Where Traditional Meets Technical – BrewDog Collaboration Brew

Posted: May 15, 2025

Brewing innovation isn’t about chasing trends. It’s also about taking what works and making it work harder. That’s precisely what we set out to do when TNS teamed up with brewer AJ at BrewDog Waterloo.

The Brief

Take Waterloo Gold, AJ’s house pale ale, and turn it into a Double IPA. The challenge wasn’t about removing hops entirely. It was about adding intensity without overloading the process.

More hop flavour. More aroma. Fewer brewing compromises.

The idea was to take Waterloo Gold and turn it into a DIPA without the usual trade-offs. I still wanted that layered hop character, just built in a cleaner, more efficient way,”

The Brew Day

Everything started as expected: grist in, mash on, sparge, boil. The difference came in the whirlpool. Instead of loading up on pellets, we used HopGain® FLOE Outback and El Dorado – two liquid hop additions added directly to the whirlpool.

Because FLOE contains no alpha acid, it delivers flavour and aroma without contributing bitterness. That means brewers can dose at high levels in the whirlpool without skewing IBU targets.

To provide structure:

A small addition of Chinook T90 was made at the start of the boil.

A second addition of Krush T90 was added to the whirlpool.

Combined, they targeted 31 IBU.

Fermentation: Building Layered Flavour

Fermentation started fast, and so did the dry hop schedule.

Day 1

HopBurst® Citrulicious

HopBurst® El Dorado

HopBurst® Outback

Supported by a small dose of Krush T90

This early addition point enables biotransformation, allowing the oils to evolve through fermentation and capture deeper aroma layers

Day 2

A second dose of HopBurst® El Dorado and Outback

Finished with another addition of Krush T90

Using liquid and pellet together gave us control over both timing and intensity, making the process more predictable and the result more consistent.

The Result: HopBurst IPA

The result is HopBurst IPA – a bold, hop-saturated Double IPA that shows what’s possible when brewers take a more technical approach to hop loading. With HopGain® FLOE in the whirlpool and HopBurst® during fermentation, we built flavour precisely where it was needed, with minimal process load and maximum yield.

Why It Worked

This was never about removing hops. It was about rebalancing the process, shifting the impact from pellet-heavy stages to more efficient, controlled points in the brewing process.

Cleaner, brighter flavour

Improved tank yield and turnaround

Less loss, less mess, more consistency

No compromise on aroma or intensity

What It Tastes Like

It’s got that big fruit-forward hop character, think citrus, pineapple, some dankness, but it drinks smooth and finishes clean,” AJ explains. “We kept the bitterness in check, layered in the oils where they’d have the most impact, and ended up with a beer that’s intense but not overloaded.

Expect: