The IPA Issue: Cold IPA, New West Coast, Hop Saturation & More (August-September 2022)

A well-chosen IPA adds a tropical splash to this simple yet delicious riff on aguachile using sushi-grade tuna.

From our Love Handles files on beer bars we love: This long-running nerve center of British Columbian craft remains a house of hospitality dedicated to lesser-known breweries.

From a beautifully shot lambic documentary to an exploration of alcohol’s role in human evolution, here are a few suggestions for your screen and your shelf.

From Josh Weikert’s Make Your Best series, this is a great recipe for establishing your baseline witbier.

With thanks to Bradley Miles, head of R&D and innovation brewing at Firestone Walker, here is a homebrew-scale recipe for their modern take on West Coast IPA. Lager yeast and light malts create a “blank canvas” on which the hops can shine.

A recent release at California’s Firestone Walker may be a window into where IPA is headed, going for clarity and lean fermentation while borrowing hop-saturation hocus-pocus from the hazy grimoire. Brewmaster Matt Brynildson explains.

From our Love Handles files on beer bars we love: Stephen Beaumont takes us to Brazil’s classy, labyrinthine chapel of interesting beer and atmosphere.

For their six-pack, J.C. and Esther Tetreault of Trillium select some firmly hoppy beers that reflect memories and collective experiences as well as shared approaches to brewing and hospitality.

A restrained touch of caramel, firm bitterness, citrus-forward hops, and a pitch of thiol-promoting yeast all come together for a new spin on the classic American IPA.

By applying what we know now—using a grain bill that goes easy on the crystal/caramel malts and new yeast strains that overlay fresher, brighter aromas—we can achieve an updated throwback that lets us enjoy the best of both worlds.

IPAs have become the driving force and signature style family of American craft beer, now available in a wide spectrum of forms, flavors, and strengths. But which ones do the pros prefer? Here are five of their picks.

Want an alternative to turkey this holiday? Choose a lush double IPA to add a juicy quality to the brine in this piquant pork preparation.

Old-school malt layers, New World hop flavors, and that beautiful red-amber color... Love live the red IPA.

In this throwback IPA style that recalls the beauty of malt—both visually and in the flavor—you can go with a complex, layered all-grain grist. Or, you can get there quicker (and just as beautifully red) with an intentional approach to extract brewing.

Here are the top 30 craft brands based on total dollar sales within IRI-tracked sales channels over the preceding 52 weeks ending on May 15, 2022.

From a cutting-edge growler to funky new pitches, here are a few new products worth checking out.

From our Love Handles files on beer bars we love, this indoor-outdoor beer garden in downtown Atascadero, California, offers a hop-forward selection that mines the best of the Golden State.

If you don’t like the phrase “cold IPA,” blame Kevin Davey, brewmaster at lager-centric Wayfinder Beer in Portland, Oregon. He coined it to describe a particular lager-ale hybrid; since then, a growing throng of brewers have picked up on the trend. Here, he explains more about the term and where it may be going.

Thanks to John “Magic” Montes De Oca of Barebottle Brewing in San Francisco for this homebrew-scale recipe. “Strata and Simcoe are a very synergistic pairing,” he says. “A hint of specialty-malt sweetness balances the hot-side additions to make this both juicy and refreshing.”

The American taste in IPA is surprisingly uniform for such a big country with so many disparate regions and climates. Meanwhile, the hazy and the West Coast styles appear to be reuniting on familiar ground.

From Green Cheek in Orange County, California, here’s a homebrew-scale recipe for the cold IPA that our judges scored a perfect 100/100, landing it a spot on our list of the Best 20 Beers in 2021.

In collaboration with the Colorado Farm Brewery, Denver’s Our Mutual Friend produces this strong, dark, heavily smoky Stjørdal-inspired ale once each winter.

Whether you source some alder-smoked malt or go all the way and build your own Stjørdal-style kiln, this style could be the pinnacle for smoke fiends: extreme smoke character enveloped in a dark, plush malt body. Jan Chodkowski of Denver’s Our Mutual Friend explains how and why they love brewing it with the Colorado Farm Brewery.

Lars Marius Garshol transports us to rural central Norway, where cooperatives of devoted brewers make an intense type of local ale from their own home-smoked malts.

New York City’s Deep Fried specializes in big, juicy, textured double and triple hazy IPAs that pack in hop flavor. Here’s a homebrew-scale recipe for Trestlemania, their collab with 3 Sons of Dania Beach, Florida, featuring multiple wheats, multiple oats, and more than 10 pounds of hops per barrel.

Kelsey McNair turned his West Coast IPA from one of the most-awarded homebrew recipes to a gold medal–winning commercial beer. At the helm of San Diego’s North Park Beer, he’s not done showing off his hoppy tricks.

This recipe demonstrates one way that contemporary IPA—dripping with citrus and tropical-fruit notes—can add energy to dishes with their own deep character.

Courtesy of Kelsey McNair of North Park Beer in San Diego, here’s a homebrew-scale recipe for their new-school, double dry-hopped West Coast IPA with Citra, Mosaic, and Strata—a beer that won gold at the formidable LA IPA Fest in 2020.

Brewers are experimenting with a variety of ways, old and new, to squeeze even more aroma and flavor from their hops and cram it into their beers. But how much hop saturation is too much for drinkers?

Don’t fear the smoke: This recipe leans heavily into cherrywood-smoked malt for a surprisingly smooth and balanced character with the power to convert the skeptics.

Courtesy of Fidens cofounder and head brewer Steve Parker, here is a homebrew-scale recipe for Jasper—the first double IPA brewed at Fidens and an all-Citra showcase that remains among their most popular beers.

The entrepreneurs outfitting classic hot rods and fire engines with draft lines and cold boxes say they’re in the business of spreading joy—and in the meantime, they’re winning new converts to craft beer.

In upstate New York, Steve Parker and his team at Fidens Brewing are making the kinds of juicy IPAs that got them excited about beer and inspired Parker’s intense study of brewing. Now, people come from afar to buy Fidens beers—and the learning continues.

Courtesy of Shaun O’Sullivan and the team at 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco, here’s a recipe for their take on cold IPA.

Let the pedants complain, but cold IPA is both fun to drink and fully coherent as a style. Josh Weikert walks us through the elements and methods behind the lean, bright IPA that’s “wester than West Coast.”