Beer Department: Double IPAs
Back to feed- Posted: 1/19/2017
- Categories: Craft Beer
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As 2017 dawns, we can all look forward to a litany of highly regarded Double IPAs hitting the shelves in the next couple months, so I thought it pertinent to give a quick refresher on what a double IPA actually is. Largely an American invention, DIPAs grew out of a uniquely American desire to further expand the definition of IPAs beyond their original, relatively tame English forebears. American style IPAs opened the door to Double IPAs (sometimes called Imperial IPAs). These beers take the basic concept of an IPA – a moderately strong and hoppy pale ale – and blow that concept off the hinges.
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Whereas a traditional IPA ranges from about 5% to 7.5% abv and introduces hops during the course of a 60 minute boil, DIPAs are usually 8% abv and up and utilize boils that could last an hour and a half or even 2 hours in order to extract as much alpha acid as possible from the hops, thereby imbuing the finished beer tons of IBUs, International Bittering Units, which is a measurement of the amount of isomerized Alpha Acid present in a beer. Typical IPAs are often 50 to 75 IBUs but DIPAs can feature IBU ranges well in excess of 95.
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The interesting thing about DIPAs is that while they are objectively hoppier, the additional malt necessary to achieve the higher alcohol levels means that the beer is also sweeter, creating what is usually a better balanced beer than more standard IPAs that use very lean malt profiles. Therefore, many people actually find these big, viscous beers more approachable.
Double IPAs are among the most highly regarded styles of beer out there and many of the best examples of the style are very difficult to obtain as they’re only released occasionally. Some major releases of Double IPAs that we can look forward to in the next couple months include Bell’s Hopslam and Fat Head’s Hop JuJu. Until then, however, you can cut your teeth and slake your thirst with the bevy of Double IPAs that are available on our shelves year round. Cheers! -Eric, Eastgate
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