The IPA is an incredible beer in many ways. I don't know if you can assign a date to the start of the microbrew revolution we're currently living through, but it's amazing that the IPA is still driving it. Especially when you consider that chasing the very newest of the new also drives the revolution.
It's also incredible how divisive the IPA can be. Here in 2019 there are still people who lose their minds over other people liking this style. If you think drinking an IPA is like licking a rusty tin can, that's fine, but please, for Pete's sake, me liking IPAs is not a personal attack on you.
But, that's modern life, which Blur correctly said - 23 years ago! - is rubbish.
Anyway, we have some sub-styles here to consider. The S&O, Breakside, Yellow Dog, and Driftwood are all from the NorthWestern school. The Superflux / Gigantic collaboration is a New England style IPA - these are the 'hazy' and 'juicy' IPAs you may have heard of. The Vice & Virtue is a Brut IPA - an attempt to make an IPA into champaign. And, as a sub-sub-style, the Driftwood Sartori Harvest is also a 'fresh-hop' IPA.
With a fresh hop beer, the hops are harvested a the farm, and immediately delivered to the brewery and tossed in the boil. They usually come out in September, so I was wary of finding this beer in December as IPAs generally don't age. Ironic considering the 'India' part of IPA refers to British brewers dumping hops into beer they shipped to India for the war effort to keep the beer from going bad. It had a best before date of March, and I've wanted to try it for years, so it was worth a roll of the dice I figured.
it was awesome.
Steel & Oak Parkade (New Westminster) - Vice & Virtue Brute (Kelowna) - Breakside IPA (Portland)
Superflux + Gigantic Pretty Much Yeah (Vancouver + Portland) - Yellow Dog Play Dead (Port Moody) - Driftwood Sartori Harvest (Victoria)
It's also incredible how divisive the IPA can be. Here in 2019 there are still people who lose their minds over other people liking this style. If you think drinking an IPA is like licking a rusty tin can, that's fine, but please, for Pete's sake, me liking IPAs is not a personal attack on you.
But, that's modern life, which Blur correctly said - 23 years ago! - is rubbish.
Anyway, we have some sub-styles here to consider. The S&O, Breakside, Yellow Dog, and Driftwood are all from the NorthWestern school. The Superflux / Gigantic collaboration is a New England style IPA - these are the 'hazy' and 'juicy' IPAs you may have heard of. The Vice & Virtue is a Brut IPA - an attempt to make an IPA into champaign. And, as a sub-sub-style, the Driftwood Sartori Harvest is also a 'fresh-hop' IPA.
With a fresh hop beer, the hops are harvested a the farm, and immediately delivered to the brewery and tossed in the boil. They usually come out in September, so I was wary of finding this beer in December as IPAs generally don't age. Ironic considering the 'India' part of IPA refers to British brewers dumping hops into beer they shipped to India for the war effort to keep the beer from going bad. It had a best before date of March, and I've wanted to try it for years, so it was worth a roll of the dice I figured.
it was awesome.
Steel & Oak Parkade (New Westminster) - Vice & Virtue Brute (Kelowna) - Breakside IPA (Portland)
Superflux + Gigantic Pretty Much Yeah (Vancouver + Portland) - Yellow Dog Play Dead (Port Moody) - Driftwood Sartori Harvest (Victoria)
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