Bringing It Home: Dazzle Ship Harlequin IPA
Each release in our Dazzle Ship range takes its inspiration from a different corner of the world's hop fields, from the Pacific Northwest to the Southern Hemisphere. This time, we've come home. Dazzle Ship Harlequin IPA is brewed with Harlequin®, a modern British hop grown in the heart of Worcestershire, and it might just be our most exciting release yet.
Meet Harlequin®
Harlequin® is not your typical British hop. Forget earthy, spicy or woody, this variety bursts with pineapple, zesty marmalade, and candied fruit. It's bold, expressive, and unmistakably modern. Named as the offspring of Charles Faram's Jester® hop (another excellent modern variety), Harlequin® arrived with a boom, and even more flavour and aroma than its parent. It's been turning heads ever since, winning hop competitions including the International Hop Awards and the CIBD British Hop Awards. Our head brewer, Pete, smelled it growing on the bines during last year's hop walks and came back with one message: we have to brew with this.
The Beer
The result is a succulent, fruit-forward IPA that lets Harlequin® do the talking. Pineapple leads the charge on the nose, followed by a hit of candied fruit as you take that first swig, flavours you'd never have expected from a British-grown hop a generation ago. The finish nods towards British terroir, with bittersweet marmalade rounding things off, leaving you craving another gulp!
Why British Hops Matter
The hops in this edition of Dazzle Ship were grown by the Capper family at Stocks Farm in Worcestershire, part of the Charles Faram Farms group. UK hop growing has declined dramatically over the past century. Still, growers like the Cappers and the innovation coming out of Charles Faram's Hop Development Programme are helping write a new chapter. Harlequin® is part of a growing family of British varieties, developed over years of careful breeding to give British-grown hops the flavour credentials to compete with anything the world has to offer.
We've always been huge fans of traditional and modern British varieties, using a number of them in the base of our core range beers. But with big hitters like Harlequin® making waves, we're expecting to see more breweries taking the home advantage when it comes to expressive hop-forward beers going forward!
Want to see what all the fuss is about? Grab your Dazzle Ship Harlequin here while stocks last.
