The journey to brewing a New England–style IPA was a long one for Ryan Brooks, former brewmaster for San Diego’s award-winning Coronado Brewing Company and now cofounder and brewmaster at SouthNorte. Initially skeptical, he became a convert through the process of research, culminating in two pivotal moments—the point at which he tasted the beer and the point at which the customers in the Coronado taproom did the same.
“One of our Coronado brewers was nerding out on this whole juicy, hazy IPA thing—beers with tons of low bitterness hops, 20–30 IBUs (which is like half of what we’d normally use in an IPA), and all of that focuesd on whirpool, late hopping, and dry hopping,” Brooks says.
With research, the Coronado brewers settled on Wyeast 1318 London Ale III (thought to be the Boddington’s strain), a yeast that Brooks found to be much more flocculent than expected. “It cleans up pretty well, but as long as you don’t fine it or treat it, it’ll stay in suspension and remain hazy,” he says.