Everything you need to know about IPAs

India pale ales (AKA IPAs) are the beer equivalent of a souped-up Formula One car or standing in front of a speaker at a gig. In other words, they dial everything up to 11. In the world of craft beer, that means the IPA is the style that goes heavy on flavour and aroma, often leaving subtlety behind in favour of intensity.

IPAs are known for being hoppy, full-flavoured and a little higher in alcohol than most other styles, but IPAs are rarely a one-note beer, and there are plenty of stylistic variations to learn about and taste. With that in mind – and with International Beer Day (it’s August 7, FYI) – we thought it was time to dive into everything that makes IPAs one of the best beer styles going around.

IPA stands for India Pale Ale and there’s a good reason for that. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the English had a bit of a fascination with India (to put things mildly), and those who were living in the subcontinent brought their taste for good old English beer with them.

To ensure their favourite beers made it from England to India without spoiling, brewers loaded them up with extra hops, the flower used to flavour beer that contains preserving acids. Like so many things we do to keep food and drinks fresh (like pickling, curing and fermenting), these hopped-up beers became an acquired taste and got a new name in the process: India Pale Ale.

Beyond adding extra hops, the process of making an IPA is pretty similar to making most beer styles. First, grain (often barley, but it could be rye, wheat, oats or plenty of others) is turned into a sugary liquid called wort, then fermented with yeast to produce alcohol. Hops can be added at various stages, and this determines how much flavour, aroma or bitterness is extracted. For instance, a technique called ‘dry hopping’ (which is when hops are added after the wort has cooled) is great for adding a lot of aroma and flavour, while hops added into a boiling wort will extract plenty of bitterness.

Speaking of hops, brewers have a big choice to make when it comes to selecting the hops used in an IPA. Some types of hops (especially ‘Old World’ hops that come from Europe) tend to be grassy, herbaceous and bitter, while others (such as ‘New World’ hops from America) can be fruity, citrusy, tropical or floral.

These days, IPAs are usually quite different to those original English versions, but they’re still all about the hops. There are a bunch of different styles of IPA, including:

• English IPA: This is the original – or, at least, based on the original. You’re looking at a beer that is typically pretty rich and malty, and loaded up with herbaceous European hops. These aren’t the piney, fruity IPAs that have become synonymous with craft beer (and they’re actually pretty rare these days) but the English IPA is an interesting style that doesn’t get enough credit.
  
  

• West Coast IPA: When most of us think of an IPA, this is the style that comes to mind. West Coast IPAs (named for the American West Coast, where the style started) are usually malty like English IPAs, but the flavour is much more on the bitter, fruity and piney side.
  
  

• NEIPA/Hazy IPA: The newcomer and, in some ways, the opposite of classic IPA styles. The NEIPA (which stands for ‘New England IPA’) is usually low in bitterness and packed with tropical-flavoured hops. You can also generally spot a NEIPA from its characteristic opaque haze, which gives it its other name (and a soft, silky mouthfeel to boot).
  
  

• Double/triple IPA: These are the biggest of the big – the IPAs that go extra heavy on the hops, malt and alcohol content. Double or triple IPAs (which are sometimes called ‘imperial’ IPAs) can be any of the styles above, as long as they’re big and bold. If you’re new to the world of IPAs, tread carefully here as they really are quite strong and it’s not uncommon to see some double or triple IPAs up over 10% alcohol.