Never stepping away from a scientific challenge to further what a beer can offer, WeldWerks is releasing a new variant in its Advanced Fluid Dynamics Double IPA series by using Phantasm in the latest release, coming out Friday, May 28.
So what is Phantasm? The powder was created by a New Zealand company with the same name and it is essentially a Thiol derived from Marlborough Sauvignon grapes from New Zealand. Phantasm powder was used during active fermentation and complements the regular dry hop addition that WeldWerks has to create an even bigger, brighter tropical nose.
This is the first time the Greeley, Colorado brewery has worked with Phantasm but Skip Schwartz, WeldWerks Innovation and Wood Cellar Lead said they have used HopFlower enzymes in a few trials.
“HopFlower enzymes are a highly active ß‐glucosidase enzyme,” Schwartz said. ”So Phantasm is an enhancer while HopFlower is a natural enzyme which helps to break down your hops and release more flavor and aroma. Both add great effects to the final aroma of the finished product.”
Since this was the first time using Phantasm powder, Schwartz said they really did not know what would happen if they used a lot of it.
”Since Phantasm is a sulfur compound it could turn out poorly if we use too much of it,” he said, “however, we do not plan on pushing the usages to find that line.”
Phantasm was added to accentuate the hop profile of the DIPA with Sabro, Lotus , and Citra hops.
”Since the flavor compounds that the thiols enhance are very similar to certain hops it just makes sense to use similar hops,” Schwartz said. WeldWerks chose to use Advanced Fluid Dynamics as the first beer for using Phantasm on because it has notes of coconut, mango, passion fruit, guava, pineapple, cedarwood, and hints of sandalwood in the aroma.
”The flavor compounds that are enhanced from the Phantasm powder are 3-mercaptohexan-1-ol (3MH), which create citrus smells, 3-mercaptohexyl acetate (3MHA), which can come across as guava or passion fruit, and 4-mercapto-4-methylpentant-2-one (4MMP), which the nose recognizes as black current or wood aromas,” Schwartz said. ”Just looking at the two lists of aromas, you see a lot of overlap and we just knew right away that Phantasm and AFD were going to be a match made in heaven. Turns out we were correct!”
Other breweries across the country, like Other Half, The Veil, and Knotted Root also have worked on brands with Phantasm, so although being used a little bit, it’s still not widely available and what the future holds for the hop accentuator is still up in the air.
For WeldWerks, Schwartz said anything that can potentially enhance hop aromas will always be worth the wait, cost, and attention.
”We pride ourselves on our willingness to innovate and try new, unknown, or little-known products,” he said. ”It is kind of burned into our company’s DNA to try anything at least once. I think we will totally do at least one or two more beers using Phantasm powder to learn more about it and see if there is a better way to use it more effectively.
”The big thing with new products like this is understanding that they might have come up with usage guidelines that result in “the best-finished product” but we like to see if there are other ways of using ingredients differently than recommended that completely change the beer and maybe even how other brewers use the product.”
Photo courtesy WeldWerks Brewing
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