Back in craft beer’s early days, when IPA was synonymous with bitterness, there were four American hops that anyone serious about making modern craft beer brewed with: Cascade, Centennial, Columbus and Chinook (or the Four Cs) were all known for their distinctive character and, when used as a combination, were a wonderful way to make a West Coast or classic American pale. Fast forward a few years and the citrus and tropical combination of Citra has turned it one of craft’s top hops, which means you’ll find it included in many lists of those classic C hops.
Fox Friday’s core range Pale Ale is a celebration of four out of five of those Cs, with Cascade dropped but Chinook, Citra, Centennial and Columbus doing plenty of heavy lifting. It pours perfectly clear and delivers familiar pine and zesty grapefruit oil characters, some more floral and earthy notes, and a big bitter finish along with some more left-of-centre elements: a hint of bubblegum, a country fayre jam made with an obscure heritage fruit from nana’s garden, a touch of gooseberry.
All in all, enough to make it stand apart from the 4Cs pales of yore, presumably in part down to the use of a New England yeast strain.
