How The IPA Became Craft Beer’s Most Popular Style

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In the exploding beer brewing industry, one brew style has become more popular than all the rest; the India Pale Ale. The style, which is known for it’s strong hopp character, dates back to the 1800s, and its popularity has gone through peaks and valleys like any other beer. However, in recent years, the style has surged to the height of its popularity.

The modern-day IPA is the king of craft beer, and is the fastest growing and best-selling style of craft beer by just about all metrics. According to market research group IRI, which tracks off-premise beer sales, said the IPA style was the fastest growing category in 2012, posting unit growth of 39%.

Since 2001, according to entries into the Great American Beer Festival, the world’s largest beer competition, the IPA has been the most-entered category, specifically the American-Style IPA, which saw 252 entries in 2013. However, though the IPA is the king of all beers now, it wasn’t always.

Back in 1993, when Harpoon Brewery, then based in Boston, released its Harpoon IPA as a summer seasonal, the style was not well known at all.

Harpoon’s IPA recipe was based on the traditional English-style IPA, but was tweaked to use American hops instead as well as Harpoon’s signature yeast strain, which provided a malt profile designed to balance out the hop bitterness.

While there were a few breweries already making the IPA on the west coast, Harpoon’s IPA was the first on the east coast, and with its hoppier and more bitter flavor, it was unlike anything else in the marketplace at the time. Consumers may have been confused by the style at first, but once they got a try for it, they were hooked. Twenty years after it’s debut, the IPA remains Harpoon’s highest selling beer style, comprising more than half of the brewery’s total sales.

Harpoon’s IPA has been an inspiration for many up-and-coming breweries that have delved into the IPA since Harpoon planted its flag. Stone Brewing Company of San Diego, CA is one such company, who has made a name for themselves as being one of the best and most prolific IPA brewers in the United States. With staples like Arrogant Bastard Ale and Stone Levitation Ale, the brewing company has become the most popular IPA brewer on the West Coast, their brews characterized by their hoppy flavor and high-alcohol content.

By comparison to many IPA’s that are fluttering around the U.S., Harpoon’s seems very mild, and a perfect entry beer to one who is new to the IPA flavor. And while Harpoon has kept it’s traditional IPA recipe the same, it has continued to experiment with the style throughout the years, releasing the Black IPA, a White IPA, Rye IPA, and Imperial IPA.

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