Behind the Bar - Spin Back IPA
Author: Barmacral Tigana
This month I’m going to indulge myself a bit and review a beer you likely haven’t had a chance to try yet. Over the past few months I’ve been helping out at a small local brewery learning all the ins and outs of what is involved in professional brewing. During this time I’ve gotten to know the various beers made fairly well and definitely encourage anyone to pick them up, should you get the opportunity. The brewery is Beer Studio and is located in Umea, Sweden.
A powerful 7.3%, Spin Back IPA is a rich orange colour and is completely clear, which is impressive for a beer that is both unfiltered and unpasteurized. It has a decent white head that lasts a little while before fading and smells of citrus and pine. The flavour starts with a solid but not overwhelming bitterness that is soundly in IPA territory and finishes with some mild malt sweetness and lots of fruitiness.
Rating: 4/5 – A solid IPA with lots of fresh citrus fruit character to it. An excellent beer to enjoy at any time.
Beer Facts: Unfiltered & Unpasteurized (or filtering and pasteurizing)
Beer is created by yeast consuming sugars and creating alcohol, but this results in yeast being left in the beer once the fermentation is done. This is what the stuff at the bottom of your bottle is when you get craft beers. There is nothing wrong with it and it is perfectly safe to drink. It is however not necessarily dead. Pasteurization would kill any yeast left in the beer to ensure no further activity by raising the temperature to more than 70C (158F) for a period of time to kill the yeast and filtering is the act of removing the yeast from the beer entirely. Large breweries generally always do these things, sometimes home brewers and small breweries will too but just as often they won’t.
