Our Luponic Distortion IPA series makes a statement with this newest release featuring bold flavors of peach, pear drop and dragon fruit, all derived exclusively from 100 percent natural hops.
When we created our Luponic Distortion IPA series, we turned our brewing team loose to plunder the many marvels of the hop revolution, with the freedom to break the rules with each new release.
Always made with the same base beer, each release features a new hop blend with a focus on emerging and experimental cultivars—all to showcase the mindbending flavors that can be achieved solely through hops.
Which brings us to our latest Luponic Distortion release—a blend of six hops from Germany, the Pacific Northwest and New Zealand, all combining to deliver explosive flavors of peach, pear drop and dragonfruit.
— Brewmaster Matt BrynildsonLuponic Distortion is this beer that can keep morphing and stay interesting and remain out in front of this crazy hop wave.
The Mystery Hops
With the Luponic Distortion project, we never give away the details regarding the specific hops varieties that we use – this secrecy and mystery differs from our other beers… Firestone Walker has historically shared recipes for our other beers with fans and the public at large. Some of this mystery is because we use this project to explore new and rare experimental hops that we are lucky to gain access to. Beyond that, it’s just fun.
For this rotation of Luponic, we drew hops from three continents to create this interesting flavor combination. Hops from the United States, New Zealand and Germany went into this iteration. When exploring some of the flavor hops that come out of the more recent New Zealand hop breeding efforts, we came across a hop that had distinctive notes of candied Pear Drop which if you haven’t tried them and we had to describe it further we would say it combines the aroma of pears with banana in a sweet aromatic treat. Dragon Fruit is how we describe an interesting blend of American Cultivars with tropical characteristics. Pineapple, Kiwi, bright flavors which are very complementary to the New Zealand hops. Peachy stone fruit notes can be attributed to the German hops although we get a little pear drop there too. We were focusing on more of the tropical side of the spectrum and less of the piney, herbal side of the hop world.
The two German hops are among Brewmaster Matt Brynildson’s favorite discoveries from his forays to a variety of family hop farms in Hallertau. “With these hops, it’s all about getting this fresh, bright fruit without a lot of dank character, reminiscent of ripe peach,” he says.
Meanwhile, the combination of three “new school” Pacific Northwest cultivars leads to a distinctive dragonfruit character, which is closely akin to a tropical pineapple aroma. Two of these hops have a softer, juicier character, while the other has a more edgy citrus quality. “The alchemy of these three hops resulted in this cool dragonfruit aroma,” Matt says.
Then there’s the New Zealand-grown hop, which fittingly happens to be a cross between an American cultivar and a German cultivar, but grown Down Under in New Zealand. “It’s the perfect way to tie this blend together,” Matt says. “It has this fresh peach and pear drop character that’s really distinctive.”
No fruits. No flavorings. No shortcuts. Just the magic of 100 percent natural hops.
— Brewmaster Matt BrynildsonI get pretty excited about all of the Luponic Distortion releases. It’s an opportunity to see first-hand how some of these unexplored hop varieties work in a sessional IPA. It’s always fun to get the public’s reaction to these new hops and hop combinations.
The latest rotation of Luponic Distortion is available now. Use our Beer Finder tool to find Luponic and other Firestone beers nearest you. Use a trusted app such as Drizly, Minibar or Instacart to get Firestone beers delivered to your door.
Get $4 back when you buy two Firestone six packs, learn more here. Luponic Distortion is 5.9% ABV.
