“Session, Brett, Double, Red, White, Green, Triple, what flavor of IPA do you want, sir?” wrote beer expert Lew Bryson in the September 2016 issue of All About Beer. Because Pabst, who still owns Ballantine, wanted to get in on the fun (and money). “What I tell brewers all around the world is that biggest differentiation of what we’re calling ‘craft beer’ and beer as we knew it before is the use of hops in a more aggressive manner,” says Firestone Walker brewmaster Matt Brynildson. By the 1760s, British brewers fortified all beers bound for India and tropical climes with extra hops—the multipurpose flowers that bestow beer with flavor, aroma and bitterness. “It doesn’t always have to be this big, arduous, heavy resin bomb,” he says. The British, being very fond of their beer, would send it wherever their troops were stationed, including India. The major question—in a market succored on a very different kind of hop-heavy IPAs—why? Bought up by Falstaff, and later Pabst, it’s IPA recipe bounced around, fell apart, and finally went extinct. “ [Anchor] Liberty and Grant’s were the basis of the American style of intensely hoppy, aromatic IPA,” wrote the beer expert Michael Jackson back in 2001. 2012 — Floral, peachy and unabashedly tropical, Mosaic hops become America’s next hot IPA hop. 1835 — An edition of the Liverpool Mercury uses the phrase “India pale ale,” reportedly its first mention in print. By this time, the prevailing style of “India pale ale” was an evolution of the strong and somewhat sweet Burton Pale Ale, singular thanks to the local gypsum-spiked water (which, thanks to elevated levels of calcium sulfate, gave the beer a drier, more bitter flavor). The fact that Pabst is bringing back Ballantine is a good thing, but it also points to the looming question: how long before major breweries either buy up or co-opt all the craft beers out there? The result: a very particular kind of IPA, back from the dead, nothing like the citrusy-pine bombs of the West Coast (though a bit closer to what you’ll find in many East Coast IPAs). The beer itself (supposedly America’s first IPA) is unlike most anything you’ll find on the market today. Tagged: 1994 — The Blind Pig brewer Vinnie Cilurzo unveils the Inaugural Ale, the first double IPA. American pale ale (APA) is a style of pale ale developed in the United States around 1980.. American pale ales are generally around 5% abv with significant quantities of American hops, typically Cascade. 2009 — The Citra hop is officially released. Brut IPA. Source: Homebrew Recipe Recipe Type: All Grain . The IPA was created originally in the 1700’s in England. The style persisted, but by the early 20th century, the crisp Czech pilsner had superseded IPA on its path to world domination. “Did you tell him he was wrong?” I asked. The second-best-selling beer is the session IPA—or the double IPA.”. And how many more major breweries will follow suit? Falstaff Brewery picked up the remnants of Ballantine and then merged with Pabst in 1985. As shipments to India gradually increased, so did hopping levels, leading to “pale ale prepared for the East and West India climate,” as Britain’s W.A. Then came the stronger triple (ten to 12 percent) and quadruple (12 percent and up)—expressions that pushed the very upper limits of flavor and drinkability. It’s the beer that ignites the IPA canning craze. The IPA gradually became a weapon in craft brewers’ battle against conglomerates. 2003 — Dogfish Head debuts 120 Minute IPA, a boozy bruiser that ups the ante for ABV, clocking in between 15 to 20 percent. The bitterness arms race later reaches its peak with Mikkeller 1000 IBU. David knew this was false. So what happened? A crisp, dry IPA, the Brut IPA was invented by Kim Sturdavant, head brewer at San Francisco's Social Kitchen and Brewery. It did, however, hop the pond prior to its UK decline—hastened by taxes and the temperance crusade—most notably to Newark, New Jersey’s Ballantine, which aged its generously bittered IPA in oak casks. And here are the absolute best IPAs in America right now. And now it’s back. We’re exhaustively assured quality won’t diminish, but then the story of Ballantine proves that isn’t always the case. Its floral, grapefruit-like profile will later lay the foundation for American IPA. During the 18th century, hops were used to balance malt sweetness, with the added bonus of their preservative properties warding off spoilage in beer—essential during the long sail from Britain to India, then under the the control of the British Empire. By 1996, Ballantine IPA was nixed, lost, disappeared. “It was invented in England to preserve beer on the journey to India during the 18th century,” he said. Brewers turned this trick with freshly developed, fruit-forward hops such as Citra, Mosaic and Galaxy, grains including wheat and oats, and the addition of hops at brewing’s end, heightening aroma and flavor without the bitter bite. The appeal of the IPA is its ability to pull every lever on the palate. According to Time.com, Blue Moon was one of the earliest “pseudo craft” beers, hyping itself as craft when it was owned by a subsidiary of SABMiller. Simultaneously, Northeast brewers like Hill Farmstead, the Alchemist and Maine Beer Company began creating hazier, juicier IPAs with gale-force fragrances—their jagged bitterness sanded smooth. And while Pabst kept brewing Ballantine IPA, it was a pale iteration of the original—no hop oil, flatter flavors, just a duller beer (closer to what the market was used to at the time). It’s a style, at least nowadays, ordained by a single directive: Add extra hops. Brown Imperial Brewery advertised in 1817. Harpoon IPA (1993) and Brooklyn East IPA (1995) were early reps for the East Coast, while Bell’s Two Hearted Ale (1993) and Goose IPA (1997) held it down for the Midwest. (Domestically sold British pale ales used fewer hops.). During this time period, there were two things that made this difficult. 1760s — Breweries in England are advised to add extra hops to their beers to safeguard them from spoilage during long seafaring voyages to the Caribbean and, yes, India. (Today, “I don’t like IPAs,” remains a common refrain, largely a hangover from the IPA arms race era.). The modern American boom of the style can really be traced back to two beers, beginning, in 1975, with San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing Liberty Ale, which was brewed with a new hop called Cascade. Founders’ All Day IPA (first released seasonally in 2010, and year-round in 2012) ignited the full-flavored, low-alcohol session IPA craze. Sierra Nevada first underscored IPA’s seasonality with Harvest Ale (1996), using freshly picked hops—greener and more delicate than standard dried hops—to create a new fall category. “There’s no reason a double IPA can’t drink like a pale ale,” says Alex Tweet, head brewer at Berkeley’s Fieldwork Brewing. RECIPE INFO. But the IPA wasn’t solely a West Coast delicacy. Floral and full of grapefruit bitterness, Liberty was freedom from light lager tyranny—an early IPA even if it lacked the descriptor. Eight years later, Bert Grant’s Yakima Brewing and Malting Co. was the first beer to pair the style with its proper moniker. The brewery, which creates a range of softer, fruitier IPAs, makes pale ales as flavorful as stronger beers, while their aromatic double IPAs drink lighter and drier. IPAs are now black and white, squeezed with grapefruit, fermented with lager yeast and laced with lactose to emulate milkshakes. The IPA was created originally in the 1700’s in England. Knowledge, it seems, has ridden a back seat to blind desire. With that in mind, we’ve rounded the 10 Best IPAs from the 50 Best Craft Breweries in America. Among the wide spread of brews that each venue provides, the classic IPA never fails to be a crowd favorite. For a brewery born before the Civil War, Ballantine made it through a lot, including Prohibition (they brewed malt syrup, and dabbled in real estate, never a bad idea). Six years later, at Russian River, he releases the Pliny the Elder, igniting America’s double IPA boom. Russian River’s Pliny the Elder (2000), as resinous as a pine tree and clocking in at eight percent ABV, became the archetypal double IPA. Brew Sessions: 0 . Although American brewed beers tend to use a cleaner yeast, and American two row malt, it is particularly the American hops that distinguish an APA from British or European pale ales. We’ll cheers to that! Aficionados queue for hours at L.A.’s Monkish, Brooklyn’s Other Half and Richmond’s The Veil to buy freshly canned IPAs—fetish objects rabidly traded online. Deuhs had to search far and wide, to the point of actually asking people who were simply around when the IPA was at its prime. first_american_ipa - American IPA. As for the barrel-aging, Deuhs added American oak spirals into the brewing process. As Pabst Brew Master Greg Deuhs told the Washington Post, when he was interviewing for his current position he was asked directly, “How could Pabst get into the craft beer market?’” His answer: Ballantine IPA.