March 01, 2025

402: Colorado WCIPA Roundtable With Cannonball Creek, Westbound & Down, and Amalgam

1 hour 47 minutes

Strong brewing communities produce clusters of great breweries, and the Colorado brewing world, centered in Denver, is no different. Friendly competition drives innovation, exploration, and refinement as well as knowledgeable consumers with higher and higher expectations, and in this episode, we brought together three friends (each medal-winning brewers) for a conversation on their approach to West coast IPA.

Brian Hutchinson of Cannonball Creek has brought home a slew of medals in the pale ale space (11 total GABF and World Beer Cup medals between their pale ale and session IPA), and picked up a GABF gold medal last year for their New Zealand-style IPA. Jake Gardner of Westbound & Down has earned a handful of GABF and World Beer Cup medals for their West coast IPAs like Spirit of the West and Westbound Select. And Phil Joyce of Amalgam most recently brought home gold for West coast IPA in the Colorado Brewers Cup, after placing fourth at the Alpha King Challenge last year.

In this episode, the three move through a range of IPA brewing topics, including:

designing IPA with clean flavors that are easy to linguistically identify

decocting and step mashing WCIPA for higher attenuation, foam stability, and FAN uptake

building a malt base in WCIPA with blends of Pilsner malt

using flaked wheat in smaller percentages for mouthfeel

fermenting with Chico yeast for dry and low-ester beers

minimizing hop creep with ALDC, diacetyl-free yeast, and other yeast health tools

driving faster and healthier fermentations for more vibrant hop character

understand the impact of water on WCIPA

integrating flavor and bitterness

the impact of pH on hop expression

selecting loud hops that punch hard

And more.

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