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Recipe: Green Cheek It Just Works
From Green Cheek in Orange County, California, here’s a homebrew-scale recipe for the cold IPA that our judges scored a perfect 100/100, landing it a spot on our list of the Best 20 Beers in 2021.
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Our blind review panel loved this beer in our 2021 IPA issue, scoring it a rare 100/100. Thus, a cold IPA made our Best 20 Beers list for the second year running.
Green Cheek cofounder and head brewer Evan Price: “We couldn’t feel more honored to present … the recipe for our cold IPA! Ours is very pale, with a firm bitterness and a sticky resin quality in the finish. The sniffs and sips are all fresh Douglas fir, blueberry muffins, and strawberries.”
For much more about this style, see Cold IPA Is Heating Up. Also check out our podcast with Price: Podcast Episode 104: Green Cheek’s Evan Price: Creatively Evolving West Coast IPA... and Winning.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.059
FG: 1.007
IBUs: 110+
ABV: 7%
Our blind review panel loved this beer in our 2021 IPA issue, scoring it a rare 100/100. Thus, a cold IPA made our Best 20 Beers list for the second year running.
Green Cheek cofounder and head brewer Evan Price: “We couldn’t feel more honored to present … the recipe for our cold IPA! Ours is very pale, with a firm bitterness and a sticky resin quality in the finish. The sniffs and sips are all fresh Douglas fir, blueberry muffins, and strawberries.”
For much more about this style, see Cold IPA Is Heating Up. Also check out our podcast with Price: Podcast Episode 104: Green Cheek’s Evan Price: Creatively Evolving West Coast IPA... and Winning.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.059
FG: 1.007
IBUs: 110+
ABV: 7%
[PAYWALL]
MALT/GRAIN BILL
8.1 lb (3.7 kg) pilsner
3.5 lb (1.6 kg) flaked rice
YEAST
Fermentis SafAle US-05
HOPS & ADDITIONS SCHEDULE
7 ml Warrior CO2 hop extract at 75 minutes [40 IBUs]
1 oz (28 g) Pahto at 75 minutes [70 IBUs]
1 tablet Whirlfloc at 15 minutes
1.3 oz (37 g) Amarillo at flameout/whirlpool
4.2 oz (119 g) Ekuanot at dry hop
2.8 oz (79 g) Mosaic at dry hop
1.4 oz (40 g) Amarillo at dry hop
1 Tbs (15 ml) Biofine at packaging
DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains and mash at 148°F (64°C) for 30 minutes. Recirculate until your runnings are clear, then run off into the kettle. Sparge with 170°F (77°C) water and top up as necessary to get about 6.5 gallons (25 liters) of wort, depending on your evaporation rate. Boil for 90 minutes, adding hops and finings according to the schedule. After the boil, do a whirlpool step: add whirlpool hops (we add at 200°F/93°C), stir or recirculate to create a vortex for 10 minutes, then allow 15 minutes to steep. Chill the wort to 66°F (19°C), aerate well, and pitch the yeast. Ferment at 68°F (20°C).
Once fermentation slows (Day 4 or 5), drop sediment or rack to a sanitized fermentor purged with CO2, and add dry hops at 68°F (20°C). Allow secondary fermentation from dry hopping to occur (this will help further dry out the beer). Once fermentation is complete, gravity has stabilized, and the beer passes a forced diacetyl test (see “Hunting for Diacetyl,” beerandbrewing.com), crash to 28°F (–2°C). Transfer to keg and use Biofine to clear the beer, which will help settle out tannins (hop bite) and make a cleaner-tasting beer. Carbonate medium-high and drink as much as possible, once bright.
BREWER’S NOTES
Shout out to the growers: Our Ekuanot comes from Perrault Farms, our Mosaic from Coleman Agriculture, and our Amarillo from Roy Farms.
Water profile: Start with carbon-filtered water that tastes good. Look at your water report and weigh out enough chloride and/or sulfate to hit a 1:1 ratio, 150 ppm of each.
Yeast: Yep, we use ale yeast and still call it a cold IPA.
