IPA: Bold, Cold & Controlled (Spring 2023)

Stefan Zehendner at Brauerei Zehendner shares a recipe for this strong, seasonal bock that he releases every December. As with his Maibock, the target is a full-flavored yet addictively drinkable strong lager with deep, bready malt flavor and surprising bitterness, complemented by herbal-minty Perle hop flavors.

In looking for tips on what makes for a great pale bock, Josh Weikert reaches out to owner-brewer Stefan Zehendner of the highly regarded Brauerei Zehendner, makers of the Mönchsambacher beers.

Despite it’s lean malt frame and body-lightening adjuncts, cold IPA is well within the reach of homebrewers who like to employ partial-mashes and extracts.

Crack some grains and cook some rice if you want, but attacking cold IPA with the partial-mash method is simple. Let the pedants argue about whether it’s a style—we’re too busy brewing and drinking it.

In Portland, Oregon, Zoiglhaus brewmaster Alan Taylor and his team brew this award-winning schwarzbier with German ingredients and in accordance with German brewing traditions.

Like a social chameleon, Germany’s unusual black lager—easy-drinking yet richly flavored—seems to adapt to your needs depending on the weather or the season. Jeff Alworth looks closer at the style and its story.

It used to seem so simple—know your hops and when you add them to the boil, and you’ll know how bitter your beer will be. Now, thanks to IPA’s evolution and lots of new research, bitterness is getting … complicated. Here are key takeaways to help you dial it in.

From our Love Handles files on the world’s great beer bars: Chicago’s Beer Temple serves a smartly chosen mix of craft classics and contemporary standouts, all with extra care.

Whether aiming for soft and hazy or lean and bitter, successful brewers rely on some bedrock strategies for building higher-strength IPAs with sneaky drinkability.

Justin Burdt and the team at Ghost Town in Oakland, California, share this homebrew-scale recipe for the double IPA that won back-to-back GABF gold medals in 2021 and 2022—and helped them earn Brewery of the Year honors in 2022.

A splash of IPA adds bright flavor accents to this comforting soup, which gets its vivid hue from English peas.

You don’t need a traditional Finnish kuurna to brew this typical sahti, made with barley malt, a bit of dark rye, and a kiss of juniper—any modern brewing kit can do the job.

The wider world has known about sahti for a few decades now, but many attempts to brew it have little to do with the real thing. For those who want to make something much closer to the Finnish farmhouse tradition, Mika Laitinen explains the basics.

Unlike many other farmhouse brewing traditions, sahti is relatively well known and widely produced in its homeland. In the wider beer world, however, it’s frequently misunderstood.

From our Love Handles files on the world’s great beer bars: Bar Volo in Toronto brings together locally brewed cask ales, quality Italian cooking, and cozy vibes.

From Ben Edmunds, brewmaster at Breakside in Portland, Oregon, comes this West Coast IPA powered by American and New Zealand hops.

Oh, is it that time again? For those who want to take on the classic seasonal, this is a wonderful “first lager” if you’ve never brewed one. (And as for the British malt in a traditional German style … well, we won’t tell if you won’t.)

A "Thiolized" yeast strain, Salvo hop-aroma extract, and tangerine zest are among the elements in this juicy yet balanced IPA from NoDa in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Modified yeast strains and products such as Phantasm have unlocked the massive aromatic and flavor potential of thiols. Now, brewers are learning how best to tame that power in service of balance and nuance.

This recipe has been shaped by years of studying, drinking, thinking about, and brewing Kölsch-style beer. “This is as near to an authentic Kölsch recipe as you can get,” says brewer Corey Blodgett. “Unless you’re in Köln.”

It’s not just any blonde ale into which you pitch some “German ale” yeast. Corey Blodgett, noted Kölsch evangelist and longtime pro brewer, shares his advice on brewing a serious Kölsch-style beer that tastes like the stuff in Köln.

West Coast? Hazy? Fruity? Dank? From our Spring 2023 issue, these five brewers’ tastes in India pale ale maps the breadth of the style itself.

Brewers don’t make beer, yeast do—but they also make a lot more yeast. Here’s a look at some of the specialized gear that brewers use to propagate and ensure consistent pitches from batch to batch.

Our growing awareness of thiols and other hop compounds are just scratching the surface of beer’s aromatic complexity. Inspired by some recent research into wine, Randy Mosher outlines a new model—aroma pools—that might help us think differently about how and what we smell in beer.

From our Love Handles files on the world’s great beer bars: In Singapore’s Chinatown district, this hawker’s stall in a food market is pouring the city’s best rotating selection of beers from near and far.

This longtime luminary of the San Diego scene reaches for foundational beers that inspire his approach to the classics while also evoking a time when the industry was smaller and more tightly knit.

This is a simple yet remarkably enjoyable style that novice brewers can get right the first time—yet experienced brewers can appreciate it the 100th time and beyond.

What was once an optional step for clarity has become virtually essential for packing flavor into IPAs and other hop-forward beers. Commercial brewers have specialized gear for it, while homebrewers—whether they realize it or not—also have everything they need for whirlpooling.

From Emancipation Brewing in Fairbury, Illinois, comes this recipe that local patrons have been enjoying in quantity at their occasional Kölsch Nights.

Big-city breweries and bars aren’t the only ones who can draw crowds with events dedicated to traditional Kölsch service. In rural Fairbury, Illinois, the locals have quite taken to Kölsch Night in the converted dairy barn at Emancipation Brewing. Cofounder and head brewer Lincoln Slagel explains how and why it works.

Ayla Kapahi, head brewer at Borderlands in Tucson, Arizona, shares this recipe for their easy-drinking wheat beer with German aroma hops, some light fruity esters, and a Southwestern twist: the addition of prickly pear.

For a bright, fruity flavor that’s special to Mexico and the American Southwest, consider the humble prickly pear. (Just watch out for those spines.)

It’s been five years since Wayfinder brewed its first cold IPA and more than two since it went mainstream. Despite predictions of a passing fad, breweries continue to embrace that lean, “wester than West Coast” frame. Here, Firestone Walker brewmaster Matt Brynildson muses on what defines it—and what really makes it work.

This crowd-pleaser pizza get a lift from some spicy, garlicky shrimp deglazed with juicy IPA.

Want to dive deeper into Kölsch? Here are some observations on the culture of the köbes, plus tips on building your own traditional-style serving tray.

Kölsch-style ale is an American craft mainstay, and reverent Kölsch service is now a trend with broad appeal. Before we all get carried away, Ryan Pachmayer goes to Köln to consider the subject more closely, from how it’s served to how it’s brewed—and why its future is uncertain.

It’s often stated anecdotally that IPA is the biggest style in craft beer—but just how big is it, in dollar share of craft beer sold today?

Festivals are back in full force, but who has time to hit them all? Here’s a rundown of our favorite, most interesting, and most compelling festivals—those that drive excitement about well-crafted beer and underscore the important place that beer holds in bringing us together.

Two splashes of hazy IPA add juicy subtlety to this comforting, moderately spicy fried chicken showcase.