LalBrew Pomona

What the manufacturer says

A fruity, stress-tolerant, and robust hybrid strain (developed with Escarpment Laboratories) that enhances biotransformation and haze for modern IPA styles.

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What the evidence says

• Lallemand describes Pomona as having excellent potential for terpene biotransformation and for thiol biotransformation; brewer comparisons report more passionfruit and guava character than Verdant IPA in side-by-side batches. Lallemand 2023

Rating context: manufacturers usually quote free-thiol concentration relative to the sensory threshold, not conversion yield. Peer-reviewed work finds that only a small fraction of bound precursors is converted in beer fermentation, so the ordering between strains is more reliable than any absolute number Chenot et al. 2021 Michel et al. 2019.

In practice

Dry, widely available, and forgiving. A medium-activity strain rather than a thiol specialist, so pair it with precursor-rich hops if tropical is the goal.

Non-GMO.

Hops that reward this strain

Citra, Cryo Citra, Cryo Mosaic, Cryo Simcoe, Ekuanot, Galaxy, Hallertau Blanc, Kohatu, Mosaic, Nelson Sauvin, Riwaka, Sabro, Simcoe, Strata, Superdelic, Talus, Vista, Waimea. Each carries a high rating for bound 3MH-family or 4MMP precursors. Mash and whirlpool additions supply precursors during fermentation; a cold dry hop mostly adds the free fraction.