The DreamChaser’s Brewery will start canning its most popular beer next week
As part of its Mad Brewer Monday series, The DreamChaser’s Brewery in Waxhaw held a Battle of the Brewers last July.
In one corner was head brewer Skyler Lachenmayr’s West Coast IPA, boasting the piney punch and assertive bitterness people appreciate in the style. In the other was assistant brewer Tom Savage’s New England-style IPA, a slightly hazy beer with an unmistakable juiciness.
After all punches were thrown and votes counted, The DreamChaser’s Brewery declared a winner: Tom Savage’s New England-style IPA had won, and would thus be brewed again.
Now known as Yard Breather, the beer has become the brewery’s most popular beer. It sells out quickly on draft and the brewery can’t make enough of the beer to meet demand from its distributors across the Carolinas.
The brewery will can the beer for the first time and release it to the public starting at 5 p.m. March 22. Four-packs of 16-ounce cans will sell for $14 each and are available only in the taproom, with no limits on how many you can purchase.
Prior to joining The DreamChaser’s Brewery, Savage had spent about a year trying to perfect a New England-style IPA on the homebrew level.
“I’d been working on New England-style, juicier IPAs for a while,” said Savage. “People really were receptive to Yard Breather so we scaled it up. We’ve been tweaking the recipe ever since and really feel like we’re at a nice spot with the beer.”
While Savage created the small batches that would become Yard Breather, Lachenmayr ensures the beer stays true to that vision when brewed in 10-barrel batches.
“Skyler has really been instrumental in helping scale the beer up to the size we want it,” said Savage. “He really helped dial it in and brews all the batches primarily. He’s mainly the head brewer behind Yard Breather, so it’s not just me or him. We’re kind of a pair that complement each other really well here.”
Though many of the brewery’s patrons are unfamiliar with New England-style IPAs, the beer has proven as approachable in the taproom as the brewery’s witbier or lager.
“I’ve heard this style described as an IPA for people that don’t like IPAs,” said Lachenmayr, “and I think it’s because it doesn’t really wreck your palate like a West Coast IPA can.”
New England-style IPAs (see also hazy IPAs or Vermont IPAs) dial back the bitterness by adding hops later in the process. As a result, the fruity notes from the hops come forward much more prominently.
“Somebody asked if we actually put fruit into the beer, and I explained that it’s the way we hop the beer that adds that fruitiness to it,” said Savage.
Next Wednesday, the brewery will play up that fruitiness even more with three draft-only variants infused with pineapple, grapefruit and coconut (that last one’s known as Yarrrd Breather). Savage and Lachenmayr will also debut a new New England-style pale ale they’ve been working on called The Milk Pail, on account of it being brewed with lactose.
If stouts are more your thing, look for Unladen Swallow Part 2. That beer was brewed with cold-brew coffee from Sospeso Coffee Roasters in Waxhaw, which used beans aged in barrels that once held Doc Porter’s bourbon.
Wondering where the name Yard Breather came from? According to Savage, it’s a playful term used by firefighters to tease those who put on their mask too early. The DreamChaser’s Brewery is located in a building that once held Waxhaw’s volunteer fire department, and still counts them as their landlords.
The Dreamchaser’s Brewery: 115 E. North Main St., Waxhaw.
Photos: Daniel Hartis
This story was originally published March 16, 2017 at 9:41 PM with the headline "The DreamChaser’s Brewery will start canning its most popular beer next week."