Alvarado Street Contains No Juice: 2017 Edition

We first brewed Contains No Juice in early 2016, but didn’t release any in cans until 2017. It was a different beer in those days, and one of the hallmarks was a special yeast, formerly classified as a Brettanomyces strain called Saccharomyces Trois. We moved away from this strain over time because of consistency issues (dropping bright), hyper-attenuation, and the fact that it has the distaticus gene (you don’t want that in your brewery). But our pals at Berkeley Brewing Science were able to remove the dreaded diastaticus gene in the strain, clearing the way for experimentation again without contamination worries (and credit to Alex Tweet from Fieldwork, as this was his project with Berkeley – thanks pal!). So we decided to recreate as accurately as we could, what CNJ was like four years ago. What’s notable about the fermentation is the presence of intense pineapple-like flavors and aromas, which blend beautifully with a heavy dry hop of Mosaic, Citra and Galaxy. Galaxy was something we saved just for CNJ in 2017, as we were lucky enough to get our paws on it from our buds at Cellarmaker that year. Our hazy IPA’s were quite a bit drier in these days, so you’ll notice that the ‘17 version has a crisper mouthfeel than Hazy IPA’s of today. But drinkability is extremely high, especially combined with a gorgeously tropical bouquet of fruit flavors. This trip down memory lane has provided a tangible context for where we’ve been, where we’ve gone with CNJ as a brand, and where we hope to take it years from now! We hope you enjoy this window to the past.