MKE Brewing Co. releases a new Session IPA
With the New Year well underway, MKE Brewing Co has added a new Session IPA to their year round lineup that gives consumers a hoppy, full flavored beer that isn’t so heavy on the alcohol. Litta Bitta Session IPA is a White IPA that clocks in at 4.8% ABV and 45 IBU’s. You may recall that Litta Bitta made an appearance in the 2014 brand lineup as a late winter/early spring seasonal…..and you’d be right. The 2014 version was a little higher in ABV at 6.5% and received a resoundingly positive response from consumers to make more. Litta Bitta’s inviting light pepper and citrus aromas abound up front and blend well with lemon and grapefruit flavors as a result of a lemongrass infusion. This balanced and refreshing White IPA finishes with a touch of wheat that beckons you back for more.
A Session Ale is traditionally regarded as a beer under 5% ABV with extremely high drinkability, allowing the consumer to enjoy several beers, within a reasonable period of time, without achieving a high level of intoxication. Session IPA’s, in one form or another, have gained popularity in the U.S. in recent years as an entry level style beer for people who want all the flavor and uniqueness of craft beer without all alcohol to go with it. “We really felt that with the trend in Session Ales and the popularity of IPA’s around the country we had a great opportunity to introduce a refreshing, quaffable beer that would appeal to everyone” says Robert Morton, Head Brewer of MKE Brewing Co. Morton added “The challenge with Litta Bitta was maintaining that great hop character and flavor without becoming watered down on the finish. Our brewery staff absolutely nailed it. This is a bright and refreshing full flavored beer to the end. We also thought the name Litta Bitta was a great Wisconsin-ism to evoke a “litta” ABV and a “bitta” hops”. Litta Bitta Session IPA will be available in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota and North Dakota.
The recipe for Litta Bitta is a result of friendly internal brewery competition in 2013 where the brewers challenged themselves to create different recipes for the “12 months of IPA’s”. Each IPA was brewed and served at the Milwaukee Ale House, MKE Brewing Co.’s brewpub. This particular recipe for White IPA, created by lead brewer Brian Blazel, was so popular that it was the only IPA recipe to be repeated throughout the year.
The name Litta Bitta is also reference to the brutal feud between the two founding fathers of Milwaukee, Solomon Juneau and Byron Kilbourn. In the mid-1800’s, the respective leaders of Juneautown west of the river and Kilbourtown east of the river could not come to a resolution to unite their two settlements with a common bridge. The Bridge War, as it came to be known resulted in a bloody feud lasting more than a year, until the two settlements came together for a unified resolution for the future of Milwaukee in 1846. Interestingly enough, this is why all of the bridges Milwaukee are slightly askew and none run directly east and west.
ABOUT MKE BREWING CO. MKE Brewing Co. started as a brewpub, the Milwaukee Ale House, in October 1997 in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward. Founder Jim McCabe took his love for home brewing and his engineering background to design a functional and robust 15 bbl brewpub when Milwaukee was still a lager town. Fast forward 10 years and over 300 innovative beers later to November 2007 when MKE Brewing Co kegged off their first brew at their 2nd St. Brewery located in the trendy Walkers Point neighborhood. The 50 bbl brewing and packaging facility allowed MKE Brewing Co to meet the demand of their ever-popular Ale House brews and start brewing more styles that they always wanted to. A WDNR Green Tier Certified brewery, MKE Brewing Co. prides themselves on flexible and energy saving efforts to reduce their carbon footprint. With initiatives such as the 28 solar hot water panels on the roof, a bio-diesel boiler fueled by fryer oil from local restaurants, clean wastewater conservation, donating spent grain to local urban farm Growing Power and as the first micro-cannery in Wisconsin, MKE Brewing Co is at the forefront of Green Tier conservation efforts. McCabe along with principal partner Jim Hughes have experienced the most productive year in their brief history producing 12,000 bbls in 2014. MKE Brewing Co. is committed to creating innovative, well-balanced, approachable beers that appeal to the craft beer aficionado and new craft beer drinker alike. Head brewer Robert Morton and his team pride themselves on taking the artisan approach to brewing, using only the finest local ingredients and never making compromises.
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