As the days grow shorter and the air grows cooler, we are happy to introduce a new beer for the season. Our Autumn 2023 Hanabi Lager features a German heirloom barley variety named Isaria. While it has been grown there for a century, in recent decades it has become difficult to find, supplanted by modern varieties. The flavors of Isaria are distinct— aromatic hazelnut and conifer forest— and strike us as the perfect accompaniment to fall and wintertime table fare.
We are excited for the release of our latest Summer 2023 Hanabi Lager that features a rare heirloom barley called ‘Purple Egyptian’. It was originally discovered growing along the headwaters of the Nile River in the Fertile Crescent, and is named for the distinct purple-black color of its corns. ...
Our mission with Hanabi is to readdress beer’s primary ingredient, grain, by finding the rock-star varieties, growers, and terroirs, and putting them center-stage. Our Hanabi grain-forward style is a direct expression of this effort.
Admiral Maltings and the Concept of Grain-Forward Beer
This sea...
This season’s offering is dear to us because it features the first ‘heirloom’ barley variety that we ever had the opportunity to work with. Chevallier is an old English brewing variety that was revived from the John Innes Center national seedbank in Norwich by a small group of dedicated farmers a...
As we have been introducing our varietal beers (each one features a single variety of grain) to the broader world, we’ve noticed a curious dichotomy. Beer is made from the most ancient agricultural crop of them all: cereal grains, yet it is seldom perceived as a natural creation quite like wine ...
This story began back when I met Ian Ward, the President of Brewers Supply Group, in 2014. With a mutual love of both beer and wine, we decided to meet up in a vineyard to chat. Surrounded by grapevines, under the shade of a Napa Valley oak tree in springtime, the cover crops were blooming, fragr...
This season’s beer features a barley variety named Baronesse. Originally bred in Germany, Baronesse was largely abandoned there because it is less productive than other more modern barleys. When farmer Bill Myers was out tasting through his various test plots of grains 30 years ago, at the stage...
Here at Hanabi, we are interested in two things: grain exploration and history. Our beers are fashioned to showcase the delicious range of flavors that different grains can express, recognizing that after all, beer is a fermented barley tea. We want the flavors of the barley itself to shine. We...
The background story of our Autumn 2021 lager is a bit wild actually. So, we’ll give a concise version of the story here, followed by a longer account for those so inclined to post up for a while to dig in. Here at Hanabi, we are interested in grain exploration. Just like with grapes and wine, e...
Growing up in the San Juan Islands in the Pacific Northwest, the blooming of the wild roses, one of nature’s many rituals, marked the transition from spring to the long, glorious, productive days of summer. They always grow around the perimeters of the forests and hayfields, untamed and a little ...
Still in the comfort of winter, where calm, darker days give us opportunity to hunker down, focus inwards, and prepare ourselves for the impending bloom that always comes after, we feel the vibrancy of springtime just a couple more bends down along the trail here.
Our Spring 2021 Edition Lager ex...
After navigating a year of uneasy seas, we feel lucky and blessed to be soon arriving at the ‘festive season.’ A time when after the annual adventures of harvest, we come back to our families, community, and to ourselves in a way. Certainly, the realities of the homecoming may look different this...
