Modern IPA (and “double” IPA）poses a conundrum to the beergeek with historicist inclinations. A style of beer that was historically meant to survive a long journey through tropical climates, is ironically today one which nearly everybody tries to consume as fresh as possible. Such is the way human tastes evolve over the generations. For an example from the wine world: most Champagne prior to the 20th century was quite sweet (and before the 17th century were intended to be non-carbonated still wines, devoid of bubbles), but today the fashion is for the crisp, dry acidity of Extra Brut or even Brut Nature Champagnes. What we assume as commonplace today can differ greatly from that which came before.
Concurrent with improved technology and transport, as well as the seemingly unceasing development of new hop varietals, nowadays the craving for freshness has some consumers literally chasing delivery trucks to get their unadulterated hop fix. Alas, this often means that for consumers in faraway locales such as China, procuring the putative “best in world” of these beer styles, while still in their supposed “optimum” state, proves a near impossibility.
But every so often, an opportunity arises for me to share the bounty with others… I recently had to make a quick trip back to the USA, and so tasked myself with the mission of bringing back the freshest samples I could obtain of among the most highly-rated IPA’s and Double IPA’s currently buzzing in the (alas, still largely) Americentric craft beer world.
As such, NBeer and I decided early on that this tasting should predominantly target Chinese consumers, since most Westerners can much more easily seek out fresh, top notch IPA’s in their home countries…