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.
Westbound & Down director of brewing operations Jake Gardner won’t tell you how to write your West Coast-style IPA recipe. But he will tell you how to make yours better—with more pronounced hop aroma and flavor that lasts longer in the package.
Make it snappy! Westbound & Down director of brewing operations Jake Gardner explains how shooting for a relatively low finishing pH can help your West Coast–style IPAs taste better for longer.
Brian Hutchinson of Cannonball Creek, Jake Gardner of Westbound & Down, and Phil Joyce of Amalgam discuss the similarities as well as points of difference in their award-winning approaches to brewing West Coast–style IPA.
Our contributing editor and one of the most accomplished chroniclers of the brewing industry shares her top beers and moments from the past year.
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.
“Funky, barnyard berry and currant nose with brilliant clarity. Light body with a very earthy, herbal, fruity flavor that finishes dry and lightly spicy. Just a hint of tannin.”
Big, bright, floral hop nose. In the flavor, more floral hops with notes of lavender, diesel, dankness, wet grass. Light, bready malt sweetness helps to balance. Dry finish, as bitterness lingers long after the sip. Fun, modern interpretation. Just restrained enough to come together.
Totally unpretentious, yet challenging to execute with precision... We asked five brewers for their favorite lagers brewed with body-lightening corn or rice.
From deceptively easy-drinking to weighty and ponderous, the comforts of these dark delights run the gamut. Here, five pro brewers share their favorites.
Assertive, distinctive rustic raspberry nose blends with the vanilla and funk into a seamless whole. Lively body with bright, tart raspberry notes married with tannins and light oak.
From West Coast-style IPA to barleywine, Jake Gardner shares his strategies for making flavorful beer, by solving the technical puzzles posed by how people drink it.
Creating sour and funky beers with depth involves many factors. But according to Phil Joyce, those factors aren't what you may think. Malt? Don't sweat it. Hops? Maybe. Water profile? Definitely. Yeast? Obviously.
It’s all about freshness and the preservative powers of antioxidants. Here, Westbound & Down director of brewing operations Jake Gardner explains why they believe they’ve gotten longer-lasting, more aromatic IPAs by choosing hops picked earlier in the harvest.
From thiols and survivability to advanced hop products and specific varieties, Westbound & Down director of brewing operations Jake Gardner explains what they want from hops in their West Coast IPAs.
Westbound & Down head brewer Jake Gardner won’t tell you how to write a West Coast IPA recipe—but he will tell you how to brew a better one, with higher-impact hop character and longer-lasting flavor stability.
Westbound & Down head brewer Jake Gardner won’t tell you how to write a West Coast IPA recipe—but he will tell you how to brew a better one, with higher-impact hop character and longer-lasting flavor stability.
“Muscled-up olafactory pounding of bourbon, plum, vanilla, chocolate cake, smooth barrel char. Flavors of fudge, red dessert wine, and burnt caramel keep me coming back. Base stout debauched in complex layers that marry so well with the barrel. Big, thick, boozy—in a great way. Fantastic beer.”
Enticing toasted malt aroma; caramel, floral hops, and esters of peach and grape. Flavor brings layers of caramel with cocoa, toast, and stone fruit. Medium-high bitterness almost overpowers the malt, verging into IPA territory. Finishes clean. Well balanced.
