Karbach Reveals Powerful New Beers in a Spacey Trip of a Night: Alcohol-Packed Brews are all About the Hops

Karbach celebrated the reveal of its latest brew with a big bang. Karbach’s kickoff party at the Houston Museum of Natural Science Planetarium on Thursday night showcased Space City, the first in its yearlong, four-beer limited series.

The series comes little more than a year after the Houston brewery was acquired by Anheuser-Busch in a controversial move that had many in Houston’s craft beer community crying foul — and debating if Karbach’s owners betrayed the craft beer movement by selling out. Now, much of that seems largely forgotten (at least on this night) as Karbach continues to innovate.

The evening ended with a trip to deep space. Guests were invited to watch Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, set to a mesmerizing, otherworldly projection.

Karbach’s new series was inspired by the popular Hop Delusion, a trippy take on IPAs, with 100 IBUs of hop bitterness. The robust beer, with an astronomically high ABV compared to other Karbach beers — a whopping nine percent — launched as part of a specialty season lineup in 2013.

Beers in the Stars

For Eric Warner, a brewmaster who’s been with Karbach since Day One, thinks the new Hop Delusion sequence was written in the stars. “Hop Delusion was always the most successful product in the specialty season lineup,” he tells PaperCity.

It was time to leverage the original Hop Delusion’s success and take advantage of the craft beer-loving community’s loyalty to IPAs.

“How can we keep it interesting, keep it fresh, do something that’s not everyday? Consumers are always trying to hunt down the freshest IPA,” Warner says.

The brewmaster attributes the IPA fascination to the category’s “complexity of flavor and aromas they offer.” Depending on the brewery, “you can get everything from floral, spicy, berry-type, on through citrusy, woodsy, or herbal,” Warner notes.

Then there’s something of cosmic significance: the schedule. One Hop Delusion will come out every quarter. The procession: Space City, an unnamed brew featuring mango, the OG Hope Delusion, and a mysterious closer.

The new beers are intended as one-timers, but “Never say never,” Warner says. “If there’s one Hop Delusion variant people of nuts for, then sure, it might find its way into our regular lineup.’

“They’ll all have the same malt and strength,” David Graham, Karbach brand manager, tells PaperCity. “We’ll only change up the hop varietals and fruit notes.” A note before you knock too many back: they’ll all share that eight to nine percent ABV window. One too many, and you could be seeing stars.

The classic Hop Delusion centered on Mosaic hops. This first new iteration, Space City, uses the apt Comet and Galaxy Hops. Karbach served it at the entrance of the planetarium alongside the much-loved Love Street.

Brewer Brian Star held a sort-of “hop rubbing seminar” against the planetarium screen as digital stars whizzed past. He couldn’t stop himself from making a joke about his name, fitting with the stellar theme. “I’m just a janitor but they heard my name and said, ‘You’ve got to come in here!’ ”

Hop rubbing is exactly what it sounds like. It’s not quite what Star joked with one guest — you certainly don’t “put it in your lip like a dip.”

Instead, you pick up a healthy handful of hops and rub them quickly between your palms.

“Rolling it between your palms heats up the oil and ruptures the oil glands,” Star says. Afterwards, you sniff your hands. The aroma does smell a heck of a lot like beer.

Star featured a key hop in Space City, Comet. The galactic hop is an older one, but it’s experienced a renaissance in the last two years or so. It’s an old-school hop making a comeback.

The main notes: resin, grassy, citrus, grapefruit.

The fruit-forward Galaxy hop adds some sweetness to the equation, sparing Space City the title “palate buster,” Star says. It’s pretty tropical.

Moving forward, Karbach will have the opportunity to play around with “certain new experimental hop varieties,” Warner says. Because of their contacts in the industry, “we always have a good opportunity to get those hops.” That allows them to be flexible as design new recipes.

Another pro? “Later in the spring, we’re going to get a new five barrel pilot system,” expanding their opportunities for experiments even more, Warner says.

There’s a lot to look forward to on both ends. Craft beer fans can find Hop Delusion in six packs, an update from their four pack past. It’ll also be available on draft, and you can get it at craft beer bars that specialize in hoppy beers.

Time will tell if Space City and the rest of the stellar series will eclipse Karbach’s regulars.