You may not know it but it pays to be aware of your latitude. Without it, how can you possibly work out how short your winter days are? Or what vegetables stand the best chance to flourish in your backyard? As it turns out, Melbourne and Oakland, California are both as far from the equator as one another, with the former Latitude 37.8 South and the latter 37.8 North, which might explain the two cities' shared love of West Coast IPAs. Well, Wolf of the Willows and Original Pattern certainly share a deep passion for that style anyway and the two breweries have swapped hemispheres to brew a cracking one.
In December, Andy Crocker from Original Pattern was in Melbourne to brew the local Latitude 37.8, while Scotty and the McKinnon family Wolf popped over to Oakland in January to brew their side of the collaboration. Adding to the beer's cross-hemisphere credentials was the choice of hops, with America’s experimental HBC 586 and Australia’s own Eclipse both part of the picture. It's everything you'd expect from latitudinally-devised West Coast too, with the lean, dry and bitter beer providing heavy hits of mandarin, grapefruit, pine and herbaceous notes.
Will Ziebell
If you'd like to be among the first to try the beer and learn about its creation, head along to Wolf of the Willows taproom from 6.30pm on February 10.
Or if you'd like to win a four-pack of the beer, we're currently running a competition for our Crafty Cabal members.
Published February 8, 2023 2023-02-08 00:00:00
