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

7 snips

Mar 1, 2025

Guest

Jake Gardner

Join Brian Hutchinson from Cannonball Creek, Phil Joyce of Amalgam, and Jake Gardner from Westbound & Down as they dive deep into the world of West Coast IPAs. These medal-winning brewers share their secrets to crafting clean, flavorful beers, focusing on innovative techniques like decoction mashing and unique malt blends. They discuss the fine balance of hops, yeast health, and even the artistry of flavor communication. With a strong sense of camaraderie, they explore how friendly competition elevates their craft and creativity in the vibrant Colorado beer scene.

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ANECDOTE

Phil's IPA Transition Story

Phil Joyce transitioned Amalgam towards IPAs, inspired by creativity hops offer.
He enjoys IPAs that invite conversation and multiple pints, unlike other styles.

INSIGHT

Hop Advancements Drive Creativity

Modern West Coast IPA creativity thrives on hop advancements and malt variety.
Brewers craft alongside adjacent styles like session IPAs and pale ales to expand possibilities.

ANECDOTE

Jake's Early IPA Inspiration

Jake Gardner credits his passion for West Coast IPA to early influences like Hop Avant.
His experience began before the style was formally named, experimenting with minimal malt beers.

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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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