Beer Infinity Beer, Brewing & Beyond
| Last week, I ordered a pint of Gigantic’s new beer, IPL, sight unseen. I was at a pub that listed nothing but the name. A few minutes later, the waiter dropped a glass of something pilsner-pale and conditioned-clear in front of me. I had assumed–correctly, it emerged–that the name of the beer stood for “India Pale Lager.” The beer in front of me had almost nothing to do with IPA, though. Indeed, I later discovered that Ben and Van (brewmaster and master brewer) also call it a “Northwest pilsner,” and it’s a lot closer to a pils than anything to do with English or American ales. It’s 5.6%, has a pilsner malt bill, and is, not unimportantly, a lager.
During that same session–possibly just after the arrival of the Gigantic–one of my friends complained that IPA no longer had any meaning at all. He ticked off the various offenses against a once-knowable style: black IPAs, white IPAs, lagered IPAs, session IPAs, fruit IPAs. (He actually ordered a rye and double IPA that night.) I … |
Source: Beervana
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