Building Structure with Lower-Alpha Hops

This week’s episode comes from a live panel discussion on West coast pils recorded a few weeks ago at the Craft Beer & Brewing Brewers Retreat in Asheville, North Carolina, and features Khristopher Johnson of Green Bench, Bob Kunz of Highland Park, and Evan Price of Green Cheek. Over the course of the conversation, these three brewers cover a range of topics, including:

• the impact of lager yeast sulfur production on hops flavor and hops longevity
• building hops blends that ground with a classic baseline and expand with contemporary flavors and aromas
• creating structure and body with lower-alpha hops
• considering "vegetive load" as a means of boosting body
• blending base malts for different intended finishing gravities
• the impact of floor-malted barley on tropical hop expression
• adjusting fermentation to accentuate hop character
• swapping headspace carbon dioxide to control sulfur
• using a controlled ramp-up in fermentation temperature to balance ester production with ideal dry hop conditions

And more.

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