“…dry, thin, bitter is a real problem in a lot of West Coast IPA.”
Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast · Food & Beverage · September 2026
Context
The Breakside brewer is answering a question about mash strategy on a panel of Pacific Northwest brewers, and names the flaw he thinks West Coast IPA keeps producing: very pale Pilsner malts leave a beer with nothing underneath the bitterness. He adds that the version without the bitterness, dry-thin-flabby, may be worse still. It is a criticism of the style he brews himself, made in front of other brewers.
Transcript
you doing that? What's it add?
I think it adds really great, not only it's great for head retention, but body mouthfeel.
Yeah, dry, thin, bitter is a real problem in a lot of West Coast IPA. It's definitely, and so is dry-thin flabby. So if you don't have the bitterness, that might be even worse, honestly. But it is tricky because as you use these very, very, very pale Pilsner malts, it's easy to end up with a beer that's too wispy and that doesn't have enough body. So going to things like flaked wheat or low-color malted wheat, which were in the recipe that we used yesterday, are…
Are there any other mash strategies that you're using to also help build some of that body? Nobody's decocting or anything along that with their IPAs, are they? Not yet.
Yeah, Amalgam does, yeah.
Yeah, other than Phil. Anything else to the overall mash strategy? I
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