Care to go down under? Yeah, us too!

We were trying to come up with something unusual for our 500th brew. (That means that we've served about one and a quarter million pints since we started doing this at the 'House!)

We've been tinkering with Belgian style ales at both locations now for a couple of years, yet we haven' brewed a Belgian IPA yet. So that was our target. Truth be told, we came up with the name of the beer first. We thought about Indy 500, but the race was too soon for us to have the beer ready by then. We came up with Galaxy 500, which happens to be an American automobile from the 60s.

It wasn't difficult to decide that Galaxy hops would be the bittering agent. What we found, after we'd already come up with the name and graphics, is that Galaxy hops are extremely hard to come by.

We freaked a bit as we scoured the globe to find it. No dice. Then, a fellow craft brewer on the west coast came through for us. He had a couple of boxes he could spare. We indeed did move every relationship to get them, and we're appreciative of the support. Thanks, anonymous supporter of craft beers! We owe you one. Austrralian hops and Belgian yeast make this one unique, and a rare opportunity to experience Galaxy hops.

Galaxy hops were bred in 1994, crossing an Autralian female and a male Perle hop, grown in a hop garden called Rostrevor in notheastern Victoria. It's now grown in both Victoria and Tasmania.

Its aroma is a pleasant citrusy passionfruit. Alpha acids range from 13-14.8%. We think it's well suited to IPAs. We hope you agree! Cheers to everyone who likes to go down under!

Barley's Galaxy 500 Belgian IPA

Style Guidelines: Belgian IPA

Rotation Schedule: first brewed to celebrate our 500th batch

Food Pairings: rare roast beef; steak tartare; poached mussels; a juicy burger; Mildred's sauerkraut balls; smoked and grilled wings; any light fish

Body: medium

Color: golden

Grain: pale, lager, wheat

Bittering Hops: Australian Galaxy

Finishing Hops: Australian Galaxy

Dry Hops: Australian Galaxy

Adjuncts: light Belgian candi sugar

Original Gravity: 1.072

IBUs (estimate): 67.5

Alcohol By Volume: 7.5%

First Tapped: preview on firkin July 1, 2011

Barley's Smokehouse & Brewpub Ale House No. 2xx 1130 Dublin Road Columbus OH 43215