April 2014 Tasting: Belgian IPA

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dbüscher
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Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2010 11:25 pm

April 2014 Tasting: Belgian IPA

#1 Post by dbüscher » Mon Apr 07, 2014 2:57 pm

Belgian IPA

Keeping with my philosophy of having balanced tastings, we have alternated hop- and malt-forward beers each month so far this year, and April is no exception.

We all know how this style probably originated: some homebrewer took a classic Belgian ale like a Witbier or Tripel and said, “we should dry-hop that fucker!” And thus, the Belgian IPA was born. Maybe.

This sub-style represents homebrewing at its most deviant (or typical, depending on your perspective), taking a traditionally non-hoppy style and then hopping the shit out of it with aggressive amounts of high-alpha hops. In this case, we bastardized arguably the greatest class of beers in the world—Belgian ales.

Belgian IPAs also represent homebrewing at its most intuitive. Brewers recognized that American IPA hop profiles could actually complement rather than conflict with the funky, fruity esters and spicy phenols characteristic of Belgian yeast strains.

So this tasting is truly for the hopheads, however the examples are not just over-the-top abusive west-coast style IPAs (though we’ve got that covered too).

Pröst!

Duane
Bier Meister
On-tap: Holy Hop Grenade, Coffee Amber Ale, Coco(a)nut Ale, Cracked Pepper Hibiscus Belgian, Doppelbach, Sidney Portier, American Barleywine

Lagering/Conditioning: Munich Dunkel, AAB Maibock, Brett Rye IPA, Russian Imperial Stout

On-deck: CocoMolé Ale

Pröst!

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LocoBrew
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Re: April 2014 Tasting: Belgian IPA

#2 Post by LocoBrew » Wed Apr 09, 2014 9:59 am

“we should dry-hop that fucker!" that should be a new lagunitas beer
Angelo Ruiz

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fergmeister
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Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2006 7:33 pm
Location: Lawrence, KS

Re: April 2014 Tasting: Belgian IPA

#3 Post by fergmeister » Wed Apr 09, 2014 11:50 am

They did it's called "We dryhopped the shit out of that Mutherfucker" Translated into "Danky Belgian IPA Bitch"
Opportunity favors the prepared mind

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