Harpoon Celebrates 25 Years with Harpoon 100 Barrel Series Rich & Dan's Rye IPA

Harpoon Co-Founders Brew Limited Batch Beer to Celebrate 25 Years of Harpoon:
Introducing Harpoon 100 Barrel Series Rich & Dan's Rye IPA

Boston, MA (May 19, 2011) – Rich Doyle and Dan Kenary bonded their freshman year in college over a shared love of beer and a desire for a greater range of choices than the relatively limited national brands that were available to them at that time. In 1986, after experiencing the beers and beer culture abroad, they teamed up to start a craft brewery in Boston in hopes of bringing that great beer and beer culture to New England. They were granted Brewing Permit #001 from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts because Harpoon was the first brewery to commercially brew and bottle beer in the state for more than two decades. 25 years later the Harpoon Brewery remains the largest brewery in Massachusetts and the 9th largest craft brewery in the country. In celebration of Harpoon's 25th anniversary, Rich and Dan have brewed the 37th installment of the Harpoon 100 Barrel Series, Rich & Dan's Rye IPA.

"Brewing this 100 Barrel Series beer together gave us a great opportunity to reflect on 25 years of Harpoon," Dan says. "In developing the recipe, Rich and I pooled our individual ideas and preferences to create something that we would like to drink, in much the same way that we started Harpoon."

Rich & Dan's Rye IPA was brewed using Harpoon's proprietary yeast, the same yeast strain that has been used at Harpoon since the first batch of Harpoon Ale was brewed in 1987. The combination of Pale, Maris Otter, Rye, Caramel 60, Flaked Rye, and Vienna yields a complex malt body that stands up to the spiciness of the rye and the pronounced hop flavor. The rye also adds a reddish hue to the beer. The kettle additions of Centennial, Willamette, and Chinook, and the dry hop addition of Falconer's Flight add a multidimensional hop character. This beer has a fruity, subtly spicy aroma, a full mouthfeel, and a dry finish.

"As all good partnerships require give and take, we went back and forth on the specifics of this beer," says Rich. "I love IPA and Dan is a huge fan of rye beers. We thought that combining these two styles would be a good idea, and we're very happy with how it turned out. We hope craft beer fans are too."

The Harpoon 100 Barrel Series Rich & Dan's Rye IPA will be available this May in 22 oz. bottles and on draft at select retailers.

The week of May 23rd Harpoon will launch Harpoon25.com (  http://www.harpoon25.com  ), a website that celebrates 25 years of Harpoon beer. The website will feature special videos, a timeline of Harpoon's history, and a page for Harpoon fans to post photos of their favorite Harpoon beer-drinking experiences.

Harpoon 100 Barrel Series Rich & Dan's Rye IPA Beer Specifications:
Style: Rye IPA
O.G.: 15
ABV: 6.9%
IBUs: 54
Color: 27

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