Podcast Episode 375: Murphy Johnson of BlackStack Gets Goosebumps When Talking About Hops

As an unabashed lover of hazy IPA, Murphy Johnson doesn’t apologize for focusing a huge portion of BlackStack’s brewing program on the hop-laden crowd pleasers. His latest obsession, meanwhile, is maximizing flavor without breaking the bank, using traditional American hops in some very untraditional ways.

Jamie Bogner Aug 23, 2024 - 6 min read

Podcast Episode 375: Murphy Johnson of BlackStack Gets Goosebumps When Talking About Hops Primary Image

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Murphy Johnson of BlackStack in St. Paul, Minnesota, is an enthusiastic brewer with a big personality. Despite many brewers’ strong opinions on hazy IPA, he’s not afraid to go against the grain and embrace the murky style in all its fruit-forward hop glory. In this almost entirely haze-focused episode, Johnson discusses how they continue to learn while developing beers—often via collabs with other brewers—as they deploy unusual techniques and focus on ingredients that don’t break the bank.

In this episode, Johnson touches on:

  • altering hazy IPA grain bills for aesthetic reasons
  • feeding voracious dry hops with additional fermentables, such as Belgian candi sugar
  • using thiol-boosting products with thiol-optimizing yeast for intensely fruit expressions
  • how Sabro at low percentages helps to bring out beautiful notes from other hops
  • building creaminess and mouthfeel with Cashmere and similar hops
  • achieving modern hop flavors with traditional (and less expensive) American hops
  • utilizing American Noble hop products in the mash to boost thiols
  • temperature control and spunding when fermenting hazy IPAs

And more.

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Jamie Bogner is the Cofounder and Editorial Director of Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine®. Email him at [email protected].

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