SacBrew will host their first IPAllooza tomorrow, featuring 30 India Pale Ales from across California and beyond. I can already feel my taste buds dance and my liver complain.
For the uninitiated, the IPA is a liquid celebration of the Humulus lupulus, commonly known as the hop. Hops have been used for hundreds of years to preserve beer, but their intense flavor made them a welcome and mandatory addition to the ancient recipe of water, grain and yeast. Dozens of different hop varieties are used based upon their acid content, which imparts different aromas and flavors that can be bitter, sweet, floral, fruity or any combination of the above, depending on the type, the amount used and the skill of the brewer.
The India Pale Ale originated in the British Empire, which added copious amounts of hops and alcohol to reinforce their standard pale ale for the long journey to the troops occupying India. Today, the IPA is unofficially the official beer of the West Coast, with hundreds of different versions brewed each year. Year after year, brewers attempt to out-do each other by packing as many hops as possible into their creations while keeping the beer delicious, resulting in styles such as Imperial IPAs, Double IPAs, Triple IPAs and the paint stripping Quadruple IPAs. Aficionados of such beers have dubbed themselves Hopheads.
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