#136 Jack Walker | Head Brewer, Azvex

As head brewer at Liverpool-based Azvex, Jack Walker is responsible for creating a raft of celebrated beers. And only this month, the brewery was awarded the accolade of Best Double IPA in England for its Swedish Buzzsaw in the Untappd Community Awards. The 8.2% beer is dry-hopped with Citra, Strata, Mosaic & Nelson Sauvin These types of beers, as Jack explains, are part of the modus operandi at Azvex. And that means hazy hops, big stouts and silly sours. In this podcast, recorded in the Azvex taproom, Jack talks us through the setup at the brewery and what makes them tick. He discusses their four-vessel brew house, which allows for ultimate flexibility and control over a multitude of variables in the brewing process.  He explains that the fundamentals of their hoppy IPAs remain good basic brewing practice, but also evolving how and when they use hops, their percentages of adjunct grains, and always focusing on quality markers such as dissolved oxygen and pH.  Currently, they are focused on biotransformation and the flavour impact from the interaction of yeast and hops, and they have some “really silly” 60%+ adjunct grain bills.  “Pray for our lauter tun!” he says…