DOWNINGTOWN, PA—Victory Brewing Company (Victory) is pleased to announce the first in its series of new arrivals, DirtWolf Double IPA. The newest beer in Victory’s brand lineup is part of the brewery’s initiative to increase beer production to meet customer demand, in addition to offering a greater variety of styles and brands, a practice celebrated by the craft brewing industry and its loyal consumers.

Hitting shelves and dining establishments beginning this week, the suggested retail price for DirtWolf Double IPA is approximately $9.99, depending on location; this brand marks the brewery’s first foray into the four-pack market. Known for melding traditional styles and unique concepts to produce the highest quality, full flavored beers, Victory’s DirtWolf Double IPA continues the brewery’s standard of innovation and excellence.

Why DirtWolf Double IPA

Wildly assertive, intentionally untamed and dangerously satisfying, DirtWolf Double IPA is the culmination of Victory’s Double IPA series experiment with whole flower, American-grown hops. With two-row German malts and a well-balanced combination of whole flower Citra, Chinook, Simcoe and Mosaic hops, this 8.7% ABV brew blends the powerful citrus aroma and fruity flavors, with the piney, earthy and mildly floral characteristics found in these intriguing hop varieties.

“We’re very proud to bring this delicious new double IPA, DirtWolf to market,” said President and Brewmaster, Bill Covaleski.  “As brewers who enjoy experimenting with beer styles and ingredient varieties, we are constantly looking to keep our core audience captivated and interested while creating opportunities to attract and introduce those new to the craft brewing movement. We think, and hope, everyone will be as pleased as we are with the result.”

DirtWolf Double IPA Availability

DirtWolf Double IPA is available for purchase in most major gourmet grocery stores, bottle shops and beer distributors, as well as many craft beer bars throughout Victory’s national distribution footprint, including most Whole Foods Markets and Wegmans locations along the East Coast. Use Victory’s Beerfinder at www.victorybeer.com/beerfinder to  discover a nearby location, or download the free Victory Mobile app for Android or iPhone.

About Victory Brewing Company

Victory Brewing Company is a privately held craft brewery headquartered in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. Founded by Bill Covaleski and Ron Barchet, childhood friends who met on a school bus in 1973, the brewery formally began operations in February of 1996. Victory, Pennsylvania’s widely acclaimed brewery and restaurant, now serves fans of fully flavored beers in 30 states with innovative beers melding European ingredients and technology with American creativity. To learn more about Victory Brewing Company visit us on the web at www.victorybeer.com.

Downingtown, PA

This firmly crisp and aromatically arousing pale ale integrates streams of herbal hop complexity with a softly supportive malt base. A portion of the cost of every bottle sold is distributed to environmental advocacy groups through the Headwaters Grant.

ABV: 5.0

ABW: 3.9

COLOR: 10-11

BITTERNESS: 55-60

ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 1048

AVAILABLE: AK, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, ME, MD, MA, MI, NH, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WI

This is what they want in America,” he said, happily.

His customers in Vernante might not understand, either that Americans brew such assertive beers or that America is also the world’s best market for bad-ass beers from almost anywhere. Call it the Americanization of world beer or simply globalization, but the international beer landscape is changing. Not everybody agrees that’s good, but few dispute America is at the center.

The Beer Starts Here

In one of the last essays he wrote in 2007, the introduction to Beer: Eyewitness Companions, the late Michael Jackson argued that, “tomorrow’s classics will evolve from a new breed of American brews that are categorized by their admirers as ‘Extreme Beers.’ These are the most intense-tasting beers ever produced anywhere in the world.”

British beer writer Adrian Tierney-Jones agrees. “The twenty-first century is definitely the American century in brewing terms—and I think it’s a good thing,” he said. “Beer is an international language, a language that crosses borders and at the moment the language we are hearing involves the yeast Brettanomyces, lots of hops, strong alcohol, hoppy barley wines, farmhouse ales with a twist—what is wrong with that?”

Importer Daniel Shelton of Shelton Brothers has an answer for Tierney-Jones. “It’s really sad to say the future is American beer when we haven’t perfected [brewing] the stuff from Europe yet,” he said. Shelton can be blunt, has a reputation for shooting from the hip and as an importer wouldn’t be expected to champion domestically brewed beers. However, many of the breweries he represents benefit because Americans are lapping up their bold, often intense, beers. Shelton is sincere when he talks about what he sees as dangers both within the United States and beyond.

Quite simply, if beer drinkers focus on the most exciting styles, if they measure the quality of a beer based on its intensity, then what happens to beers with nuance and to yesterday’s classics?

Know Your History

Even though beer never should be called “the new wine,” a quick bit of grape history seems relevant. In 1976, upstart California wines outscored classic French wines in a contest now called “The Judgment of Paris.” The tasting not only validated the quality of California wine, but convinced vintners from Australia to South Africa to Argentina that great wine could be made beyond France.

American beermakers can point to no “Judgment of Paris,” but their influence—whether it comes from larger breweries producing pale lagers or smaller breweries making something more flavorful—is also felt from Australia to Scandinavia to Argentina. “People had no model for modern small brewery success. Americans gave them that,” Shelton said.

We’re talking about craftbrewing’s Generation Y: those breweries that came on-line in the mid-1990s or later, long after the pioneers had blazed a trail. They entered a market where competition was keener, bad beer no longer tolerated, and outlets to retailers fewer as a result of distributor consolidation. The great shake-out of the late ’90s was just around the corner. They had to be leaner, meaner and smarter to survive.

Mac and Jack’s Brewery is like a sapling growing up in the shadow of two redwoods. The brewery stands in Redmond, WA, about 15 miles east of Seattle, where industry giants Redhook and Pyramid hold sway. Even in one of the country’s most mature markets, newcomer Mac and Jack’s grew about 120 percent between 1998 and 2000, topping the 20,000-barrel mark.

Asked how he managed such growth, partner Malcolm Maclean Rankin answers, “I wish I knew the answer. I’d bottle it and sell it.” Of course, he can’t bottle anything because Mac and Jack’s is a draft only brewery—probably the largest such operation in the country. That lends the products a certain mystique, allows Rankin. “You have to go to a bar to try our beer.” But he and partner Jack Schrapp have also invested a lot of sweat equity in the business since they started in 1994 with a 7-barrel brew house in Jack’s garage.

Mac and Jack’s sticks to basics, making only three beers: a wheat, an amber and a porter. “We don’t work in styles too much,” admits Rankin. “Our porter is edging into a sweet stout.” You can find the brews on tap only in Washington, Oregon and northern Idaho.

When questioned how much further he can grow the business, Rankin replies, “I wish I had a crystal ball. I don’t know. We don’t set goals that we have to be at such an amount at such a time.” But he and Schrapp will have to make some decisions soon. Their current facility will max out at 24,000 barrels, and they’re about to bump their heads on that ceiling.