Collaborating with The Garden Brewery

We're so close to being able to go out again and enjoy the company of friends, so close we can almost taste it. As one last hurrah before we are reunited we've collaborated with The Garden Brewery via the wonders of technology to brew Zagreb, a punchy TIPA hopped with Galaxy, Citra and HBC 431. 
This collab has been in the works for 15 months but with the past year has totally disrupted our dreams of brewing and visiting Croatia on the return leg of the collaboration. 

Despite the distance between us for the brew Pete and Tom from Garden were heavily involved in the brew recipe and worked closely with Matt and Gary to develop it. 
Vocation and Garden are both huge fans of Citra and Galaxy, so we knew we had to include both hops in this beer. We also jumped at the opportunity to work with a new experimental variety, HBC 431. 

Gary and Matt had discussions with Garden Head Brewer Pete Vick to decide on the best combination of hops that would best draw out all of the flavours and aromas. We used HBC 431 in the whirlpool along with Citra Incognito. For the dry hop we used Citra Cryo, HBC 431 and Galaxy. 

We used a different yeast strain for this brew. We normally use our house Vermont strain, but decided to use London Fog for this brew. This is the go-to strain for New England-style IPAs. It leaves some residual sweetness, helping accentuate both malt and hop flavours and aromas, while retaining a velvety mouthfeel. Exactly what we wanted to achieve with this 10% TIPA. 

From Zagreb you can expect notes of citrus, peach and passion fruit from the Galaxy and Citra, with HBC 431 providing a balanced, earthy undertone.

Cheers to Pete and Tom for the Collab! Here's hoping we'll be with our friends from The Garden Brewery sipping a beer in the sunshine soon.