‘Placeholder’ is back at Recess, and its not just a clever name

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‘Placeholder’ is back at Recess, and its not just a clever name

Edwardsville, Illinois is picture perfect postcard of a town.

As you come off I-255 North you’ll be led along New Poeg Road on your way to Main Street. There you’ll find an All-American small town and one of my favorite craft breweries in the area.

Recess Brewing, 307 N. Main Street, is home to a 5-barrel brewhouse that has 3 fermenters and 6 serving tanks. With ten taps for their in-house beers, you’ll find year-round beers as well as seasonal and one-off brews.

On tap right now is the latest batch of Placeholder, which is part of the breweries rotating IPA series. “We wanted an avenue that we could use for experimentation within our IPAs, specifically hazies,” said Tracy Hutton, of head brewer at Recess Brewiing. “We created Placeholder as a literal placeholder on our menu for whatever our current hazy experiment may be.”

The Batch #3, that is currently have on tap, is a Recess take on the traditional East Coast hazy. For Recess it is a bit different though as they incorporated Citra hops, often seen in IPAs, but is not used very often at Recess. It is about as hazy as you can get with the incorporation of wheat and oats and from the yeast they use.

“This batch is personally my favorite batch of Placeholder so far and will be the base for which all batches are brewed from here on out” said Hutton. “We will continue to tweak things and play with other hop combinations but this all of the placeholders will be based around this current recipe.”

Tasting Notes

On the pour: The beer pours extremely hazy. No light can pass through it. It is a beautiful pale orange/yellow color. The carbonation is on the lower end and it pours with a thin white head.

On the nose: It is straight juice. Orange juice, lemon peel, subtle notes of softer fruit like blueberry and melon.

On the taste: Placeholder has a huge citrus component. The hops are the star of the show here. Using only whirlpool and dry hopping the bitterness is kept to a minimum but there is a touch of sweetness to it from the malt bill to balance out any bitterness that is there.