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Since their founding in June 2017, Green Cheek Beer Co. in Orange County, California, 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 evolving style of West Coast IPA. From malt shifts—“Crystal malt ends up tasting like an old beer right when you make it”—to the impact of water profiles, to selecting low-cohumulone hops for less aggressive bitterness, every choice matters. Price discusses how to translate the smell of hand-rubbed hops into an idea of how they’ll express in a finished beer, hops evaluation, and lowering whirlpool temperatures for better hot-side hops character. He 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.
Lead photo: John M. Verive
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