Gigantic Pelican and Ballast Point

By adding extra hops to their ales to preserve its qualities for the long journey to India the English inadvertently invented the IPA. A century later, the Americans added even more hops to this IPA style and produced an IPA flavour detonation that plonked their craft beer industry firmly on the world map. Then they supersized it and called it a double IPA.

San Diego is reputably "America's Craft Beer Capital" and one of its early craft beer pioneers is Ballast Point. These are the guys who built the San Diego IPA reputation with their ‘Big Eye’.  They should have given it a big Pee and Aye as well as this brew is the quintessential American IPA. Shiploads of pungent American citrus and tropical hop flavors, finishing off with a tongue buckling bitterness.

If citrus hops tickle your fancy then the Ballast Point ‘Grapefruit Sculpin’ is the bomb. This brew explodes with orange-rind and grapefruit hop haemorrhage and tastes like a cold marmalade bath on a hot tropical summer s night.

But wait, there’s more. Just as Wellington challenges Nelson as the craft beer capital, so too does Portland Oregon challenge San Diego as their country’s craft beer capital. Portland has been named a beer lovers paradise with a whopping 31 breweries making for a hell of a brewery tour. Two prominent examples are Gigantic Brewing and Pelican brewing.

Pelican brew a spicy little ‘Red Lantern IPA’ at 6.4%. The Red means rye and rye gives smoothness on the palette and a complexity of taste with a touch of spicy heat increasing the sharpness of its piney hops. The delicate caramel malt results in a satisfying refreshing cricket watcher.

Gigantic Brewing brew an IPA which they level headedly call IPA. This brew is like a baby faced assassin. It’s non-aggressive in bitterness with an even confluence of hops between citrus and pine and is very easy drinking.  However, its 7.3% will slap you in the face just when you least expect it.

For sheer hopulence, it’s hard to go past a West Coast American IPA.  

Denis cuddly beer Cooper