Monday, SevenFiftyDaily told us “West Coast IPAs Are Making a Comeback.”
Tuesday, Andy Crouch started a conversation about what the true version of the “style” might be.
Once dominant, West Coast IPA has largely disappeared from popular consumption for the better part of a decade now. And those remaining WCIPAs have become softer and hazier to meet the palate shift. Many of these brewers may never have actually tried a true version of the style. https://t.co/LzCNeIvU1K
— Andy Crouch (@BeerScribe) April 5, 2022
If you aren’t seeing the tweet, it goes like this: “Once dominant, West Coast IPA has largely disappeared from popular consumption for the better part of a decade now. And those remaining WCIPAs have become softer and hazier to meet the palate shift. Many of these brewers may never have actually tried a true version of the style.”
Because Crouch replied to his own tweet you’ll find different branches of the conversation if you click around. Lots of opinions, including naming names as prototypical examples of the “style.” Jim Vorel wrote it would not be Firestone Walker Union Jack because it veered toward “a fruitier direction.”
So let’s talk about Firestone Walker Union Jack and the Hopnosis, the latter released this year and described as the “ultimate new-school expression of the West Coast IPA.”
When brewmaster Matt Brynildson began working on the recipe for Firestone’s first India pale ale in 2006 he envisioned it might be brewed with English malts and would be fermented, like many other Firestone Walker beers, using the brewery’s unique Union system, and spending time in oak barrels.
The brewers at Firestone Walker made test batches for the better part of a year. “The first brews were maltier, sweeter, not what we were going for,” Brynildson said. The first thing to go was the British malts. “We weren’t trying to hold ourselves to a (specific version). We were going to make the best possible IPA.”
The next thing to go was the contribution barrels make during the production of Pale 31 and Double Barrel, something that made Firestone beers unique. “We were trying to integrate the oak (in the IPA), but we just gave up,” Brynildson said.
These were not bad decisions. Union Jack won a silver medal at the 2008 World Beer Cup shortly after it was released, then later in the year a gold medal (which it also won the next year) at the Great American Beer Festival and a gold medal at the European Beer Star awards.
Fast forward to 2012. Brynildson shared the recipe for Union Jack in “For the Love of Hops.”
Original gravity: 16.5 °P (1.068)
Final gravity: 3.0 °P (1.012)
ABV: 7.5%
IBU: 75
Grain bill:
88% American or Canadian highly modified 2-row malt
6% Munich malt
3% Briess CaraPils malt
3% Simpson 30/40 malt
Water treatment:
Add gypsum as needed to get total calcium above 100 parts per million. Acidify mash to 5.4 with phosphoric or lactic.
Mashing:
Mash at low temp 145° F (63° C) for 45 to 60 minutes and step up to 155° F (68° C) to finish conversion. You might add dextrose (up to 5%) to get to gravity and/or to aid in attenuation if needed. The idea is to have a lean body, not to hide hop character, and to help accentuate the hop profile.
Hops, yeast, fermentation, dry hopping:
(All in Brynildson’s words)
“We whack the boil hard with Magnum, but I’m not overly anal about the bittering charge when it comes to variety when brewing IPAs and Double IPAs. The charge we are using calculates out to be 50 IBU at 15% alpha. I’ve been known to use some hop extract (purified Isolone) in the kettle if we are having a hard time hitting the 75 IBU mark. It shouldn’t be necessary, though.
“I like middle additions on IPAs. We use Cascade at 30 minutes. Amarillo would work well here as well. The charge is 14 IBUs at 6% alpha.
“We hit it again at 15 minutes before knockout with Centennial with the same amount as the Cascade addition. You might notice that we are already over the 75 IBU mark on paper, but utilization is low. It is all about hop flavor at this point.
“We hit it in the whirlpool with another charge of Cascade and Centennial (equal amounts). On paper this looks like a 40 IBU charge but, again, the utilization of alpha on a brew like this is low overall.
“We ferment UJ with our house ale yeast cooling in at 63º F (17º C) and setting the fermentation at 66º F (19º C). Our house ale strain is closest to London ale or other English-style (fruity/soft) yeast. When the brew reaches 6 ºP (1.024) we turn the fermenter up to 70º F (21º C) for VDK (diacetyl) reduction and for the dry hop additions.
“We dry hop the beer two times at about one pound per barrel. Once at 0.5-1 ºP (0.002 to 0.004) before the end of fermentation (about Day 5) and again three days later while the beer is still warm (prior to crash cooling the beer). We use a blend of Centennial and Cascade, with lesser amounts of Simcoe and Amarillo for each dry hop. I’m a firm believer in short contact time with the hops, no more than 3 days. The yeast and hops at the bottom of the fermenter are removed prior to each dry hop.”
Granted, a few things have changed since 2012. Research into the importance of biotransformation and thiols was just beginning. Farmers in the northwest harvested 538 acres of Citra that year, compared to almost 12,000 in 2021. The Hop Breeding Company had just given Mosaic a name. Lotus, Nectaron, Tango, Eclipse, Loral, Hallertau Blanc, Mistral, Sabro, Strata, Talus, McKenzie, Pahto, Elixir, Vista and dozens more were unnamed experimental varieties, if they existed at all.
According to the Firestone Walker website, these days Union Jack is hopped with CTZ, Cascade, Centennial, Simcoe, Citra, Amarillo, Chinook. That’s different.
Hopnosis has a different grain bill, uses a different yeast, and the dry hopping process has changed. It is hopped with Mosaic, Idaho 7, El Dorado, Cashmere, Nelson Sauvin, Riwaka, Simcoe, Talus and Callista.
And the IBUs?
Union Jack 2012: 75
Union Jack today: 60
Hopnosis: 45
Related (with plenty of comments):
Personally, I want to know how many IBUs are in your pilsner. I want to know how many IBUs are in your helles. I want to know how many IBUs are in your West Coast IPA. It ain’t perfect, but I trust that # more than a bartender when I ask, “Is it bitter?” Because I want it bitter.
— Joe Stange (@Thirsty_Pilgrim) April 6, 2022
I read this when you posted originally, but today’s Hop Queries (5.12) link brought me back. Wending my way through the tweet and responses originally, I recall having the feeling that they were trying to define a West Coast IPA very narrowly, but inconsistently, and as usual with the idea of “beer styles” were focused on metrics that confused people or intangible and poorly described flavors and aromas. Dankness? (as in yesterday’s notTwitter, but also in this thread) No citrus? Do we need to feel like we’re “chewing on pine”? Is a West Coast IPA such because it restricts itself to the old “C” hops? Is it the belief that Simcoe was the defining extra element? Is it because it is dry? &c. I’ve never been happy with the juicy or NEIPAs and NEPAs that flood my area, but I’ve always been able to find a bitter and dry IPA commercially. As you describe above, UJ has shifted, but it had a lot of outlier elements (perhaps) like fruity/soft esters from yeast. And the “new school” version has 40% less IBUs, so they’ve thrown that out as a defining characteristic. Perhaps we need BU:GU ratio as a defining metric? Most of these beers were pretty dry finishing gravity. Then again, Smuttynose Finest Kind, DFH Aprihop (which I very much miss), and even Brooklyn’s East Coast IPA had and have those characteristics. I’ll throw in the third coast with Bell’s Two Hearted (among other greats). Proper WCIPA is proper beer style marketing returning to help differentiate for the consumer from something else popular. When we focus in on styles defined for competition, I think you lose what the consumer needs. But what does this guy know? Here’s a “fun” analogy: Are you having a coffee? A latte? Ew, no, I’m having a proper latte with half-caff and mocha. Next to them someone’s ordered matcha latte with coconut milk in hand. Earlier in the month, while I was in Boston, I noticed that they had the 2022 US Coffee Championships. (https://uscoffeechampionships.org/) Check out their regulations for competitions and note that the latte comp is mostly in the art. No categories that I noted for making the best non-fat latte, the best mocha latte, &c. For all the tight regulations on coffee in the “Brewers’ Cup” or “Barrista Championship” the only latte reference seems to be the artwork on top. Looking forward to seeing that at the BJCP soon for Porter head art or something…
Thanks for the additional thoughts, Dave.
I may start quoting this when I am out and about: “When we focus in on styles defined for competition, I think you lose what the consumer needs.”
Makes me appreciate your coffee analogy even more.