December 18, 2020 | By Mike Schram
East Coast vs. West Coast: How Regional Ingredients Defined the American IPA
As any good traveler knows, cultures and traditions around the world often center around the kitchen table. Regional ingredients have come to define most major cuisines worldwide, and that fact remains true when it comes to beer! Whether you enjoy drinking German pilsners, English bitters, or a hoppy American pint, the ingredients selected for beer lend a distinct character that not only defines the beer’s style but also its region as well. The India Pale Ale might be the most recognizable regional beer style in modern times. It’s a beer style so popular around the globe that even here in the USA we can’t brew it just one single way!
A recipe for beer that was born out of necessity, the origins of the IPA go back hundreds of years to colonial England. You can get the intimate details around that story from any hop-head that has downed a few pints at your local taproom, but the short version is that higher alcohol, hoppier beer would spoil less easily. This was especially important for beer that had to travel longer distances, say from England to India? The traditional English recipe by modern standards remains a “balanced” beer in that the ratio of hop flavor to malt flavor is relatively even. As with most English styles, the yeast plays a prominent role in the overall presentation of English style IPAs lending a fruity aroma and flavor that aids in balancing the bitterness and earthiness of traditional English hop varieties. This emphasis on balance between hop bitterness, malt sweetness, and yeast character is what has come to define the regional character of the modern English IPA.
They say ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’ but we often forget that innovation is what ultimately leads to the next big thing. That’s exactly what happened to the IPA once American craft brewers revolutionized the style at the end of the last century. While there were certainly brewing pioneers in the USA prior to the 2000s, the American IPA has undergone wild transformations in the past 20 years. What began as an arms race to produce the strongest most bitter hop bomb possible has now evolved into distinct regional interpretations of what the perfect IPA should be. Hazy or bright? Juicy or bitter? West coast best coast, or east coast beast coast? Let’s find out.
West coast IPAs are defined by their pronounced hoppiness and high bitterness and have achieved cultural notoriety over the past 2 decades. Modern American hop varietals have higher concentrations of alpha acids making them more effective bittering agents than their English counterparts. Often rendered fairly dry by clean, American ale yeast strains the resulting beers maintain high drinkability despite their bitterness, with notes of pine resin and grapefruit often emerging in the flavor profile. West coast IPAs feature the freshest hops our country has to offer as the vast majority are grown in Washington state. While the style can be challenging on the palette for some, the West Coast IPA remains one of the best selling beer styles across the US.
East Coast IPAs began to gain traction towards the start of this decade, and have since emerged as worthy competitors to even the most established West Coast IPA brands. They’re known to some as ‘Hazy IPAs,’ others as ‘NEIPAs’, but beyond a simple difference in name lies an entirely new take on how to brew an IPA. East Coast IPAs emphasize late hop additions in the boil, as well as dry-hop additions directly to the fermenter. These hops will mingle with lower temperature liquids yielding far less bitterness and much milder more accessible flavor profiles for the average drinker. These techniques, combined with new-world hop varieties from Australia and New Zealand, bring forward notes of citrus, ripened fruit, and fresh-squeezed juice to a slightly sweeter base beer recipe. The resulting beer is often a thirst quenching and juicy experience that is incredibly accessible to all types of beer drinkers regardless of their previous impression of hop-forward beer styles.
What began as a simple method of beer preservation has ultimately set us on a quest to create the “perfect” IPA, but what we discovered is that one person’s “perfect” is another person’s “not my style, too hoppy 2 / 5 stars.” Regardless of personal preference, the regional differences and ingredients used between different types of IPAs have only enriched beer drinking culture, giving consumers far more choices whenever they pull up a seat at their local craft brewery. Variety is the spice of life, and I encourage all readers to go forth and seek out the balance of a proper English IPA, the intense bitterness of a West Coast IPA, or the juiciness of an East Coast IPA the next time you find yourself at a local taproom. Cheers!