264: Cannonball Creek’s Relentless Pursuit of Improvement

Golden’s Cannonball Creek has won a GABF medal every year since they opened in 2013, and they’ve done so across a wide range of styles—from German-style pils to Belgian-style blonde, stout, and cream ale. But the thing they’re most passionate about, and have won the most medals for, is lower ABV hop-forward beers. Their American pale ale, Featherweight, and session IPA, Trump Hands, have together collected five GABF medals and three World Beer Cup medals (including four golds), but if you think Cannonball Creek is content to rest on their success, you’d be mistaken.

Instead, Hutchinson and Lee employ a practice of constant improvement, and take it to quite the extreme. They’re constantly tweaking recipes, no matter how many accolades a beer has earned, and that change isn’t driven by a lack of performance in competition—winning beers are just as likely to see changes as any other.

In this episode of the podcast, which coincides with the 40th anniversary of the Great American Beer Festival, Hutchinson and Lee discuss:

finding balance in small hoppy beers

staying intentionally small to brew beers they’re passionate about

modernizing malt bills over the past decade of brewing

the gap between hop utilization calculations, lab tested IBUs, and perceived bitterness

making winning beers without selecting hops

evolving recipes as ingredients and contexts change

mitigating hop creep with ALDC

the traits of highly effective award-winning brewers

And more.

“We are constantly changing our beers, including those that have been successful in competition,” says Hutchinson. “We have beers that have won gold medals, that we have changed significantly, almost completely, and they’ve won again after that, too.”

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