310: Ghost Town’s Justin Burdt Boosts Hop Contrast in West Coast IPA and Pils

Justin Burdt loves hops, and has developed a unique and somewhat counter-intuitive approach to selecting them for Ghost Town’s award-winning West coast IPAs. His focus on tight and lean intensity relies on boosting expression through embracing some hop aroma notes that give other brewers fits, but it’s the push and pull that gives the IPAs such compelling dynamic range.

In this episode, Burdt dives deep into hops for the first hour of the podcast, before walking through the rest of their IPA brewing process, and finishing on the subject of West coast pils. Along the way, he discusses:

• What makes for “good” hops
• Searching for the stinging physical sensation in intense hops
• How Citra with “cat pee” notes can make better IPAs
• Focusing on hop oil quality over quantity
• Using certain hops in more concentrated forms like cryo
• The unique characteristics of HBC586
• Choosing lager or ale yeast for fermentation based on a beer’s hop profile
• Brewing specific competition batches to increase win percentage

And more.

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