West Coast IPA

Brian Hutchinson, cofounder and brewer at the Colorado brewpub that’s won a slew of medals for its hop-forward beers over the past 13 years, details their approach to achieving high-impact flavor and quality at small scale.

Patrick Bourque, head brewer at Kiitos in Salt Lake City, says they brewed this IPA to showcase fonio’s unique flavors—such as passion fruit, lychee, and white peach—and how those flavors meld nicely with the flavors and aromas of modern hop varieties.

You don’t want your water to get in the way of hop-saturated flavors. Here, North Park founder and head brewer Kelsey McNair sketches out a few different water profiles that depend on style—and why he might adjust those profiles, depending on choices made elsewhere.

North Park founder and head brewer Kelsey McNair shares his approach and various techniques for achieving fully saturated hop flavor in IPA, West Coast pilsner, or any hop-forward style.

Russian River cofounder and brewmaster Vinnie Cilurzo shares this recipe for a beer to celebrate the 25th birthday of one of his favorite hops.

Shaun Kalis, cofounder and brewer at Ruse Brewing in Portland, Oregon, shares this recipe for a fresh-hopped version of their bright, West Coast–style, Mosaic-heavy IPA.

This award-winning Northwest IPA is a flagship for Von Ebert in Portland, Oregon, with a berry-forward hop flavor driven by lots of Mosaic, plus Simcoe and Strata in the dry hop.

Michal Minarik, cofounder of Firstep Beer in Slovakia, shares this recipe for their bottom-fermented IPA with a “central European twist”—a beer that recently won Best of Show at the King of Craft competition in Budapest.

Inspired by the tasting notes of the beer writer Michael Jackson, Breakside in Portland, Oregon, recently brewed this West Coast–style IPA to honor Jackson and raise funds for the Michael Jackson Foundation for Brewing & Distilling.

Evan Price, cofounder and head brewer of Green Cheek in Orange, California, details how pH, water chemistry, hop varieties, and grain choices are all among the knobs you can turn to shape your ideal perception of bitterness in West Coast–style, hop-forward beers.

How did we get here? Green Cheek cofounder and head brewer Evan Price traces the recent history of IPA in the West Coast style, as it’s moved away from caramel and fully embraced pilsner malt.

From a word on water to dry hopping, fining, and carbonating, cofounder and head brewer Evan Price shares an overview of Green Cheek’s process for West Coast–style beers.

Does the world need a new style of IPA? Never mind, don’t answer that—instead, we’ll let Beachwood brewmaster Julian Shrago respond with this recipe for what he calls a “hyper IPA.”

Evan Price, cofounder and head brewer of Green Cheek in Orange, California, explains the thinking behind using different chloride-sulfate ratios for their West Coast pilsners, IPAs, and double IPAs.

Evan Price, cofounder and head brewer of Green Cheek in Orange, California, lays out the thinking and process behind their bright, bitter, and highly drinkable West Coast pils, IPA, and double IPA.

So far, Anthony Tallman’s quest to brew the perfect hop-forward session beer has borne two GABF silver medals for Carlsbad Crush. But this San Diego brewer isn’t done experimenting with techniques, ingredients, or timing, as he continues to squeeze big hop flavors into Burgeon’s lean, drinkable beers.

From the team at Colorado’s Westbound & Down, we share a homebrew-scale recipe for their Spirit of the West, winner of consecutive silver medals at the 2022 Great American Beer Festival, the 2023 World Beer Cup, and then once again at the 2023 GABF.

In this panel discussion from our recent Brewery Accelerator, Jake Gardner of Westbound & Down, Marni Wahlquist of Odell, and Sean Buchan of Cerebral discuss their approaches to contemporary IPA—hazy, clear, and everything in-between.

Despite it’s lean malt frame and body-lightening adjuncts, cold IPA is well within the reach of homebrewers who like to employ partial-mashes and extracts.

In these excerpts from one of our most popular podcast episodes, a few of the best IPA brewers in the business talk about adjusting the mash for dryness, evolving their recipes to keep drinkers (and themselves) happy, defeating the hop creep, maximizing aroma, and more.