375: Murphy Johnson of BlackStack Gets Goosebumps When Talking About Hops
Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast
Exploring Unique Hops for Flavor Innovation
This chapter explores innovative brewing techniques using underappreciated hop varieties to enhance hazy IPAs. It highlights the importance of specific hops and the creative challenges brewers encounter in their quest for new flavor experiences.
Murphy Johnson of BlackStack in St. Paul, Minnesota, is an enthusiastic brewer with a big personality. Despite many brewers’ strong opinions on hazy IPA, he’s not afraid to go against the grain and embrace the murky style in all its fruit-forward hop glory. In this almost entirely haze-focused episode, Johnson discusses how they continue to learn while developing beers—often via collabs with other brewers—as they deploy unusual techniques and focus on ingredients that don’t break the bank.
In this episode, Johnson touches on:
- altering hazy IPA grain bills for aesthetic reasons
- feeding voracious dry hops with additional fermentables, such as Belgian candi sugar
- using thiol-boosting products with thiol-optimizing yeast for intensely fruit expressions
- how Sabro at low percentages helps to bring out beautiful notes from other hops
- building creaminess and mouthfeel with Cashmere and similar hops
- achieving modern hop flavors with traditional (and less expensive) American hops
- utilizing American Noble hop products in the mash to boost thiols
- temperature control and spunding when fermenting hazy IPAs
And more.
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