region-specific seasonals that provide us and our clients with a stable of IPA offerings that are premium in nature and always delivered fresh.
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2019 Special Editions of NYC IPA™
NYC IPA™ CITYSCAPE (2019 recipe - 1 Pint)
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Prior iterations have included Special Editions of our "core" portfolio that started with our NYC IPA™ Original/Flagship in 2017.
NYC IPA™ Original/Flagship (2017 - 12 oz.)
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Our 4 "core" IPAs are available only in the NYC Metropolitain-area.
Each recipe continues to be further refined batch by batch with the help of experienced craft beer-connoisseurs, certified-cicerones and skilled brewmasters that help us bring to these and other creations to life for commercial production.
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#1 NYC IPA™ Original/Flagship (2019 recipe - 1 Pint)
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#2 NYC IPA™ Double (2019 recipe - 1 Pint)
An even bolder iteration of our 2017 flagship is our NYC IPA - Double™ (9.5% ABV) which elevated hoppiness to the next level with 2x the hops with a recipe featuring Idaho #7 combined with greater-NYC grown hops, yeast, malts and grains.
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#3 NYC IPA™ Session (2019 recipe - 1 Pint)
Our refreshing sessionable offering, our NYC IPA-Session™ (5.0% ABV) was formulated to provide all the hoppiness you expect from our flagship with an enhanced-drinkability ABV thanks to Enigma® in addition to Galaxy® and Nelson Sauvin® hop varieties combined with greater-NYC grown hops, yeast, malts and grains.
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#4 NYC IPA™ Imperial (2019 recipe - 12. oz.)
Our Limited-release NYC IPA-Imperial™ represented yet another hop step-up (3x the hops) balanced-out with selected malts to deliver intense peaks and smooth bass lines. Our hop and malt-blend also features greater-NYC grown hops, yeast, malts and grains.
This release is only able to be produced with our partner breweries 1x per year with slight variation year-to-year, at the discretion of the brewmaster, in the recipe to keep things interesting.
