Show notes
Season 3, Episode 17 – Today, the 2016 California IPA
Showdown.
It’s been a while since our last showdown, and we’ve wrestled
with how we are going to handle IPA for a long time now. Initially,
we thought about trying to get the best of the best IPA from around
the country and compare them all blind. The challenge there is it’s
nearly impossible to get beer from all over the place, at an
acceptable level of freshness, in one place at one time. Plus, as
fun as it is to read about a magical elixir from a brewery
thousands of miles away that drinks of pure unobtainium, what about
something a bit easier to come by?
Enter the CA Shelf IPA Showdown!
2016 IPA Showdown Beers
These beers are all from California. They’re all IPAs and all
widely and readily available. Hell, they’re probably sitting in
your local grocer dying a slow painful death. So we set out to
determine the king of the hill.
The Method
While we knew which beers were in the pool, we had our good
friend Dr Zack administer the tasting for us totally blind. We
didn’t know what we were drinking when we rated it, and we revealed
at the end. We each rated the beer 1-100 using our completely
arbitrary personal preference scales, and averaged those ratings to
get a total.
All of these beers were well within acceptable freshness range
(The oldest bottle had a bottling date of 2/9/2016 which was less
than 2 months before recording) and were purchased at our old
standby Gerrard’s Market in Redlands, CA. All of the beer at this
store is kept in a walk in cooler, so conditions were about as
ideal as we’re going to get. But all of this beer was purchased, by
us, off the shelf, and not provided by the brewery.
The Rankings
#9 Lagunitas Brewing Company – IPA
Average Score: 56.75
Distribution: 48 states
Lagunitas Brewing Company – IPA
Lagunitas IPA may hail
from California, but you can probably get it at your local gas
station. This beer is available in 48 states in the US, and likely
the only IPA on at the janky bar down the way from you that got one
of these IPAs that people keep talking about. In this field of CA
standbys, Lagunitas disappointed. We were impressed with the
clarity, but minimal hop presence combined with a maltier than
average backbone and astringent flavors led this beer to rank a
full 10 points below the next lowest ranking beer.
#8 Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. – Torpedo Extra IPA
Average Score: 65.75
Distribution: Everywhere
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. –
Torpedo Extra IPA
Probably the only beer more ubiquitous than Lagunitas
IPA is Sierra
Nevada’s venerable Torpedo. This beer is
available in all 50 states and Washington DC! It’s also doing
pretty poorly against it’s CA born peers. We thought the beer was
appropriately old school. Aroma notes included citrus, pine and
crackery sweet malt character, but the flavor fell flat with our
field. Too much sweet caramel malt, limited hop presence and an
overall flat, bitter character dropped this standby near the bottom
of the field.
#7 Stone Brewing Co. – Stone IPA
Average Score: 71.75
Distribution: 43 states
Stone Brewing Co. – Stone IPA
Stone IPA is a standby in California
and beyond, acting as an aggressive example of the West Coast IPA
style. We found it aggressive indeed – flavor descriptors include
words like bracing, challenging, boozy and unrefined. While overall
we enjoyed the beer, we found the rough around the edges approach
to IPA to be limiting and knocked it down in the field.
#6 AleSmith Brewing Company – IPA
Average Score: 73.25
Distribution: 15 States
AleSmith Brewing Company – IPA
AleSmith IPA has been discussed on 4B
before in a Going in Blind segment. It continues
to vex the show, convincing Greg that he was drinking Stone IPA
until the reveal showed him to be dead wrong. This beer scored high
marks from John and Jason for being a classicly bitter “San Diego
style” West Coast IPA, but didn’t do as hot with Matt and
Greg.
#5 Bear Republic Brewing Co. – Racer 5 IPA
Average Score: 79.375
Distribution: 28 states
Bear Republic Brewing Co. – Racer
5 IPA
Racer 5 from Bear
Republic has been the low key stand by west coast IPA for
several years now. We were able to pick out a lot of different
aroma notes, and kept finding different aroma descriptors the more
we tried it. While it registered high notes with most of our crew,
Jason was a dissenter and was so put off by the odd sweet
aftertaste and diesel aroma notes that he knocked it down to his
3rd lowest beer of the day. Jason’s 66 score knocked it down from
an 83.83 (and second place) into 5th. From a beer that has roots
tracing back into the 1990s, Racer 5 made a very strong
showing.
#4 Alpine Beer Company – Duet
Average Score: 79.5
Distribution: 6 states
Alpine Beer Company – Duet
We went in depth comparing Alpine Duet vs. Green
Flash Duet way back in season 2, episode
32, and we had high praises for both versions then. Some might
think that having the smallest distribution footprint (even after
the Green Flash acquisition) would give this beer an unfair
advantage, but the gang was divided on this beer in this showdown.
Jason and John really liked it and considered it an above average
beer. Greg and Matt, on the other hand, thought it was fairly ho
hum. In the end, Alpine Duet scored solidly and
placed above the middle of the field.
#3 Green Flash Brewing Company – West Coast IPA
Average Score: 82
Distribution: 46 states
Green Flash Brewing Company
– West Coast IPA
While it kinda seems like a double up to have Green
Flash and Alpine in the same showdown, the West
Coast IPA is a classic and acts as a solid representative
of the style. But you wouldn’t know that to listen to our notes, as
we made it a huge point to talk about how not West Coast the beer
is. It was a bit maltier and danker than we expected, and while our
initial reactions were a bit reserved, upon digging into our
glasses we came to really enjoy it. We didn’t absolutely love the
aroma, but the flavor really brought us around. Between this beer
and Alpine at number 4, Green Flash made a strong showing as a
brewery.
#2 Ballast Point Brewing and Spirits – Sculpin IPA
Average Score: 82.5
Distribution: 34 states
Ballast Point Brewing and
Spirits – Sculpin IPA
Sculpin is the beer that really put Ballast
Point on the map after their World Beer Cup Win in 2010.
It quickly rocketed from a limited seasonal beer into a flagship
and now one of the most readily available IPAs in the markets that
get Ballast Point. An established favorite with Jason, this beer
impressed the gang with it’s more modern IPA style and tropical
fruit notes. Greg appreciated the malt character while Jason liked
the lingering dankness. It hit everyone’s palate in a just the
right way that took led it to barely edge out the competition from
Green Flash.
#1 Firestone Walker Brewing Company – Union Jack IPA
Average Score: 89
Distribution: 22 states
Firestone Walker Brewing
Company – Union Jack IPA
Union Jack is considered by Matt to be the Rodney
Dangerfield of the California IPA world. While very widely
available, it does not usually get a lot of accolades from the beer
world. It also suffered from being the oldest beer in our flight,
bottled on 2/9/2016! Despite that, this beer wowed us. We loved the
aroma, and loved the beer in just about every way. It seemed to
walk the tightrope between malty and dry, hoppy and bitter, and
came in right in the sweet spot for our palates. It was the second
highest rated beer from John, and the highest rated from Matt,
Jason and Greg. Despite being counted out by Jason going into the
showdown, Firestone continues their dominance in 4B Blind
Showdowns and tops the podium again. We promise we’re not getting
kickbacks from them, you guys.
In case you wanted to see the individual scores, here it is:
The IPA Showdown Score Sheet
So, there you have it.
BREW THE SHIT OUT OF IT.
Beers from this week’s episode:
Alpine Beer Company – Duet
AleSmith Brewing Company – IPA
Ballast Point Brewing and Spirits – Sculpin IPA
Stone Brewing Co. – Stone IPA
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. – Torpedo Extra IPA
Bear Republic Brewing Co. – Racer 5 IPA
Lagunitas Brewing Company – IPA
Firestone Walker Brewing Company – Union Jack IPA
Green Flash Brewing Company – West Coast IPA (2016)
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