Tackling IPA's

Pre-season, Week 1

Nothing goes together better than Packers football and beer. This season, I'll be focusing on one beer style for each week of the NFL season. A little bit of brewing history, a flavor profile, and a little bit of Packers commentary paired with a tasting, a wish list and a weekly brewery Power Ranking.

We'll kick off with a style synonymous with San Diego (where the Packers lost their first pre-season game of the year)- the incredulous, impeccable & irresistable IPA.

An IPA is a pale ale with an SRM of 8-14. Its color will range from "medium gold to reddish copper.

It will be brewed with an original gravity of 1.050-1.075 and end up with a final gravity of 1.010-1.018. That means you can expect an ABV of 5-7.5%

IBUs will range from 40-60, which means you will definitely taste the bittering hops, but they shouldn't knock you off of your bar stool.

Don't pay any attention to the aforementioned statistics. They are for beer judges and brewmasters. The brewing process for a standard IPA looks like this: malt profile heavy w/ pale malts & caramel malts. Occasional rye. An hour mash followed by an hour boil w/ at least two but most likely 3-5 hop additions. Hop varieties will vary, with some recipes calling for five or six different varieties for both bittering & aroma. Yeast selection will vary, with clean yeasts (White Labs Cali or Cali V) being predominant. Belgian IPAs are also common. Fermentation is sometimes followed by dry-hopping. Standard IPAs are ready to bottle after 10-14 days. For the home brewer, bottle conditioning will take another 2 weeks.

The first IPAs were brewed in England, most likely in the 18th century. Some folks say that they were simple ales brewed with additional hops (or with tons of dry-hop additions) to aid in preservation of the ale during shipment to troops in India. Some folks say that the IPA flavor developed accidentally on the ships to India, either by natural aging or by accidental secondary fermentation within the beer barrels themselves. There aren't a ton of historical records regarding beer in the 18th and 19th century, but it is pretty clear that beer drinking soldiers were happy with hops. They grew accustomed to the flavor, and demanded more when they returned from India. There is some crossover between the early IPA styles and English Bitter beers.

Hoppy beers did not catch on in America until the craft beer revolution of the 80's and 90's. Most 20th century American beer (read: canned Pilsner) was lightly hopped (8-15 IBUs) and brewed with one or two hop varieties. The first IPA to take hold was probably Anchor Liberty Ale which weighed in at a revolutionary 47 IBUs. (Anchor also brews Anchor Steam, a California Common "steam" beer that is neither a lager or an ale.)

Any craft beer drinker can attest to this: you earn your love of hops. An IPA is like that girl in third grade with the frizzy hair and giant teeth. You don't like her and you don't want to hang out with her. But her hair smells good, and you have a feeling that someday you might drink six of her in an hour.

To compare, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale comes in at 37 IBUs, and is probably the closest you can come to an IPA that is still a Pale Ale. If Liberty Ale is that awkward girl, than Sierra Nevada Torpedo is your forehead bumping first kiss. At 70 IBUs, there is enough excitement to make you want to puke, but not enough that you actually do. Before you know it, you have your tongues jammed down each others throats.

The next step is a big one, and can literally define your beer-drinking self: I know plenty of mid-westerners who were content to marry that awkward girl, and never venture further into the world of IPAs. Content with their lagers, cream ales & occasional stouts, they settle down to sow their seed. Kudos to them- they have not made a bad choice. They will live long lives together, with plenty of hoppy front-porch sunsets. But that life ain't for the all of us. Some of us are too intrigued by that little number on the label: International Bitterness Units. It is important to note that IBU's are not a direct translation of the bitterness or quality of an IPA. The style of beer is important. A heavy Imperial stout might clock 55 IBUs that you don't taste, while an improperly hopped 55 IBU witbier would be almost undrinkable, although I know quite a few San Diegans who would be happy to drink it. The malt profile is important, as are the type of hops used, the brewing and storage conditions & the age of the beer- in fact, almost every aspect of the brewing process can affect the perceived bitterness of beer. Never drink a beer simply because it claims to have a certain level of IBUs. Drink it because it looks good & smells great. Which brings me to the draft tower.

For those of us who chose not to marry our first IPA awaits the magic of the craft beer bar. A smorgasbord unimaginable in our fathers' generation, it is a place where chalkboards challenge our vocabulary, where bearded men in flannel pour us tasters of every color, where the jukebox only plays music that you like, where a knowing smile indicates a kindred spirit- you can know a soul by the beer it drinks. Most craft beer establishments will offer up a healthy dose of IPAs. Sierra Nevada, Stone, Bell's, 3 Floyds, Russian River, Surly, Lagunitas, Founders- this is the place where you can try them all, and you don't have to take any of them home. There are some that are elusive (patrons will wait for hours and pay top dollar to get an 8 oz pour of Russian River Pliny the Younger, released once a year) and some that are available to keep you company on any given Wednesday (Racer 5 is brewed plentifully in Northern California). Eventually, you learn what hop varieties you love (Amarillo, Simcoe, Citra & Nelson) and what breweries you trust.

And don't be fooled- IPAs aren't just pale any more. Black IPAs are incredibly popular (my very first craft beer was Deschutes Hop in the Dark, a pioneering black IPA) as are reds (Green Flash brews an incredible Hop Head Red, and Bear Republic's Red Rocket is phenomenal) & coppery golden rye IPAs. Lining up a flight of IPAs from pale to dark is always a good idea. You should be able to taste the profile of the base style shine through the hops for each beer. At this point, I must note that I occasionally think about my friends who settled down earlier in their lives, having never ventured beyond pale.

I've strayed a bit from traditional IPAs, but so have most craft breweries. After being first brewed in San Diego in the early 90's, Double India Pale Ales (IIPAs) are slowly taking over tap handles across the country. In some circles, there are IIPAs that are now recognized as American IPAs (Pliny the Elder), while some breweries have moved on to Triple IPAs (IIIPAs).

While brewing a standard IPA, hop additions are done during the boiling of the wort. Additions are either bittering or aromatic, and certain hop varieties are used to obtain certain flavors, aromas & bitterness. First-wort hopping(a hop addition prior to boiling), dry-hopping (the art of adding dried hops after fermentation) , wet hopping (the art of adding fresh hop flowers at any stage listed above) and doubling of any step above have become the signatures of some brewers and their beers. Many breweries will hop variations of their IPAs in casks (or firkins). These ales are cask-conditioned, hand-pumped (no carbonation added at the tap) & served at close to room temp. They are often found close to the brewery and should be tried at every possible convenience. These beers will feature local flavor & sometimes local hops. Drink them.

And now, the Packers. I don't put much stock into pre-season games, so the final score (Chargers 21, Packers 13) didn't bother as much as the injury to Desmond Bishop. As the leader of an already thin defense, Bishop was the best tackler on the team that can't tackle. I didn't actually see the game, but the coaches were irritated enough by the terrible running game (51 yards on 22 attempts) that they signed Cedric Benson this week. If that guy can find trouble to get into in Green Bay, he ought to win an award. I'm not going to put any heat on any specific players this week, since most of them only played a series or two. Go Pack Go.

IPA Power Rankings*:

10.(tie) 5th Anniversary IPA, Kern River, IIPA, New Glarus
9. Bedlam, Ale Asylum
8. Duet, Alpine
7. Dorado Double IPA, Ballast Point
6. Wookey Jack, Firestone Walker
5. Hop in the Dark, Deschutes
4. Pure Hoppiness, Alpine
3. Sculpin, Ballast Point
2. Pliny the Elder and/or Younger, Russian River
1. Nelson, Alpine

SD Brewery Power Rankings, Pre-Season, Week 1**:

10. Monkey Paw, San Diego, CA- Always brewing something interesting. Waffle fries.
9. Societe, San Diego, CA- Sometimes uneven but lovely Belgians.
8. Mission Brewery- glass-less growlers for tailgating. Genius.
7. Alesmith, San Diego, CA- an impressive recent run on Speedway variations.
6. Ballast Point, San Diego, CA- Dorado still going strong.
5. Iron Fist, Vista, CA- Nelson the imPaler. Great name. Can't wait.
4. Stone Brewing Company, Escondido, CA- Bottling Vanilla Bean- finally.
3. Port/Lost Abbey, San Diego, CA- paired, for now.
2. Hess Brewing Company, San Diego, CA- 2nd Anniversary & upcoming expansion.
1. Alpine Beer Company, Alpine, CA- Lips of Faith release, T25 Super Nelson, a new ale for the GABF- is there anything Mcilhenney can't do?

*I am only allowed to rank beers I have tried, not beers on my wish list.
**Power rankings are devised using a secret formula. Mostly, it has to do with beer.