Style: IPA, Single-varietal American Imperial IPA / Double IPA
ABV: 9.0%
IBU: 153
Availability: year round
Pairing: strong blue cheese, buffalo wings
Summary: Heavy alcohol and heavy hopping create an over-riding bitterness in this Double IPA. If you love simcoe hops – and a lot of them – then brave forward else look for something more balanced.

Weyerbacker Double Simcoe IPA aggressively hopped double IPA is a bitter beast is for the hopheads only. A neutral malt back hold up the hops but fails to bring an other flavors to the table. You can taste the heavy, 9% alcohol as well a big, dark citrus, pine and grapefruit flavors from the Simcoes. The brew pours a murky reddish brown with nice lacing, good mouthfeel and an appropriate carbonation… all signs of a well crafted beer. But the bitterness, to me, is just too assertive and representative of everything I resent of the overly assertive IPAs getting pumped out these days. I’ve had much more balanced double IPAs before but if Simcoe hops are your bag then by all means give it a try.

Style: IPA, American
ABV: 6.9%
IBU: 65
Availability: year round
Pairing: onion rings, brie cheese, pizza, pasta puttanesca, brined olives
Summary: A well balanced year round IPA that’s a great standby for pizza night or on your local tap.

Continuing my goal to rekindle a love for the IPA, this time I turn to Lakewood, New York’s Southern Tier Brewery to check out what they consider the great American IPA. This one pours a clear orange-amber color with a one-finger white head that settles to a slight film leaving little lacing on the glass. The aroma is pleasant and more malt-forward than your typical IPA registering a balance of sweet, caramel notes and floral hops. The flavor is right inline with the nose and it’s a caramel malt and pale malt palate with a mildly assertive bitterness from the floral and citrus hop flavors flavors. Without getting too technical, there is a nice cascade hop flavor which is one of my favorites so this one goes down easy with some nice surprise woody undertones that arise as the flavor lingers.

This is a pretty middle of the road take on an American IPA which seems like exactly what Southern Tier are going for in a year round offering. It’s a nice standby – both well balanced and drinkable – and the darker caramel malt does add some unique character. One drawback for me is the 6.9% ABV which makes something this drinkable a tough a session beer and , while there are not enough stand-out flavors to make it worth hunting down, Iwould not hesitate to grab one on tap with dinner.

Style: IPA, fresh-hopped
ABV: 6.7%
IBU: 65
Availability: annually, September through December
Pairing: bar food, cheeseburgers, salt caramels
Summary: A unique, nonassertive take on the classic IPA great for those who like their beers on the sweater side.

Try as I might, I’m having a lot of trouble wrapping my head around IPAs and DIPAs these days. Perhaps I just got burnt out on them a few years back or perhaps its because what I always considered them a pretty reasonable session beer with slightly more punch than a pale ale as morphedinto a bigger, high alcohol, sipping monster. Whatever the reason, I’ve been jaded and am now on a mission to resolve to rekindle my love of the hop. Thankfully, Heavy-Handed IPA from Illinois Two Brothers brewery is a great starter in the quest.

A unique, fresh hopped IPA, Heavy-Handed IPA pours a deep tangerine and is held together by carmel and chocolate flavors in the malt back that result in sweet, toffee nose. The use of American wet hops (hops added to the boil within minutes of being picked rather than the traditional, dried variety) adds a solid pine flavor tickled with some floral undertones. As the initial hops quickly fade away the finish brings on a sharp grapefruit flavor. Heavy-Handed is properly carbonated with the same lacing and mouthfeel you’d get from a hundred other brews in this style. My 12oz bottle went down smooth and was finished sooner than I would have liked.

Overall. Heavy Handed IPA has a unique malt for an IPA and a modest bitterness with 65 IBUs. But despite the unique character, it come across with more drinkability than most other current offerings I’ve tried lately. I could easily session a six-pack of this. And would even store a few for the later winter months once fresh-hop season availability ended.