92 Rating – Fulton Beer – 300

BC: Who came up with this beer’s recipe?
At Fulton we have a fairly collaborative process for recipe formulation. I like to get everyone involved and get as many opinions as possible from within the company before finalizing a recipe. 300 was a little bit different -- it was more of a wild card the first time we brewed it. We wanted to make a special beer for the 300th batch from our original downtown brewery and it was supposed to be a wet-hopped IPA made with Cascade hops grown in the Midwest. We were working with a small hop farm and they had some problems with their harvest and were not able to supply us with the wet hops we were planning to brew with. At the time we didn’t have much space for malt and hop storage so I had to figure out something to do with the malt I was planning to use for the wet hop IPA. I took a look through our cooler and found a few boxes of Mosaic hops that we had purchased for experimentation and decided to make a Mosaic-forward, West Coast-style IPA. I utilized the malt intended for the wet hop IPA and created a hop bill with the Mosaic hops we had on hand, and brewed the first 20 bbl of 300.

BC: What’s your favorite aspect of this beer (flavor, aroma, etc.)?
It’s hard to pick one. The aroma is amazing but that’s to be expected when using copious amounts of Mosaic hops in the kettle as well as for dry hop. We use Carawheat malt in this beer too, which gives a nice malt balance/mouthfeel and makes it a little bit less aggressive than other massively hopped IPAs. I think the cohesiveness between malt and hops while still remaining a truly hop-forward beer is my favorite aspect.

BC: Where does this beer’s name come from?
The first time we brewed this beer was a special brew for the 300th batch of beer we brewed out of our original downtown brewery, and thus, 300.

BC: Can you describe this beer in 10 words or less?
Delicious.

BC: Do you know a story – or have a personal story – that revolves around this beer?
To me this beer is an example of resourcefulness. As a brewer you have to improvise and work with what you are given constantly. Circumstances are almost never ideal and you have to make the best of every situation (see above story). The origin of 300 IPA isn’t the only example that showcases the resourcefulness of brewers… after the first 20-bbl batch went over well we had to figure out how to make more. Raw materials, especially high-demand raw materials (such as Mosaic hops), are not easy to come by. It took us a quite a while to secure enough hops to take this beer from a taproom favorite to a year-round beer. To me it’s amazing to see a beer that essentially started out as a “cabinet cleaner” become one of our most successful and bestselling beers. 

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