By Marline Esquivel and Kailee Santiago, March 12, 2024
In celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, Innovation Brew Works had curated two Irish-flavored beers for the CPP campus to enjoy on Sunday, March 17. New drinks include an Irish Whiskey stave aged stout, and in keeping with St. Patrick’s Day traditions, a green glitter beer called Class Clown.
Each beer at IBW goes through an extensive brewing process: malting, milling, mashing, lautering, boiling, fermenting, conditioning, filtering and packaging. Eric Bassett, Innovation Brew Works brewer, uses wood staves shaped in a spiral to get quicker contact with the beer, adding a more complex and distinct flavor to the Irish beer.
“I’m going to soak these in some Irish whiskey for a few days and then soak them into a stout cage for another week. We will have an Irish whiskey, stave aged stout so working on the shorter description of it,” Bassett said.
The base of the Class Clown beer is IBW Blonde beer.
“The beer is our blonde, one of our most neutral flavoring beers. It’s probably why it’s the most popular. It can get a kind of light honey, a very light, toasty sweetness. It’s got a nice dry and effervescent finish to it. Goes down very easily at 4.2%. Very sessionable, something you can have with food, eat the salad sandwich or all by itself. It’s just a great easy drinking beer” Bassett added.
St. Patrick’s Day beers and other specialty beers are very limited due to cage dosing. Bassett will add flavoring into the cage versus making a full batch, causing IBW to have a limited weekly special. Last year the Saint Patrick’s Day beer sold out within days.
Frida Hernandez, construction engineering student, enjoys Innovation Brew Works and is looking forward to trying out its new Irish Beer.
“To be honest, I am not the biggest fan of beer but the Irish beer from here looks and sounds amazing,” Hernandez said. “The glitter in it makes it look so pretty and tasty.”
Class Clown beer will only be sold in-house, the goal is to encourage in-house sales and for customers to consume and enjoy the visualization of the brewed beer at IBW. Irish Whiskey stave aged stout will be sold in-house and only in 32oz growler fills for carryout. Along with the Irish specialty beers, IBW will offer Irish food options such as corned beef sandwich and corned beef pizza.
IBW routinely incorporates seasonal beers for major holidays. Last month Lunar New Year welcomed the Year of the Dragon wittier also known as “white” beer. The wheat beer was light and refreshing with a prominent pineapple and CPP orange taste, averaging 4.1.%. alc.
For April, Bassett is already thinking of what to brew for Easter, possibly a marshmallow fluff cream ale. Customers will have to wait and see.
Another local Irish Beer that CPP students can take in this St. Patrick’s Day is made by one of CPP’s faculty members.
Owen Williams, CPP lecturer, not only likes to spend his time teaching CPP students about different types of beers and food pairings but also likes to create his own beers. Williams has been a brewer for more than 30 years and currently owns his own beer company, Ritual and a brewery, Ritual Brewing Co. in Redlands.
Williams’ love for beer began when his father started brewing from home and shortly realized how inexpensive and better tasting the beer was. This created a spark for Williams, as he created multiple award-winning beers in the Inland Empire.
“We just recently won a bronze medal for our big deluxe and imperial oats stout at the World Beer Cup,” Williams said. “We also have serval gold and silvers for our big deluxe, fat hog, imperial oat stout and British style barley wine.”
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, the Ritual Brewing Co. will be hosting Irish dancers on March 9 as well as serving its Honey Buzz Irish beer dyed green.
“The beer weighs in at 4.7% alcohol and is made with local sustainable organic honey,” Willams added.
Irish beer is usually green to symbolize the immature, unfermented beer that the Irish use to drink. The beer makes a great pair with saltier foods.
“Coddle, bacon, Shepherd’s pie, potatoes and corn beef and cabbage,” Wiliams noted.
Innovation Brew Works will be open from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m. on St. Patrick’s Day. Check out their online menu that contains beer, pizza, desert and more on the IBW website.
Feature image courtesy of Innovation Brew Works