American IPA
American IPA: a strong, bitter pale ale built around American hops, from citrus and pine to tropical fruit. Strength, bitterness, glass and classic examples.
An American IPA smells of hops before you taste it: grapefruit, orange peel, pine resin, mango or melon, depending on which varieties the brewer chose. The malt stays in the background, clean and a little grainy, with at most a hint of caramel. Then comes the bitterness, firm and long, and a dry finish that makes you reach for the next sip.
Where it comes from
English brewers made India pale ale long before the Americans did. The BJCP credits Anchor Liberty Ale, first brewed in San Francisco in 1975 with whole Cascade hops, as the first modern American craft version. Next to today’s IPAs it tastes closer to a pale ale. Ballantine’s IPA, an oak-aged American beer brewed to an old English recipe, came even earlier.
American brewers kept pushing the hops, and new varieties keep arriving. The dry, sharply bitter, clear examples from the West Coast gave the name West Coast IPA to one branch of the style. Double IPAs, with more alcohol and the same hop-forward balance, grew from the same root.
How to serve it
Pour it at 10–13 °C into a tulip glass and drink it fresh, since the hop aroma fades as the beer ages. Its bitterness holds up against chilli and fat: try it with a spicy tuna roll or a blue cheese.
Next to its neighbours
An American IPA is stronger and more bitter than an American pale ale. Compared with an English IPA it shows less caramel, bread and toast, fewer fruity yeast notes and a lighter body, and it usually carries a little more alcohol. A double IPA keeps the same balance at a higher strength.
American IPA in numbers
- Classic example
- Anchor Brewing
- Original gravity
- 1.056–1.070
- Final gravity
- 1.008–1.014
- Food
- Spicy dishes, tuna rolls; blue cheese; persimmon rice pudding
- Classic examples
- Bell's Two-Hearted Ale; Russian River Blind Pig IPA; Firestone Walker Union Jack; Cigar City Jai Alai; Fat Heads Head Hunter IPA
- BJCP style
- 21A American IPA
Sources
Checked .
- 21A. American IPA, 2021 Beer Style Guidelines — Beer Judge Certification Program
- American India Pale Ale — CraftBeer.com, Brewers Association
