Happy IPA Day!
Hello readers! Today is a day to celebrate the India Pale Ale. The IPA has been gaining in popularity over the recent years. As people move toward more extreme flavors and beer drinkers seek more bitterness they turn to IPAs. As the availability of cultivated hops grows, more brewers (home and mass) are employing them in hop-heavy IPAs.
The whole leaf hop or pelletized hops are used in the brewing process. Hundreds of varieties of hops exist and are cultivated throughout the world. The basic break-down are bittering and aromatic. Each hop variety imparts different flavors and characters based on the type and time introduced into the brewing process. Flavors can be citrus, fruity, floral, sappy, earthy, or even woody (pine). My hop of choice is the chill-inducing cascade. It's commonly used, but never ceased to please me.
More brewers have been making ranges of IPAs, like Firestone Walker's Jack series or New Holland's Hatters. They incorporate darker malts, move past barley with grains like rye, and some balance the flavors with less-than traditional Belgian brewing techniques. Some brewers, like Sixpoint, Russian River, and NABC, have been focused on single-hop brews that showcase a specific hop variety. These brews give drinkers the option of really absorbing all aspects from smell to taste of a single hop, schooling your taste buds.
In this journey of beer tasting, I've come across some divine IPAs (follow this link for full list of posts). Brews showcasing different hop flavors, blending, balancing, palate blasting (in some cases). This is a list of some notable brews I've had the pleasure of tasting:
What will you have?
The whole leaf hop or pelletized hops are used in the brewing process. Hundreds of varieties of hops exist and are cultivated throughout the world. The basic break-down are bittering and aromatic. Each hop variety imparts different flavors and characters based on the type and time introduced into the brewing process. Flavors can be citrus, fruity, floral, sappy, earthy, or even woody (pine). My hop of choice is the chill-inducing cascade. It's commonly used, but never ceased to please me.
More brewers have been making ranges of IPAs, like Firestone Walker's Jack series or New Holland's Hatters. They incorporate darker malts, move past barley with grains like rye, and some balance the flavors with less-than traditional Belgian brewing techniques. Some brewers, like Sixpoint, Russian River, and NABC, have been focused on single-hop brews that showcase a specific hop variety. These brews give drinkers the option of really absorbing all aspects from smell to taste of a single hop, schooling your taste buds.
In this journey of beer tasting, I've come across some divine IPAs (follow this link for full list of posts). Brews showcasing different hop flavors, blending, balancing, palate blasting (in some cases). This is a list of some notable brews I've had the pleasure of tasting:
- Most Favorite (Belgian): Houblon Chouffe (Brasserie d’ Achouffe)
- Most Favorite (Rye/Black): Wookey Jack (Firestone Walker)
- Most Earthy: Illumination (Central Waters)
- Most Dangerous: Double Crooked Tree (Dark Horse)
- Most Intriguing: Gemini (Sixpoint Craft Ales)
- Most Pure: Spice of Life: Warrior (Sixpoint Craft Ales)
- Most Dry: Chesebro (Ladyface Alehouse)
- Most Floral: Double Trouble (Founders)
What will you have?
