I thought it would be beneficial to have this discussion.
From my experience there is a huge smack you in your face hops presence with West Coast IPA’s as opposed to a more subdued hop effect with East Coast brews. The West Coast has the convenience of the Pacific Northwest “C” hops (Centennial, Cascade, Chinook and Columbus) pine needle and grapefruit.
Whereas the East Coast has some European influences with the use of more crystal malts which leads to more body and darker beers. There is also the combining of American and English hops which are less bitter.
Dogfish Head’s founder Sam Calagione states that “ounce for ounce I use as many hops as my Pacific Coast counterparts, including extra-bitter American hybrids such as Warrior and Amarillo.”
Being an East Coast guy, I find the availability of West Coast beers to be limited but I am always searching for new examples of my favorite style of beer. I love IPA’s, with lots of fresh hops.
Yep that pretty much sums it up for me. West Coast typically has more of a bitterness up front whereas the East Coast IPAs have more body and hop flavor (think dogfishhead’s 60 minute IPA). That isn’t the same all around, it’s not 100% divided, but in general that’s how it is, I think. You’ve got breweries like Sierra Nevada who doesn’t have any explosively bitter beers, but explosive hops flavor. And honestly I’m having a hard time thinking of an explosively bitter East Coast IPA, probably because we just don’t get that many East Coast beers here in Iowa other than Sam Adam’s.
Some of the newer east coast IPAs stand up to the West Coast. I would put Ithaca’s Flower Power up against anything from the west in terms of sheer hoppiness. Captain Lawrence Double IPA, if you blindly tasted it, tastes like something from northern cali. Nugget Nectar is no slouch too.
I will have to look out for those mentioned. Thanks. I am on the eternal search and rescue mission of every IPA I can possibly find. I should really start a log with tasting notes. It’s really hard to keep track of all these beers.
I’ve had them both fresh and I would have to say that Pliny is my favorite. However, if you are sitting in Rehoboth beach drinking a 90 minute through Randall The Enamel Animal, it might be different. I had the 75 minute IPA (only served at the brew pub) through the Randall last time I was there and it was phenominal.
The flip-side to that is Pliny the Younger…Fresh on tap it’s nearly unbeatable.
I’ve had 90 minute pretty fresh, and still prefer Pliny. But I’m sure we can work out a swap sometime.
I have not had 90 minute through a Randall, but I dunno. It always seems so gimmicky to me. And Younger is a completely different animal. Truth be told I actually like Elder better, because it’s suprisingly balanced for a DIPA. But I wouldn’t kick a Younger out of bed.
I have, and would definitely recommend it. Not sure what “Extra IPA” means though; it’s pretty restrained by AIPA standards. Hoppy, but there won’t be bits of enamel in the bottom of the glass when you finish like with Pliny. Just marketing, I suppose.
DFH90 isn’t even in the same league as Pliny, Ruination, Maharaja, Exponential Hoppiness, Hercules (I could go on) - its not bad, but the continual hop gimmick doesn’t lend itself well to Imperial IPA, IMO.
To me, most EC IPAs are too sweet, too dark and in some cases cloying. A lot (not DFH60) are pretty low on hop flavor. I do like DFH 60 and GL Commodore Perry, but that is about it - Hop Devil is a dissapointment. However, I have never had the ones Wahoo mentioned.
However, I could rattle off 15-20 IPAs that I absolutely love that all come from Colorado west.
Excited to be going to the opening of Southern Tier distribution in Florida this evening ( a bar is opening their taps today!) - I hear their IPAs are top notch.
BTW, Torpedo is pretty tasty, but it didn’t live up to all the buildup hype and excitement that I got carried away with - but I have no problem buying an occasional sixer ;)
I love Victory beers, but when I tried Hop Devil and Hop Slam, my thought was “where’s the hops?”. One of my favorite stories involves my wife and me visiting Victory. We were sitting at the bar with one of the owners and he offered us samples. My wife said she like really hoppy beers, so he offered her a Hop Devil. Having had it before, she asked if he had anything hoppier! I was afraid he might cry…
We don’t get their beers here in CO, but I have had a lot of their imperials while traveling around the country. Their Unearthly Imperial IPA is really good, although I might put it more in the category of a very hoppy American Barleywine. It’s 11% and has a lot of malt to back up all those hops. It’s probably my favorite of the beers I have tried of theirs.
I’m certain I’ve had more than this, but here’s what I can rattle off that’s non-brewpub, and that I can recall is East Coast
Assuming just regular strength IPAs (not imperial):
DFH 60min
Victory Hop Devil
GL Commodore Perry
Redhook Ballard Bitter (is it considered EC?)
Sweetwater IPA
Troegs Nugget Nectar
Sam Adams IPA
Harpoon IPA
Ipswich IPA
Weyerbacher Simcoe IPA (that may have been Imperial tho)
Smuttynose IPA
Bells’ Two Hearted (again, not sure of EC classification)
Shipyard IPA
Saranac IPA
Now that you made me list it out, I’d forgotten earlier that I do LOVE Smutty IPA and Bell’s is pretty tasty as well (though from the samples I have had, its overrated - maybe its better closer to the source).
