Fans of Baltimore’s legendary drag queen Divine can now try an ale inspired by one of the city’s most famous pop culture icons — sequins and lipstick not required.
Union Craft Brewing announced it is launching a Divine IPA in March as the newest addition to the Medfield-based company’s list of year-round beers. Prior to Divine IPA, the most recent addition to Union’s core line was the Skipjack Pilsner in 2017.
Union co-founder Jon Zerivitz said the brewery’s team was looking to pair its new IPA with a strong name that paid homage to Baltimore culture. Divine was an obvious choice, he said.
“Divine stood out as being this great word that spoke to the liquid as well as being a strong fringe character in Baltimore who is meaningful in many ways,” Zerivitz said.
While Union staff have not yet released an image of the beer’s packaging, Zerivitz said it will be pink and purple.
“It’s kind of a feminine direction, which is unfortunately something pretty rare in the craft section,” he said.
So what goes into a Divine IPA?
The brewery markets the new beer as a “Perversely Hoppy Ale,” brewed with Citra and Mosaic hops that give it a floral, citrus and tropical fruit aroma to the brew, it said in a news release.
“When I started thinking about creating a year-round IPA, I mused about the IPA I would want to drink all the time,” said Kevin Blodger, Union’s director of brewing operations, in the release. “So that leads to a bright, juicy, hop-forward beer with a soft pillowy malt background. We use Pilsner and Oat malt to carry forward this great stone fruit and citrus flavor and aroma that really pops out of the glass and onto your tongue. I’m really proud of this beer and excited that it will be available year round.”