By Writer
Photos: Illustrations by Courtney Spencer

Beer from Here /NATIVE | ISSUE 82 | NASHVILLE, TN

Beer from Here: Jackalope’s Brutiful Beast

BEER FROM HERE: Jackalope’s Brutiful Beast

With Kyle Cooke, writer at NATIVE

Beer Name: Brutiful Beast

Brewery: Jackalope Brewing Company

Style: Brut IPA

ABV: 5.5%

Food Pairing: Capunti pasta with herbs, Meyer lemon, and peas

Appearance: Light gold

Aroma: Citrusy and floral

Where to Find It: Jackalope’s two locations: The Den or The Ranch

Overall Takeaways: Last week I was reading on my sofa when I heard my upstairs neighbor begin to tune his guitar on the balcony, causing the dog next door to go absolutely nuts. The discordant jam sesh means only one thing: spring is officially here. Unlike my “Wonderwall”-singing neighbor (lucky me), my favorite lazy springtime activity is to enjoy a beer with dinner at the small bistro set we have on our balcony. For my most recent dinner, I tried Jackalope Brewing Company’s Brutiful Beast, a champagne-inspired IPA. It’s the perfect beer to ring in the new season, because like champagne, it’s crisp, fruit-forward, and refreshingly drinkable. Brutiful Beast is brewed with Citra and Amarillo hops, hence the beer’s citrusy and floral aroma and taste. The beer is light gold, almost pale yellow in color, so much so that if you were to serve it in a champagne flute it would look a whole lot like everyone’s favorite aperitif. Of course, that is by design. Just like champagne, Brutiful Beast has a very dry finish that begs you to keep sipping.

I paired this beer with a fitting spring dish: capunti pasta with fresh herbs, Meyer lemon, and peas. The beer’s citrus notes worked nicely with the sweet, less intense acidity of the Meyer lemon. The pasta’s fresh herbs—parsley, basil, mint, and chives—provided a cooling effect on the palate that was welcome on a sunny evening.

Not unlike this spring season, brut IPAs are in their infancy. Kim Sturdavant, brewmaster at San Francisco’s Social Kitchen and Brewery, is credited with brewing the first brut IPA in 2017. Renowned breweries like Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada soon followed suit, and now you can find the newfangled IPA at breweries all across the country. Cheers to that.

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