April 2014 Tasting: Belgian IPA
Posted: 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
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