“Candied peach rings.” Those are the first words out of Jordan Harvey’s mouth describing Dreaming of Lions, the Lost Generation hazy double IPA that’s our Beer of the Month with The Brew Shop in Arlington. “There’s a bit of papaya in there, too,” Harvey adds. This 8.0% ABV beer is hopped with New Zealand Cascade, Alora, and Krush hops and is named after a line in an Ernest Hemingway novella: “He only dreamed of places now and of the lions on the beach. They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them….”
Let’s keep talking about hops. Most of us know and love Cascade, one of the three most popular hops in the United States by acreage (the other two are Citra and Mosaic). It’s the backbone of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and countless other IPAs and pale ales. New Zealand Cascade is still plenty citrusy, something Brandy Holder picked up on while discussing Dreaming of Lions, but also adds a bit more tropical fruit at the expense of some of the more herbal characteristics of US-grown Cascade. The citrus notes themselves in NZ Cascade often present as softer and sweeter as opposed to the pithy expression of the US version. Dreaming of Lions leans on the sweeter side in no small part thanks to the hopping, but it’s well attenuated for a hazy IPA, with a pleasant carbonation.
Plus, August is for Leos, and we’ve got a few in the DC Beer community. Happy birthday to us, and DC Beer Patreon members enjoy 10% 4-packs of this lion-themed beer all month long!
