Patrons Project 25.04 // Laura Slater // Galaxy //

For the fourth beer in our single hop series with Laura Slater, we return to the southern hemisphere. With this comes a flip in the seasons, the Australian harvest occurs around march, and these fresh hops arrive on UK shores at the end of our summer. The most heralded of the Australian varieties, Galaxy, is also one of the hardest varieties for a brewer to get hold of, even more frustrating given what a fantastic aroma hop it is. This year we’ve had some success, so leapt at the chance to give it the single-hop treatment. As you’d expect, we’ve utilised Galaxy at every stage of the hopping process, whirlpooling with 5g/l in a wort packed with the high portions of oats and wheat that’s come to be expected of the NE IPA style. For dry hopping we upped the rate to a heady 25g/l, to really take advantage of the rich oil content that large Galaxy hop cones deliver. The result is an IPA leading with big passion fruit and peach aromas which carry on to the palate, backed up with juicy mango, some citrus, and hints of grass and fern on the finish.