The Next Great IPA
For homebrewers and consumers of a certain age, we have experienced the IPA style going from maltier English IPAs to beers we’d today refer to as pale ale with much lower hop usage than modern craft brewers use, to extremely bitter West Coast IPAs, to hazy IPAs that fall on the other end of the bitterness spectrum. There have been numerous detours with other sub-styles along the way, of course. More than any other style, IPA seems to constantly be evolving, and each iteration has been popular with consumers. As such, the question being asked by homebrewers once again is, “What will emerge as the next really popular IPA for homebrewers to make?”
I know it is presumptuous for one homebrewer to make the leap thinking he/she knows what the next great homebrewed beer will look like, but I have an opinion. I am pretty sure that anyone who would have predicted the craft beer revolution three decades ago would have been considered crazy. And who thought at that time that hazy beers would become what they are now?
Today, we find ourselves living in the first few years of a flattening of the growth curve of craft beer and wondering what might come next. We have seen the tip of the beverage iceberg with the growth of ciders, low- or no-ABV beers, hard seltzers, gluten-free options, canned cocktails, and other similar beverages. But there are still many people like us out there who love — and make — beer. And we aren’t going away any time soon.
The last decade has filled the homebrewers’ beer making toolbox with new yeasts, hops, grains, and science. Ten years ago, we never talked about hops adding much in flavor; we only talked about bittering and aromatics. Now, new products and beer science have provided a cornucopia of new flavors for brewers to dive into. How can these advances be used differently to make something new and different?
I believe the next great homebrewed IPA trend will be a well-balanced American IPA; assertive bittering balanced by a solid malt build and hoppy fruit/spice notes on the finish that is enhanced by local products, giving it a nuanced terroir. It will be fresh and taste like the place it was made. And I’m not alone in this prediction — as I interviewed numerous brewers who have helped form, and narrow, my definition of the next great IPA.
OK, so there are some parameters. But how did I come by this prediction, you ask? Let me explain.
Localism
I started sourcing my water from a local spring about five years ago. I have it tested by Ward Labs yearly and have built all of my water chemistry based on this testing. I use dandelion leaves, roots, and flowers from my yard as well as other local flora like wild chamomile, nettle, and candy cap mushrooms. I also grow my own hops. I like to think that all of these add to the local nature and flavor of the beers I make. We’ve already seen the trend of increased attention to local foods, and I think beer has the same appeal for local ingredients.
Michael Ivanicic has been brewing professionally for 13 years, nine of those at Logboat Brewing Company in Columbia, Missouri. Logboat recently went through a major expansion and now distributes beer throughout the state. In regards to the changes in craft beer, Ivanicic believes a greater focus on localism has already begun. “The pub idea has always thrived off of this concept. Beer made right here; in the space you are drinking it.”
Logboat Brewing works hard to have all of their beer consumed as fresh as possible and really believes that the place it is made matters. “I think one of the biggest changes in craft beer is the reversion to localism. I think most consumers who are into craft beer, have their favorite local brewery, and for a good reason, it’s probably their freshest option,” Ivanicic said.
This is one area where homebrewers really shine; we usually drink the freshest beer.
Another way to look at “localism” is using local ingredients to make something distinctive and unique. When you love where you live you want to make something that speaks to that love; it becomes more than just beer. Beer that speaks to the place where it is made will always resonate with the lovers and makers of beer.
Each year, in Northern California where I live, we have a release of Pliny the Younger at Russian River Brewing Company. The success of this limited release triple IPA has spurred a competition of sorts amongst local brewers who try and have their best triple IPA released around the same time. One of the breweries to do this is Henhouse Brewing, which has gained a large following of local beer enthusiasts in a very short time. The promotion of their 2023 “Big Chicken” release hits to the point of localism. From the brewery:
“As we are about to launch our smaller pub brewery in Fairfax, California, our brewers are excited about the fact that the smaller scale of these batches, and less mechanized processes we will be using in Fairfax, will open them up to working with smaller local producers of malts and hops. With this on the horizon (and on our brewers’ minds) our Big Chicken 2023 recipe is indicative of the locally sourced West Coast Style IPAs they plan to make a large part of our West County Pub brewery output. Big Chicken 2023 will feature: Barley grown in Petaluma by our friends at Crane Ranch. This barley will then make the short trip to Alameda, California, where it will be malted by our friends at Admiral Maltings. (It) will feature Mosaic® hops from Loftus Ranches, Simcoe® hops from Coleman Agriculture, Cascade hops from Green Acre Farms, and Centennial hops from our friends at Crosby Hop Farm.”
Brewers across the country have released beers with similar themes — locally grown malts, hops, and other ingredients. Tim Decker from Admiral Maltings thinks grains could be the key for many brewers to make their next IPA more “local.”
“Hops have always been at the forefront of IPA, and continuous research and development have unlocked diverse hop expressions. New England IPAs, for example, sparked conversations around water chemistry and non-barley malts, while West Coast IPAs pushed for leaner, paler base malts to emphasize hop flavors. However, this hop-centric approach often overshadowed the importance of a complex malt foundation. Today, there’s a growing awareness among brewers about the role of malt in shaping IPA’s flavor profile.”
While we homebrewers in Northern California do not have access to many locally grown grains, there are some that are more local than others. We have a maltster based in Sonoma County called Grizzly Malts that offers small batches of California-grown grains. The beers I have had using these grains do have a unique quality to them, which is a common trend I’ve heard from homebrewers across the country, and beyond, about products from small-scale maltsters who are often working with grains grown outside of the most popular areas where the big maltsters’ grains come from. Unique flavors and, again, a sign of your terroir in ever glass.
The American IPA Returns
To better grasp where the future of IPA lies, we need to get a feel for what trends are happening in tasting rooms.
“Currently we are seeing a shift back to traditional styles from consumers, which is validating for being a stalwart for more traditional styles and methods. Styles and traditions that exist for so long continue to thrive because they work,” Ivanicic said.
J Shilling, Head Brewer at Dirt Road Brewing in Philomath, Oregon, says he’s noticing a similar trend. Shilling has been brewing professionally for eight years, during which time the beers being consumed, and made, have evolved. The juicy and hazy IPAs used to be the majority of the IPAs being sold at Dirt Road. “I can report that the pendulum has swung back. We are about 50/50 on sales of our West Coast vs. our juicy/hazy IPAs,” Shilling said.
Brian Rooney, who along with his wife owns BKS Artisan Ales in Kansas City, Missouri, says he has seen a shift from what used to be extremely bitter West Coast IPAs and hazy IPAs with very little bitterness to a balance somewhere between the two. “I think we are seeing both West Coast and hazy becoming much paler in color and I’m also seeing an interesting trend with softer bitterness in IPA. What I mean by ‘softer bitterness’ is the IBUs aren’t as ‘grippy’ on the tongue. They’re still there, and balance the entire beer, but come across the taste buds much smoother and softer,” Rooney said.
These trends are significant to the homebrewer because we are guided and influenced by the beer we drink in our particular area. Sometimes, what we have at our local watering hole makes us pine for something different. Sometimes, we love what we have available and want to make a beer like it. Clones of favorite local beers are spoken about with pride amongst local brewers and unusual addends attract the attention of those who taste our beer. Often, we think we can make them better.
New Science
Another development in beer science that might find its way into the next IPA might be an even greater focus on biotransformation. This topic has been discussed with excitement for the past decade and continues as more is being learned all the time. Thiol-producing yeasts from Escarpment, Omega, and Lallemand have the potential to unleash new hop flavors and aromas during fermentation, and this trend seems to be continuing to grow.
Steve Thanos, a primary contributor to the Brülosophy blog, believes this is the area that will continue to gain steam as IPAs evolve. “Maybe this ‘new IPA’ will contain some biotransformation when it comes to yeast,” he mused.
Lance Shaner, from Omega Yeast, thinks so: “From a yeast perspective, thiol-producing yeasts are certainly one thing to mention. And it’s not just on how to maximize thiols but instead how to work thiols into the overall profile so that they’re not dominant, but complementary.”
Thiol enhancement has been the buzz for a while now but is talked about very little by commercial makers. I think this technology has the ability to change the face of what we know about hop flavors and aromatics in a significant way. Products like Phantasm powder and thiol-enhanced yeasts are becoming the subject of stories in the craft beer world more and more these days and the target of these conversations is IPAs.
Other new hop products that pack a punch of hoppiness without the green matter are also changing the IPA landscape. “What I am seeing is the refinement of West Coast IPA and hazy IPA through the use of new hop products, new types of malts, and yeast products. Things like Incognito®, HyperBoostTM, SubZero Hop Kief®, hop terpenes, modified yeast strains, and integrating lighter-colored Pilsner malt into hoppy beer to continually pull back malt character and put hops at the forefront as much as possible,” says Rooney, of BKS Artisan Ales.
I did some experiments with my brew partner a few years ago with thiol-enhanced products. Between the two of us, we made eight different thiol-enhanced IPAs in a two-year period using Omega Cryo Pop, Omega Cosmic Punch, and Omega Helio Gazer yeasts. We became convinced that these beers maintained enhanced aromatics over a longer period of bottle time. This alone makes the whole thiol trend worth exploring. Add to this the possibility of opening up new flavors from older, less expensive varieties of hops and it is very appealing.
I have also had good results boosting aroma using Lallemand’s AromazymeTM, a food-grade enzyme preparation derived from Aspergillus niger to help release additional volatile aroma compounds. Biotransformation offers a lot of possibilities and many of them have yet to be fully explored. Thiols and terpene adjustments add other powerful elements to the homebrewers’ toolbox. It will be interesting to see how these tools will impact the beers of the future.
So how does all this information affect the homebrewer and what they might make as the next great homebrewed IPA? I believe craft beer makers are driven by what is commercially available in their part of the world. Sometimes they want to make something very different from what is available, but more often than not, what is in the market leads them towards clone recipes and attempts to duplicate their favorite beers or make them even better. We are innovators and experimenters. With our smaller volumes we can push the boundaries.
The key word I am hearing from many different brewers right now regarding IPAs is “balance.” The days of beers boasting about containing 100 IBUs is done and gone. The days of BU/GU (bitterness units divided by the gravity units ) ratio is here to stay.
Evolution
“Through all this change — the evolution of IPA, advances in technology, access to unique ingredients, and shifting industry dynamics — brewers are beginning to approach IPA recipes holistically. Every ingredient must earn its place, working together to create a beer greater than the sum of its parts. Looking ahead, I believe IPAs will continue to reflect a diverse range of approaches shaped by individual brewers’ philosophies,” Decker said.
These individual philosophies will drive us homebrewers to experiment with new products and techniques and lead to the discovery of new flavors.
Craft beer took off because consumers wanted something different from the monoculture of light American lager. Ironically, one could argue, many of these brewers who wanted to diversify what is available to beer drinkers have created the same paradox today with non-descript hazy IPAs that fill out a tasting room’s menu. This, in turn, could create the next wave of brewers bringing a different approach.
Marika Josephson, Owner of Scratch Brewing in Ava, Illinois, believes the way to change what’s available today may require the next generation of craft brewers (today’s homebrewers). “(Today’s brewers) are fighting a monoculture of hazy IPA and sticky imperial stouts. To make craft beer relevant to a wider net of people requires a diversity of voices. That’s just a fact. Without that diversity we’ll only be able to keep courting the same small demographic, and quite frankly that demographic is getting burned out by the same flavors.”
I am hopeful that what we are seeing and hearing about in the commercial beer world is true; a return to the American IPA. An IPA that has balance and full flavor. An IPA that can incorporate everything we have learned, and continue to learn, about enzymes, yeasts, hops, grains, and processes. An IPA with new twists, unique local flavors and aromas, and the freshest ingredients. An IPA that will have broad appeal to all the craft beer lovers of the world; both makers and consumers. I look forward to the next great homebrewed IPA, and leave you with a few bullets on how one may design that beer:
1. Recipe Development:
Begin by making your recipe. A typical American IPA might have an OG (original gravity) around 1.055–1.070, with a moderately high ABV (around 6–7.5%). You can adjust the bitterness (IBUs) to your preference, but aim for a balanced approach.
2. Terroir:
Highlight the local characteristics in your flavor profile. For example, if your region is known for citrus fruits, consider incorporating those flavors through the hops or adjuncts. Is there a small maltster nearby? Check out their offerings and how the unique flavors they offer may shape your beer.
3. Experimentation:
Don’t hesitate to brew small test batches with different combinations of hops, adjuncts, and thiol-enhancing products to find the perfect balance. This is a great way to refine your recipe before scaling up.
4. Fermentation:
Use a clean-fermenting yeast strain (like the Chico strain, or even the Lutra kveik strain from Omega) that allows the hop flavors to shine through, or consider a thiol-enhancing yeast for an added boost.
With this approach, I took a stab at creating a very pleasant IPA that hits on many of the factors discussed in this story, which you can find below. Will it be representative of the next great IPA homebrewers are enjoying in years to come? Only time will tell, but I’m enjoying it today!
Whale Spit IPA
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.072 FG = 1.012
IBU = 61 SRM = 7 ABV = 7%
Ingredients
10 lbs. (4.5 kg) 2-row pale malt
1.2 lbs. (0.5 kg) Carapils® malt
1.2 lbs. (0.5 kg) white wheat malt
1 lb. (0.45 kg) flaked oats
8 AAU Columbus hops (60 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 16% alpha acids)
10 AAU Cryo Pop® Original Blend hops (30 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 20% alpha acids)
7 AAU Chinook hops (30 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 14% alpha acids)
1 oz. (28 g) Mosaic® hops (dip hop)
0.75 oz. (21 g) El Dorado hop hash (dip hop)
0.5 oz. (14 g) Cryo Pop® Original Blend hops (dip hop)
3 oz. (85 g) Callista hops (dry hop)
0.5 oz. (14 g) dried nettle
0.5 oz. (14 g) chamomile
1 Whirlfloc tablet (15 min.)
1.5 tsp. Wyeast yeast nutrient (15 min.)
Omega Yeast OYL-071 (Lutra Kveik) yeast
¾ cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
Mash the grains at 150 °F (66 °C) for 45 minutes and then conduct a 170 °F (77 °C) mash out step. Sparge at 170 °F (77 °C) with enough water to collect 6 gallons (23 L) of wort. Total boil time is 60 minutes. After boiling 10 minutes, remove 2 quarts (2 L) of wort and cool to 180 °F (82 °C). Add the dip hops, nettle, and chamomile to your fermenter and then add this cooled portion of wort on top. Close the fermenter with an airlock and leave this portion to rest until the boil is complete.
Continue boiling wort, adding hops as indicated. When the boil is complete, chill to 90 °F (32 °C) and then transfer wort to the fermenter on top of the dip-hopped portion.
Pitch the kveik yeast and oxygenate heavily if using a liquid strain. I have found kveik to be very nutrient-
dependent and use a nutrient at 3 times the manufacturer’s recommendation. You should see signs of fermentation within hours. After three days the fermentation should be slowing. Reduce temperature to 80 °F (27 °C) and then add the dry hops. After four more days, transfer beer to a keg and force carbonate or add priming sugar and bottle as usual.
Whale Spit IPA
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.072 FG = 1.012
IBU = 61 SRM = 7 ABV = 7%
Ingredients
7 lbs. (3.2 kg) light liquid malt extract
1 lb. (0.45 kg) wheat dried malt extract
1.2 lbs. (0.5 kg) Carapils® malt
8 AAU Columbus hops (60 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 16% alpha acids)
10 AAU Cryo Pop® Original Blend hops (30 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 20% alpha acids)
7 AAU Chinook hops (30 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 14% alpha acids)
1 oz. (28 g) Mosaic® hops (dip hop)
0.75 oz. (21 g) El Dorado hop hash (dip hop)
0.5 oz. (14 g) Cryo Pop® Original Blend hops (dip hop)
3 oz. (85 g) Callista hops (dry hop)
0.5 oz. (14 g) dried nettle
0.5 oz. (14 g) chamomile
1 Whirlfloc tablet (15 min.)
1.5 tsp. Wyeast yeast nutrient (15 min.)
Omega Yeast OYL-071 (Lutra Kveik) yeast
¾ cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by step
Add crushed Carapils® malt to a steeping bag and add to kettle with 5 gallons (19 L) of water as it slowly heats. When it reaches 170 °F (77 °C), remove grains and bring to a boil. Once boiling, remove from heat, carefully stir in the malt extracts, and then return to heat. After boiling 10 minutes, remove 2 quarts (2 L) of wort and cool to 180 °F (82 °C). Add the dip hops, nettle, and chamomile to your fermenter and then add this cooled portion of wort on top. Close the fermenter with an airlock and leave this portion to rest until the boil is complete.
Continue boiling wort, adding hops as indicated. When the boil is complete, chill to 90 °F (32 °C) and then transfer wort to the fermenter on top of the dip-hopped portion.
Pitch the yeast and oxygenate heavily if using a liquid strain. I have found kveik to be very nutrient-dependent and use a nutrient at 3 times the manufacturer’s recommendation. After three days the fermentation should be slowing. Reduce temperature to 80 °F (27 °C) and then add the dry hops. After four more days, transfer beer to a keg and force carbonate or add priming sugar and bottle as usual.
Recipe Notes:
If you wish to skip the additions of dried nettle and chamomile you may, though I find they add a nice touch of spice to the finished beer that complements the hops. Less nutrients will be necessary if using a conventional yeast.
