IPA Explained: Everything You Need to Know About India Pale Ale
TC
Tom Callahan
5 min read
IPA explained in one sentence: a hop-forward ale that now encompasses more distinct sub-styles than any other beer category in existence. The longer version requires five minutes and will change how you order for the rest of your life. We have spent years drinking IPAs across three continents. Here is what we learned.
Where IPA Actually Came From
The origin story is mostly true: British brewers in the 18th century needed beers to survive the long voyage to India, and extra hops acted as a preservative. The result was a stronger, more bitter beer than what was typically drunk at home. American craft brewers in the 1980s picked up the style, leaned into the hops, and accidentally created the beer that would define an entire movement.
The modern IPA is almost entirely an American invention. The original British version is sessionable, earthy, and mild compared to what you would find at a San Diego craft bar. Both are technically correct. Only one will challenge your palate in the way that made the category famous.
01
Blind Lady Ale House
Normal Heights, San Diego$$Classic / Essential
San Diego is IPA ground zero, and Blind Lady is one of its essential stops. Unpretentious, wood-panelled, and focused entirely on rotating West Coast IPAs from local and regional breweries. The hop character is dry and resinous, with a clean bitterness that does not linger past its welcome. This is the bar that explains why the West Coast style became the template everything else reacts to.
Order: Whatever local West Coast IPA arrived this week
02
Trillium Brewing Company Fort Point
Fort Point, Boston$$$Destination / Always Busy
Trillium is New England IPA royalty. They were making hazy, soft, tropical IPAs before the style had a name. Their Fort Point taproom is where you drink NEIPAs in their natural habitat: carefully designed without feeling precious. The beer list rotates more often than most bars change their music, and the tropical notes here are more defined than anywhere else in Boston.
Order: The current NEIPA house release
The complete craft beer bar guideOver 400 craft beer bars reviewed across 60 cities.
West Coast IPAs are filtered, golden, dry, and bitter at the finish. New England IPAs are unfiltered, hazy, soft, and tropical. They are not better or worse versions of the same thing. They are different beers that share a category name. Our editors prefer West Coast IPA when the technical execution is there. But we understand why the NEIPA converted so many drinkers who found IPAs too aggressive. If you are new to hops, start hazy.
03
Hop Conduit Taproom
Capitol Hill, Seattle$$Focused / No-frills
Seattle has a legitimate claim to being the West Coast IPA city that gets the least credit, and Hop Conduit makes that case. They stock West Coast and NEIPA side by side, always labelled by style. The West Coast version is crystal clear and golden; the NEIPA beside it is orange and opaque. Drink them in sequence and you will understand the entire debate in twenty minutes.
Order: One WC IPA, one NEIPA at the same ABV
04
Pressure Drop Brewing
Tottenham, London$$Working Brewery / Taproom
London's IPA scene has come a long way from sessionable British originals, and Pressure Drop is where American influence landed hardest. Their rotating programme covers West Coast, NEIPA, and double IPA made on-site. The taproom opens Thursday through Sunday with a selection that changes week to week. This is not a heritage experience. It is a working brewery making forward-thinking beer.
Order: Whatever IPA is on cask this week
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Double, Session, and the IPA Extremes
Double IPAs push the ABV to 8% and above. Session IPAs come in at 4.5% or below. The double IPA is a considered choice for a one-beer evening. The session IPA is what you drink when you have four hours and want to remain coherent. Both are legitimate and both are done well by bars that understand why the difference matters.
Other Half is the best argument in New York for the double IPA as a legitimate art form. Their DIPAs are dense, tropical, and surprisingly drinkable for their strength. The queue on weekends is real and worth it. The draft pours at the taproom are the reason to go in person rather than buy cans. Go Tuesday morning if you want to have a conversation while you drink.
Order: The current DIPA on draft
06
Kernel Brewery Taproom
Bermondsey, London$$Saturday Only / Essential
Kernel is the brewery that changed what serious beer drinkers in London expected from an IPA. Their session-strength pale ales are models of the form: complex, beautifully bitter, and drinkable at 4.5 to 5%. The taproom opens Saturday only and always has a queue. The reward is drinking the freshest Kernel possible, directly from the source. Session IPA by people who have thought hard about what that means.
Order: The current Pale Ale, session-strength version
London craft beer barsOur full guide to the best craft beer bars in London, including the Bermondsey Beer Mile.
IPA in practice means several different beers occupying the same three letters on a menu. West Coast means dry and bitter. NEIPA means soft and tropical. Double means strong and intense. Session means approachable and easy. The bars in this guide are where each version is done at its best.
Start with a session IPA, move to a NEIPA, then try West Coast once your hop tolerance is calibrated. Save the double IPA for when you want to commit to one beer and one beer only.
Craft beer styles explainedFrom ales to lagers to sours: our complete cheat sheet for every craft beer style worth knowing.
