494: Patrick Raasch of Sunriver Builds a Throughline of Refinement into Boldly Flavored Beers

With 19 Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup medals, an Alpha King win, and nine beers scored 95-plus by Craft Beer & Brewing—including two in our upcoming Fall issue—Sunriver has become a medal-winning powerhouse of a production brewery and brewpub. But while their hop-forward offerings get much of the attention—and a fair amount of time in this podcast episode—they’re equally adept at brewing beers with left-field culinary ingredients. The throughline? Palates they’re constantly training and challenging, and a sense for quality of flavor, refinement, and integration.

In this episode, head brewer Patrick Raasch discusses:

differentiating between American and West Coast IPA

blending pils and two-row malts in IPA

using lager yeast to lean into sulfur with more pungent hops

brewing their Alpha King–winning double IPA with 34/70 yeast

bittering with Mosaic CO2 extract

dry hopping under pressure at cooler temperatures

competition bottling for minimal oxygen ingress

taking IPA from great to medal-winning

integrating hops in barrel-aged American barleywine

brewing “garden party” rice lager with Japanese cucumber, yuzu, and basil