Two of the most respected hazy IPA brewers in the United States—Sapwood Cellars of Columbia, Maryland, and Fidens of Albany, New York—put their heads together to brew this hazy double IPA in 2023 with an assist from Eggers Hops of Upper Moutere, New Zealand.
“Riwaka can famously have a strong diesel dankness,” says Sapwood Cellars cofounder Scott Janish, “but it was a little restrained in Hidden Thiols—still apparent and clearly Riwaka, though—but that allowed more stone-fruit and citrus notes, primarily grapefruit, to shine.”
Hop grower Kem Eggers sent a couple of boxes of Riwaka from his favorite lot of that year’s harvest, Janish says. “He also sent some for thiol testing, which came back with a bunch of the usual suspects—3S4MP, 3SH—but nothing that really suggested it was the signature diesel-dank-grapefruit character we get from Riwaka. Likely it is ‘hidden’ in the more than 40 percent of the thiols detected that were unidentified—hence the name!”
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.086 (20.6°P)
FG: 1.020 (5.1°P)
IBUs: 44
ABV: 7.8%
