Love in a Bottle

Continuing our tasting series, we tackled India Pale Ales.




Is it just malt liquor for yuppies, or can the refined palette discern the subtle nuances of the varied hop profiles offered by the sages of west coast microbreweries? Well, we decided to find out. We tasted 11 offerings of IPA (well, actually only 9, but more on that later), and a panel of 12 tasters rated the brews. In attendance were Rainbow, Angela, The Tall Ones, Rona, The Pants, Syd, Jeffica, Dornburgler, Rachel, Emrys.

The Atlantic seaboard was represented by three contestants (Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA, Dogfish Head Squall IPA, Berkshire Extra Pale Ale), the West Coast, which may be credited with sparking recent interest in IPAs with their high-hop high-gravity influence, had five entries (Stone IPA, Lagunitas IPA, Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA, Acme IPA, Anchor Liberty Ale), and rounding out the competition were a few dark horses straddling the continental divide (Great Divide Titan, Flying Dog Snake Dog, Avery IPA).



Almost immediately upon tasting, two brews were (politely?) disqualified for being out of category (Squall IPA & Berkshire's Extra Pale Ale). Of those that remained, some were piney, some were smooth, but all nine were delightfully hoppy. As a surprise to most (but not you dear reader, who has picked up on my allusions), the Colorado brews took the top three spots, Great Divide's Titan barely edging out Flying Dog, 8.6 to 8.17. Although some found the Flying Dog to have a weak (or non-existent) aroma, it was good enough to take second place, ahead of Avery's IPA.



The top three brews & average scores:

1. Great Divide Titan IPA (8.6): "This is love in a bottle" -Rainbow
2. Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA (8.17): Demonstrating the variety in palettes, our panel described this ale as "Smooth", "High hop", "Average", "Too bitter", or "Boo!"
3. Avery IPA (7.79): "Bittah! Yum" -Rona

A couple noteworthy bits about some individuals' scoring:

• Dornburgler was most consistent, with a variance of only 2.65.
• The "Hater" award goes to The Pants, who gave an average rating of 4.64 (on a scale of 0-10).
• Emrys was the most accurate, coming, on average, within 0.89 points of the average score for each beer.

In general, the panel found Torpedo to be very strong and the pine flavor was too intense for some people's taste. The top three California representatives (Stone, Lagunitas, & Sierra Nevada's Torpedo) were almost tied score-wise, and the eastern seaboard didn't show up until seventh place (Dogfish Head's 60 minute IPA). A few important brews were missing (most notably, Nectar IPA & Green Flash's West Coast IPA), and given some strong opinions about the order of the top three IPAs, it is likely this will not be the last journey with the East India Trading Company.

Coming soon, Winter Ales!