It’s 1993/1998/2002/2007. You’re at a party/couch fishing session/parole hearing and a friend, who is both a beer snob and hipster (although those terms were largely unknown back then), sees you pull a can of The Beast (that’s Milwaukee’s Best to the uninitiated, and yes, The Beast was a staple in those years and still is) out of the cooler. With a look that all at once encompasses derision, concern and a slight air of superiority, he says “Here, you need to try a real beer, not that piss water” or something equally crass. He hands you a Craft Brewery Palate Destroyer IPA and tells you this is what beer is supposed to taste like, although I’m paraphrasing. Like any predictable instance of peer pressure, you give in; a few sniffs of what emanates from the bottle evoke intriguing smells of grapefruit pith, marijuana and Pine Sol, so you take a hard pull on it. The dry bitterness grabs ahold of your tongue and attempts to rip it from your throat, but just like the time that same friend told you to smell his finger at a party, you took care not to flinch so as not to be ridiculed, and went back for more.
There were always three kinds of people in this situation: The natural-born IPA drinker whose palate was automatically inclined to bitter food and drink, and is therefore a closet masochist and weekend psychopath. The ever-aspiring A-lister who would rather die than have someone think they aren’t cool, so they drank what was given to them and lauded its glory while secretly detesting it. And the self-confident person who handed it back, told the friend they could keep their fancy beer and went back to their Two Buck Chuck. Make no mistake, however. All three of those dedicated beer drinkers came back to the American IPA at some point or another, and most did so permanently. In the years since it broke into the beer scene, the American IPA has gone from a product that was essentially either the “regular” or “strong” version of itself to an entity with multiple identities. And while some of these personalities are as trendy and fad-like as fashion (remember the Nitro IPA?), some have major staying power and will themselves have variations of their own definitions, which leads to a host of adjectives that end up on beer labels. How do you, the consumer, know what to pick so that you won’t drop hard-earned cash on a beer that you might wholly dislike and have to commit the Ultimate Sin of Drain Pour? Keep reading, beer drinkers, and rejoice. Information is at hand.
The “Modern” American IPA: The history of the American IPA is varied and distinguished, but it’s names like Charlie Papazian, Vinnie Cilurzo and Greg Koch (no, not Greg Koch the blues guitarist…or the guy who played for the Green Bay Packers…the Stone Brewing guy), along with breweries like Lagunitas, Pizza Port and Sierra Nevada who laid the foundation in the greater San Diego area for a beer style that would define an ever-changing revolution in brewing, gastronomy and culture. American brewers were no stranger to the IPA style during that time. The “American” IPA, based on the British style brought over with expatriated English brewers but adapted to the resources and brewing styles available here in the New World, had already popped in the 1980s with Bert Grant in Yakima, Washington, in the 1970s with Fritz Maytag’s Anchor Brewing in San Francisco, and even in the late 1800s with Peter Ballantine & Sons in Newark, New Jersey. It was the fast and furious movement of the Southern California brewers at the end of the 20th century, however, who used American brashness, ingenuity and curiosity to mold that style into a product as iconic as the muscle car.
The modern American IPA has gone through various eras and changes to the status quo, but the most widely-accepted definition of the style emerged in the 1990s and went unchanged for roughly 20 years. It was defined by a clear, gorgeous color ranging from gold to amber to burnished copper. The flavor profile was a semi-sweet caramel malt base with a bracing hop bitterness that laid on the tongue and stayed there, ebbing and flowing with intensity as you waded through the beer. Hop aromas and flavors were almost invariably some combination of grapefruit citrus, pine needles and resinous marijuana aromas that ranged from dank to skunky to Rotten Wookie. This unholy amalgamation of tastes and aromas created a flavor profile that reeked of freshness and became a beer that was perfect for washing down fish tacos, swilling on the beach after carving waves or simply sitting in the sun in the Great Outdoors. It’s appeal spread like wildfire, and breweries from Deschutes in Oregon to Bell’s in Michigan to Dogfish Head in Delaware began churning out timeless examples of this highly Americanized style of beer that, while many popular sub-styles have come from it, still maintains a following of both drinkers who want to remember the IPA of the 90s that got them into craft beer in the first place, as well as newer drinkers who want to experience what started it all, so to speak.
Session: These were all the rage a decade ago, and although they’re still a pleasant surprise when you notice it, it’s rare that you find a beer marketed as “sessionable” these days. A session IPA essentially has all the characteristics of an IPA (pick any variety, although they are typically of the more traditional/West Coast style), but with an ABV that usually caps out around 5% or so. Sure, there are a few variations that were significant early on, like Founder’s All Day, and still enjoy market relevance. Session IPAs are still balanced to the hops in an aromatic sense, but their apparent bitterness is typically lower in order to account for the lighter malt body, a necessary brewing strategy to keep the alcohol content lower. Why is that relevant? A modest alcohol content allows you to have a longer beer drinking “session” rather than drinking two and deciding you can’t legally drink the other four (or two…six packs are for your girlfriend’s celebrity crush). Founders All Day, Sweetwater Hash Session and Firestone Walker Easy Jack were some of the great early versions of this style, and still enjoy market relevance to this day. Otherwise, it’s nice to stumble across a gloriously hoppy, medium-bodied IPA, look at the label and realize it’s only 5.2%.
New England/Hazy/Unfiltered/East Coast/Vermont IPA: While some will argue these are, in fact, different sub-styles of IPA, let’s be real. They’re all variations on the same theme, mostly due to brewers crying foul of New England getting credit for the beer style that started in the 1990’s and took the brewing world by storm in 2011. I’m talking to you, Vermont-style IPA. We all know The Alchemist was the OG shot caller of this style and I will constantly give you props, but with thousands of breweries throwing their hat in the ring and innovation coming from every direction, it’s hard to pin this style to just one location, not even the United States. The New England IPA was the first major deviation from the traditionally-accepted American IPA. It was hazy and lighter in color, had less apparent bitterness and exhibited extremely juicy citrus fruit flavors due to late hopping (adding hops closer to/at the end of the boil to drastically reduce bitterness and increase essential oil potency), whirlpool hopping (hops that are essentially “stirred” in the hot wort that is no longer boiling, stripping the fruity essential oils from the hops while adding a very low apparent bitterness) and dry hopping (hops that are added to the relatively cool wort in the fermentation vessel, adding lots of fruity aroma with no bitterness). As hop varieties increased, became more popular or were noted to exhibit much more fruity, juicy character when they were utilized in this manner, the IPA went from a beer with a malty caramel backbone that was balanced towards the bitter hops of grapefruit, pine and resinous character to an IPA that was much gentler on the palate, much less bitter and exhibited a huge nose of juicy, fruity aromas that quickly translated onto the palate. Suddenly beer drinkers were consuming IPAs and experiencing juicy citrus, pineapple, mango, papaya, cantaloupe, honeydew, peach, blueberry, kumquat, lychee, passionfruit…the list goes on. And who wouldn’t enjoy that kind of transition from the decades-long standard of dry and bitter? Granted, the NEIPA became a style that quickly ran full-tilt to the other end of the spectrum, with some having such low apparent bitterness and high fruity hop characteristics as to come across as a sweet beer that made you question its IPA card-carrying credentials, but this style variation has become so wildly popular, with so much customer appeal and staying power that it’s possible to find an NEIPA that just about any beer drinker will enjoy. Aesthetically the beers are a lovely color, the aromas are often magical and are both highly varied and sessionable. These days, a young brewery is as often as not to create an NEIPA as their flagship beer, to say nothing about their flagship IPA. While a return to the IPAs of the 1990s and 2000s are currently in vouge, the New England IPA is undoubtably here to stay due mainly to its broad drinking appeal, incredible flavors and deft touch to the palate.
Milkshake/Smoothie: A sub-genre of the NEIPA, this IPA variant was first brewed in 2015 by Omnipollo and Tired Hands. The milkshake IPA is an amalgamation of brewers adding lactose (milk sugar) to an IPA to give it a creamy texture and slightly sweet flavor, creating a beer that kind of reminds you of an Orange Julius. You know, from the mall? In the 1980s? Get off my lawn, punk. The addition of lactose, combined with their almost constant use of dry hopping with extremely fruity strains such as Mosaic, El Dorado and various New Zealand strains, produce an IPA that defined its own namesake and was one of the first marketing ploys of using the IPA moniker for a beer that completely disregarded what characteristics were typical of an “actual” IPA in order to garner interest from the consumer. While these beers are indeed very hoppy, it’s the fruit characteristics you’re looking for, not hop bitterness, which is almost non-existent. Lots of oats, both flaked and malted, are prominent in the grain bill to assist in lending a creamy mouthfeel, and the lactose lends a vanilla character which pairs nicely with the fruits. The addition of fruits, some vegetables (like rhubarb), spices (hazelnut, graham cracker) and the occasional “X-Factor” ingredient like marshmallow can garner it the name “smoothie”. These beers have a smooth, creamy mouthfeel, are hazy to the point of being opaque, often have coloring that can be described as “neon” or “pastel”, and their apparent bitterness is often bested by some German Pilsners and finish quite sweet on the palate, although many will argue that it should be balanced and not lose sight of the IPA label. Many breweries jumped on this beer fad without first learning the best way to approach it and as a result, you often would find Milkshake IPAs with almost no shelf stability. One brewery (which shall go nameless; I’m not trying to get sued) recommended that its patrons store cans of its milkshake IPAs upside-down “for best results,” the result being that if you poured the beer into a glass and let it sit for a while, you’d end up with a pronounced layer of white powder at the bottom of the glass. Enough time has gone by since its inception that brewers have taken the time to learn the intricacies of brewing with lactose and have therefore started putting out some solid examples of the style, although the market has seen the “smoothie” designation find its way much more prominently to sour beers.
Brut IPA: The terms “brut” and “champagne” have been attached to beer for a while. The Belgians have made beers with color, mouthfeel and flavor that are highly similar to champagne. The Brut IPA was an experimental product of San Francisco’s Social Kitchen and Brewery in the early 2010’s brought about by using a common brewing enzyme to get the yeast “super extra” during fermentation. Remember back in 2003 when you were taking Hydroxycut? Eating everything in sight, getting that pump at the gym, dropping lbs, getting yoked yet not noticing that you were losing friends because you were being a total bastard due to all that ephedra? It’s kind of like that with yeast, only less sociopathic. Once introduced to the yeast during fermentation, they’re no longer satisfied with a sensible meal before bedtime. Now they want to pull an all-nighter, clearing out the fridge and pantry until they’re eating the beer equivalent of a sugar sandwich (and that’s actually not too far off), because now the yeast are ravenous and continue to consume the residual sugars in the wort until there are virtually none. What you are left with is a highly carbonated, highly attenuated and extremely dry beer that is light in both body and color, reminiscent of champagne, but also highly hopped, hence the name Brut IPA. It became a sensation in Southern California, and not long after the market began demanding it country-wide. While brewers’ grain bills have come to include more rice and corn adjuncts to keep the yeast more likely to keep eating and eating (like Cool Ranch Doritos to…well, anyone), the hop schedule is just about anything that you can come up with. The possibilities of hop characteristics that will differentiate the various products are endless. What are the drawbacks? Adding this additional enzyme to your brewing process requires a greater understanding of yeast nutrition to have a complete and healthy fermentation. Over-hopping your product with alpha-heavy bittering strains and overlooking the fruity, New World hops will leave you with a beer that is intensely dry and bitter, with no fruit notes to speak of to balance it out, a characteristic we’re hard pressed to forgive in beer. All of these variables can leave you with a flabby, unappetizing beer that will only become a dreaded Drain Pour, so be sure to do your research before shelling out for an entire four/six pack of potential disappointment. While I’ve had a few market examples from both “small” and “big” breweries, I highly recommend trying a Brut IPA that has been corked and caged, and not purely for aesthetic reasons. These will most likely have been bottle-conditioned, and while it may cost a little more, the drinking experience will be worth it. And please remember to use proper glassware.
Cold IPA: This is where my writing will take a decidedly less positive turn and I’ve been practicing my Soapbox jumps. Just as with so many other evolutions of the IPA style, I was immediately intrigued when I heard of the “Cold IPA.” Not to jump headfirst onto the bandwagon (so to speak), I did a little research and was immediately disenchanted with what I found. The most important aspect of the Cold IPA is the yeast strain used, which is a lager yeast strain. Once again, a lager yeast strain is used to brew a beer that claims to be an IPA. That in itself is all you need to know about this…ploy touted as a style, in my opinion. IPA stands for India Pale Ale, as in ale yeast strain. The Cold IPA is actually an India Pale Lager (IPL), but since its creators and enablers are well aware that the market (beer drinkers) won’t typically reach for an IPL, they’ll just call it an IPA and you’ll have already given them your money by the time you’re the wiser. Granted, many of you in it for the artisanal, hedonic aspects of beer drinking could probably care less, and that’s what the Cold IPA label is catering to. I, however, am a former brewer and a champion of beer-centric education who bristles at the concept of brewing a beer with a lager yeast strain and labeling it as an ale. Sure, it is indeed hybrid in nature, but you don’t hear Kölsch brewers calling their beers a lager simply because it has many of the characteristics of one. Mine may be an unyielding, narrow-minded and hater-esque view, but I’m okay with that. Perhaps posting this will simply give the three of you reading it FOMO and you’ll go on a search for the Cold IPA to satisfy a “don’t watch this video” curiosity, but I just want you all to know what you’ll actually be drinking.
This beer is as versatile as actual IPAs are as far as its hop schedule, which is aggressive and uses lots of New World hop strains to dazzle your senses. The style uses a grain bill heavy on Pilsner malts and adjuncts (corn, sugar) for dryness. Again, brewers make use of a lager yeast strain and ferment it at somewhat warmer temperatures to cut down on residual amounts of sulfur dioxide that is often present in beers brewed with lager yeast, although this will largely fail to present the fruity ale characteristics that often help to “connect the dots” of the ales your palate has become accustomed to. The ABV is anywhere from sessionable to knocking on the DIPA threshold (and I’m sure it’s getting there as I write this), and the resulting beer is “as clean as possible”, crisp, dry and very hoppy. I just can’t get behind this, however. I applaud wanting a cleaner, crisper beer that isn’t so sweet and flabby as many of the IPAs I’m tasting on the market, but take major issue with calling anything brewed with a lager yeast an IPA. Some brewers have gone from pushing the BA and BJCP boundaries in order to rationalize their products that are more artisanal in nature a la Belgian beers, in which the brewers are more concerned with making a product that is pleasant to drink rather than ‘coloring inside the lines’ to completely abandoning the lines and boundaries and calling something an IPA when, by very definition, it isn’t. This is what causes misinformation and ignorance in the beer world. So I hope the Cash Grab Cold IPA will be a fad that fades quickly.
West Coast IPA: When the beer world noticed that the IPA was transforming into a style that was sweeter, less bitter, with a brightly-hued body and an emphasis on late hoping and dry hopping, brewers in Southern California quickly moved to set the flag for the traditional American IPA that so many beer drinkers cut their teeth on. San Diego’s Green Flash Brewing didn’t brew the first beer that was coined “West Coast IPA,” but they moved quickly enough to secure the trademark for the name in 2005, and the beer’s formulation was pretty much spot-on for what other breweries would soon call the “West Coast-style IPA.” This beer had a solid malt backbone that gave the beer its signature copper-orange color, caramel notes due to the use of crystal malts and just enough sweetness to prevent the beer from being numbingly bitter. 90 minute boils weren’t uncommon with a large hop charge at 60 min. In fact, most of your hop schedule happens throughout the boil, producing a maximum amount of iso-alpha acids, as well as a layering of hop character, the result of which is a beer with the more traditional notes of grapefruit, pine and resin found in earlier American hop strains and a bracing bitterness in the 70-95 IBU range. While many breweries producing this style would move away from some of the more traditional hop strains like Cascade, Chinook and Columbus would even add hops in the whirlpool or dry hop from time to time, this beer is almost unwaveringly bitter, finishes quite dry and is clear and bright, not hazy, reminiscent of the craft beers of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.
Northwest/PNW IPA: An almost sub-category of the West Coast IPA, the Northwest/PNW IPA has evolved away from the traditional/West Coast IPA style and has become less dry, more hazy and much more aromatic. While hop bitterness is still fairly assertive, the apparent bitterness has abated somewhat and dry hopping has become much more prominent. In addition, while some of your more traditional American hops like Cascade, Citra and Simcoe are still prominently featured, brewers love to feature hop bursting and dry hopping with New Zealand hops like Motueka and Riwaka, as well as fruitier American hop strains such as Mosaic, El Dorado and Zythos. The resulting hop profile will be the greatest hits of citrus and pine notes with a strong backing of tropical fruits. While the hazy body tends to give it a slightly heavier feel on the palate compared to its West Coast sibling, that gorgeous color simply connects the dots between the bitterness and all those wonderful fruity notes. Some of you currently in transition between the old-school dynamics of the West Coast IPA and the modern, juicy, less bitter hazy IPAs of the last few years may just find your new favorite style in the Northwest-style IPA.
Mountain IPA: When East meets West, they usually meet in the Mountains. The Mountain IPA is most often known by Fort Collins, Colorado-based Odell Brewing, who pushed this new style enough to be credited with coining it with their Mountain Standard IPA. Brewers of this style saw an opportunity to find the sweet spot between the uber-retro bitterness of the West Coast IPA style and the almost cloyingly sweet, bitter-free flavor of the East Coast IPAs and unapologetically created an IPA with a solid but easily drinkable malt body, a moderate hop bitterness in the 40-65 IBU range, and a barrage of hop flavor profiles from juicy citrus, pine, resin, tropical fruits and a host of other nuances due to their use of just about any type of hop strain they can get their hands on, particularly new and experimental hops. You’ll see names like Cashmere, Strata, Enigma and HBC ###. The most common descriptor used for this beer is “drinkable.” As in “a beer that is not taxing on the palate.” Almost everything about this style is done in moderation: body, haze, IBUs & ABV.
Experimental IPA: Experimental IPA is a moniker given to IPA-ish beers for a number of reasons. One could be that it was brewed using all experimental hop strains, meaning new hops strains that are going through brewing trials to see how brewers…and the market…react. It’s kind of like clinical trials for some new God-awful pharmaceutical product in which they’re trying to decide if bleeding from your eyes and spontaneous combustion are acceptable side effects for a drug that has a 1 in 5 chance to help with mild indigestion, but it’s only hops, so the negative side effects would be “doesn’t have the dragon fruit and whiskey notes I was hoping for.” The good news is that both situations come with pretty girls handing out donuts; you ladies sure love your beards and bellies! Another reason a beer might be labeled “Experimental IPA” is because the brewing process, or the product that it produces, isn’t recognized as an actual style by the Brewers Association or the Beer Judge Certification Program, the latter of which I promise you can’t wait to slam the door on something because it’s different or doesn’t fit to tradition (Much like I did with the Cold IPA. See? I’ll turn and be fickle). So brewers and marketers use this term to give The Finger to hard-asses screaming “Get off my lawn” and “That’s not how we do it” and show that it’s okay to color outside the lines from time to time. Besides, doesn’t it pique your interest a little, perhaps make you feel like a beta tester just for the sublime experience of drinking a beer? That’s what they’re hoping for.
So what happens when labels start mixing these style terms on the label? Have you seen a Smoothie Brut IPA yet? A Hazy West Coast IPA? A West Coast NEIPA? You will, trust me. Whether by ingenuity, unsuspecting ignorance or shoulder-shrugging greed, you as the consumer will be asked to wade through all of these terms to decide if the beer inside is something you’d like to try. How do you decipher these new terminology mash-ups? I have no clue, other than to take what you know thanks to this insightful article and apply it when you’re standing in front of that beer cooler at your favorite craft beer store. If you aren’t sure, hit up the single can section!