104: Evan Price of Green Cheek Beer Co.: Creatively Evolving West Coast IPA (and Winning!)

Since their founding in June 2017, Green Cheek Beer Co. has pulled off an impressive list of awards—a silver medal in American-style IPA at the 2018 World Beer Cup, two bronze medals at the 2018 GABF, and most recently a silver and gold (in American-style IPA and Australian-style Pale Ale) at the 2019 GABF. In this conversation, recorded a few days before Price and Green Cheek collected those 2019 medals, he goes deep on the subject of the evolving style of West coast-style IPA. From malt shifts (“Crystal malt ends up tasting like an old beer right when you make it”) to the impacts of water profiles to selecting low cohumulone hops for less aggressive bitterness, every choice matters. Price covers developing skills like translating hops aromas while rubbing into an idea of how they’ll express in a finished beer, their hops evaluation procedures, lowering whirlpool temperatures for better hot side hops character, and even discusses their strategy toward brewing for and entering competitions. If you’re not smiling by the end of this episode, you’re doing it wrong.

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