Asheville beer drinkers will get first crack at New Belgium Brewing’s RyePA, brewed with Carolina Rye™ from Asheville’s own Riverbend Malt House, when the beer launches locally here in late-February. RyePA, a Hop Kitchen offering from New Belgium, uses rye grown in North Carolina and floor malted by Riverbend Malt House. A handful of other regional accounts will tap the RyePA through the end of the month. This Hop Kitchen limited release will be available nationally on draft and in 22-oz bottles by early March.
Taste the Beer: A limited quantity of RyePA will be available at Asheville on Bike’s Bike Love, a bicycle advocacy event and fundraiser, at Isis Restaurant and Music Hall in Asheville, NC, on Saturday, February 22.
Meet the Brewer/Maltster: Matty Gilliland, Brewing Process Analyst, New Belgium Brewing and Riverbend Malt House Maltsters– 8-10 p.m. on Thursday, February 20, 2014 upstairs at Barley’s Tap Room & Pizzeria in downtown Asheville, NC.
“Tapping this collaborative ale in our new home with new friends is a great way to recognize the quality and depth of the Asheville brewing community,” said New Belgium Brewer, Matty Gilliland. “We were really inspired by the operation out at Riverbend.”
New Belgium brewers and Riverbend co-founders first met at Asheville Beer Week in 2012 and developed a beer for Asheville Beer Week 2013 – a Rye Saison using Riverbend’s Carolina Rye™ malt. Brewers were so pleased with the beer, they decided to use the Carolina Rye™ in RyePA which is part of New Belgium’s Hop Kitchen series. Hop Kitchen beers are hoppier experimental offerings that rotate quarterly and are distributed throughout New Belgium’s 37 states of distribution.
“Having been grown by farmers in North Carolina for more than 200 years and hand-crafted utilizing traditional floor malting techniques, the Carolina Rye™ malt embodies the terroir of the southeast,” said Riverbend co-founder Brian Simpson. “Riverbend Malt House is excited that New Belgium will bring this taste of the South to so many new palates.”
RyePA, made with 40% rye malt, is the first time that a beer made with North Carolina craft malt will be given this wide of a distribution footprint. This strain of rye has grown in the state since the Civil War.
This beer is brimming with big hop flavors. Galaxy, Cascade, Simcoe and Mosaic hops round out the hop profile. Big, juicy, fruity hop flavors are complemented by a spicy rye finish.
