Arches Brewing Head Brewer Justin Ramirez Talks Low Viz IPA

We spoke with Arches Brewing Head Brewer Justin Ramirez about Low Viz IPA.

BC: Who came up with this beer’s recipe?
I developed the recipe on our 3-barrel pilot system. It saw a few different iterations of messing with the hop ratios and changing some of the base malt for color and character.

BC: What’s your favorite aspect of this beer (flavor, aroma, etc.)?
There are so many things going on with this beer it's hard to pick just one. The confluence of flavors is probably what does it for me. There is a blend of 5 different hops at varying ratios, which give it an amazing fruity hop complexity while still maintaining a classic "dankness." We use a large amount of locally sourced grains from Riverbend Malt House, which gives a nice malt platform for the hops to shine. It's fermented with a strain of Kviek yeast, which lends some hints of lime to the already fruity profile.

BC: Where does this beer’s name come from?
We are located in the airport district of Atlanta and so we wanted to give a nod to our neighbors here in town. One of our regulars (a pilot) came up with the name; Low Viz stands for low-visibility and Meteorological visibility refers to the transparency of air. In this case we are obviously talking about the beer because this one will not pour clear.

BC: Is this your “desert island beer?”
I don't know if i would say that, but it is probably my favorite IPA. However, if I'm spending time on an island I'm probably taking our light lager with me.

BC: Can you describe this beer in 10 words or less?
An experiment in fruit-forward, malt-balanced, dripping dank profligacy.

BC: Do you know a story – or have a personal story – that revolves around this beer?
The hop blend was inspired by a blend YCH did for last year's Veterans Day Hop Blend. I spent 8 years in the military so that was definitely an important beer for me and it was really where Low Viz started. We were all so impressed with that beer we have really just been improving on that recipe since then.

BC: What's a good food pairing for this beer?
We typically have a taco truck that comes in every week who makes their own chorizo, so my favorite pairing is chorizo tacos but fish and shrimp would work just as well.

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