To fully appreciate the IPAs coming out of San Diego’s Societe Brewing Company, one must trace the pedigree of Cofounder and Head Brewer Travis Smith (above, right). Smith was the first production hire under Vinnie Cilurzo at the brewpub of Russian River Brewing Co. Within a year, he became a full-time brewer, brewing the likes of Blind Pig and the Plinys early in his craft-beer career.
“That’s where our foundation, the rock of our IPA philosophy, was ultimately born,” says Mike Sardina, Societe’s assistant executive officer. That philosophy continued to take shape when Smith took the lead brewer position at The Bruery in Placentia, California, where he met Societe’s future CEO and Brewer, Doug Constantiner (above, left). The Bruery doesn’t make IPAs, but Smith and Constantiner were drinking a lot of the style on tap in the San Diego area where they both lived at the time. With beers from Russian River, Alpine Beer Company, and Ballast Point Brewing—among many others—locally available, Smith and Constantiner were getting an education with every pint they ordered.
When the time came to open their own brewery in 2012, they were well-schooled in IPAs. They created The Pupil, a West Coast–style IPA brewed with Centennial, Citra, and Nelson Sauvin hops. “Citra and Nelson Sauvin hops are a great combination,” says Sardina. “The Citra hops give this beer citrus, melon, and juicy flavors that get balanced by the white-wine astringency of Nelson Sauvin.”
Both The Pupil and Societe’s American IPA, The Apprentice, are 7.5 percent ABV beers. “We use a relatively similar 2-row barley grain base and very different hops for these two beers,” Sardina explains. The Apprentice is brewed with hops varieties from the Pacific Northwest. “Centennial, Simcoe, and Amarillo are such awesome hops to blend—Centennial gives backbone, Simcoe dry hops give complexity, and we dry hop heavily with Amarillo.”
Three to four hops varieties are blended in most of Societe’s IPAs, except for The Bachelor. This rotating IPA is a single-hops series that’s more of a learning exercise than anything else, according to Sardina. “It’s so we can get an idea of what that single hops’s profile is, and what you get from the hops alone,” he says.
On The Bachelor’s tap handle is a silhouette of Nate Soroko, an infamous local chef and bartender who you’d have to live under a rock to not know. “The Bachelor, aside from my obvious bias, is a genius concept,” says Soroko. “I think it shows people what hops do to a beer. As Societe gets into different kinds of hops, clear winners have emerged. Amarillo and Citra are two of my favorite versions.”
The Pupil, The Apprentice, and the now ten versions of The Bachelor that have been brewed only scratch the surface when it comes to Societe’s IPA offerings. The brewery offers three subcultures of beer (with a fourth coming soon)—Belgians (Old World), stouts (Stygian), and hops-forward varieties that they call their Out West beers—but it brews more IPAs than any other style. On any given day in the tasting room (pictured above), Sardina says, there are five Belgians, three stouts, and seven or eight different IPAs on tap.
Although they vary in hops, flavors, and aromas, Societe’s IPAs all have a light malt bill in common. “Societe’s IPAs tend to be pale in color,” Sardina says. “They are super hops-forward as opposed to bitter or malt-driven. They have a clean, crisp malt profile that showcases the hops.”
Societe’s IPAs are typically brewed with 2-row barley as the base malt, with varying amounts of wheat or pilsner malts to add mouthfeel. Each one is dry hopped two to three times.
Like a lot of other IPA brewers in the United States, Societe uses an American ale yeast strain for its IPAs. “It kills that sugar, super attenuative,” explains Sardina. “So the beers finish really dry. We don’t want to produce the phenols or esters that come from an English ale or Belgian ale yeast. Our choice of yeast goes back to the clean, crisp profile we’re going for.”
Contributing to the clean, crisp quality of Societe’s beers is the brewery’s ultimate focus when it comes to IPA: freshness. “I never say never, but I might say we’re never going to bottle an IPA,” Sardina says, explaining that “IPA doesn’t hold up in a bottle. It should be drunk on tap instead.”
Currently by default, Societe serves all of its beer on tap, usually within a 20-mile radius of the brewery. Although they’re acquiring a bottling line in the future, IPA is a style of beer that the brewery will sell only on tap. Societe is also in the process of doubling its fermentation capacity, with a lot of the new tank space devoted to hops-forward beers that will go straight to draft lines.
“That’s our ultimate philosophy for IPA,” Sardina concludes. “Drink it fresh.”
Advice for Homebrewing a New-School IPA
When asked about homebrewing a new-school IPA, here’s the advice Mike Sardina, Societe Brewing Company’s assistant executive officer, offered:
- Start with a neutral water profile and then use a 2:1 ratio of calcium sulfate to calcium chloride in the mash.
- Get the majority of your ferementables from a base malt, such as 2-row barley.
- Use a clean hops, such as Magnum or Warrior, for bittering at 90 minutes.
- Pick your favorite aroma/flavor hops varieties, and go heavy at 20 minutes and then at flameout. For a classic combination, I like a 1:2 ratio of Simcoe and Amarillo.
- Ferment with an American/California ale yeast; I like White Labs’ WLP001.
- Rack off of the yeast when fermentation is complete.
- Dry hop with the same hops that you used at flameout.
- Go about 3–4 days on the dry hops, then keg, carbonate, and serve.
The ABCs of Societe’s IPAs
Societe Brewing Company beers are distributed within twenty miles of the brewery in San Diego. Every so often, a keg of Societe beer makes its way up to San Francisco.
The Pupil IPA (7.5% ABV)
Societe’s West Coast–style IPA is brewed with Centennial, Citra, and Nelson Sauvin hops. It is a smooth, medium-bodied, dry IPA with a tropical aroma and flavor. Notes of guava and mango are most common in this gently bittered beer.
The Apprentice IPA (7.5% ABV)
Societe’s American IPA is brewed with hops varieties from the Pacific Northwest: Centennial, Simcoe, and Amarillo. It’s a dry, medium-bodied, and very hoppy IPA with assertive bitterness. Strong pine and bitter citrus flavors come forward; grapefruit citrus undertones accent the dry finish.
The Bachelor (6.5% ABV)
Every time this single-hopped beer is brewed, the hops variety changes. It is a delicious educational exercise for learning about hops.
The Dandy (6.2% ABV)
The Dandy is a balanced IPA with a slight malt presence that accentuates the moderate hop bitterness. Grapefruit, citrus, and peppery hops aromas and flavors play together with an understated sweet malt character.
The Haberdasher (5.2% ABV)
Societe’s English-style IPA is brewed with all English malts and all English hops. The malt presence balances the earthy English hops.