The Hop Debate: IPA’s and IPL’s

The India Pale Ale (IPA) and India Pale Lager (IPL) debate

By Jeremy Trapp

What’s the difference?

If you are like many people who have tried an IPA, you may have found yourself wondering, “Why do people like this style of beer, this is way too bitter?!?!”
It is possible that IPA’s are just not your thing, but it is more likely that you have just not had the right IPA yet. Let me explain. While the IPA style does tend to be aggressive with hops and bitterness, which is typical for the style, there are other massively hopped brews that may fit your fancy. Other hoppy styles include Pale Ale’s, Imperial IPA’s or the newer IPL, which I’ll cover later.

A Brief History of the IPA

Don’t worry, I’ll keep the history lesson short. An IPA is an India Pale Ale, and is named so, because England in the late 1700’s would ship beer to British troops who were stationed in India.
To withstand the voyage from England to India, brewers would liberally hop their pale ale’s since hops are a natural preservative. This created the term India Pale Ale or IPA for short. When troops returned home to England, they found that they had acquired a taste for the hoppy brew they had overseas.

So what is it that people like about IPA’s?

A good IPA is more than just a pint of bitter from England. In fact, the American IPA that we all know and some love, is a tad different than it’s English brother. The American IPA is typically more flavorful with a lot of herbal and/or citric character, though the bitterness is still high. What people like about IPA’s is the hop profile. Without a great hop profile, the IPA is just a tasteless bitter mess. Depending on when the hops are added to the brew, they can drastically change the flavor and bitterness of the beer.
Many breweries will use more than one hop variety to enhance and add complexity to the flavor of their beer. A great IPA has a range of flavors that come from the hop varieties used.

IPA Flavors

The flavors in an IPA can range from citrus or tropical flavors such as grapefruit, tangerine and even passion fruit, to piney, grassy and earthy flavors. It all depends on the hop varieties used. Imagine it’s a hot summer day, you are sitting in the shade in your backyard, enjoying the outdoors, and you pour yourself a new IPA such as Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale.
As you finish pouring the beer, you notice the wonderful hop aroma that smells like grass after a morning rain, along with fresh pine and grapefruit. Taking your first sip, you taste the delicious sweet bitterness of grapefruit along with herbal, flowery hops, and a refreshing piney finish. As soon as you finish your first sip, the smooth, bittersweet finish, has your taste buds begging for more.

What is an IPL?

It is possible that you have seen this style of beer around in recent years and you’ve wondered, what is an IPL? The IPL or India Pale Lager is the craft brewing industries innovative take on an IPA as a lager. The IPL is no short-term, bottom-fermenting ale, like that of its cousin the IPA, but in fact is a lager. As a lager, the beer undergoes a leisurely cold fermentation that mellows the beer. Lagers tend to be smoother and more clean tasting, though they do not typically have the strong flavors that ales are known for. The IPL is aggressively hopped like many IPA’s, but because of its lengthy lagering it has become a much smoother, crisper and even drinkable beer. A great example is Sam Adam’s Double Agent. The sharp aromas of grapefruit and pine are still there, much like Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale, and taste follows suit. Double Agent has a grainy maltiness, even cracker-like on the smooth crisp finish.

The hops are definitely still there but the malt is more detectable, while still remaining in the background. IPL’s seem to go down easier, which makes it a very sessionable style of beer.