Weekly Brew: Beer, meet taste buds

When it comes to beer, and especially craft beer, there is one style that very nearly polarizes the people who drink it. Some will go on and on about the flavors and nuances, while others will simply spit it out and say "no thank you." That style is the good old American India Pale Ale.

It really isn't that old at all; considering it's the baby of the American beer movement, it's just about as old as we are. Sierra Nevada got its start back in the early 1980's, and its flagship pale ale set the new standard for hops in beer. Throw in a few other rebels like Stone, Dogfish Head and pretty much every small brewpub in existence and things begin to take shape.

The American IPA is a bastardized interpretation of the English IPA; we tend to do things like that, just embrace it! Anyway, I'm sure many of you have heard the legend of the IPA and how it was made bigger and hoppier to survive the long journey to India aboard trading ships. While not exactly true, that's a story for a different article. The bigger and hoppier part is the take home message.

The hops are really the defining point of these beers. With English IPAs, the hops and aroma are very floral smelling, almost like actual flowers. They are moderately bitter- but not excessively. With American IPAs, the hop taste and aroma are very nearly all citrus and pine (one of the very cool things about these hops varieties is that most were born and bred in this country by a couple of colleges in Washington and Oregon). American IPAs range from moderately to excessively bitter.

Besides the liberal use of hops, there is another important quality that sets these beers apart: the aroma. A good IPA needs to have hop aroma, and the best brewers will dry hop their beers (steeping hops in the aging beer) before packaging, which can produce wonderful hop smells. Unfortunately, no one has figured out how to bottle beer with hops in it, but we can always hope. This gives brewpubs an advantage, because they can actually just steep their hops with the beer as it is being served. Hop aroma is the first quality to fade with time, so fresh from the tap really is better!

Dogfish Head took that a step further; they created a device called a Randall for serving beer at festivals that is basically a big cylinder full of hops connected to the tap. As the beer is poured, it is forced up through this large vessel brimming with hops and eventually into your glass. As it passes over the hops it picks up tons of aroma and flavor, creating a really unique experience.

It really is an American beer; it comes from humble origins then gets put into the hands of some crackpot brewer who then turns every knob up to 11. American IPAs are like getting punched in the tongue. Some brewers will push the bitterness so far it falls off the scale for human tasting. But, a good American IPA will find the balance between malt, flavor, bitterness and aroma and will leave you wanting more - not an ice pack for your mouth.

Recommending IPAs is no easy task. There are so many different brands available, and chances are if the company makes more than one style of beer they have an IPA as well. So I've got a small list of some of my favorite go-to IPAs that are sure not to disappoint.

Dogfish Head's 60-minute IPA is truly one of the best American IPAs. An extremely well balanced beer, brimming with flavor; it leans a little on the sweeter side due to the strong malty backbone.

Victory's Hop Devil never lets me down, like most of Victory's beers. If you happen to run across their Wild Devil you'll discover that it is Hop Devil that has been spiked with bacteria and wild yeast to make it sour. Extremely interesting to do a side by side of the two.

Sierra Nevada's Torpedo IPA is a relatively new beer with crazy citrus and pine flavors. The name comes from the device they use to dry hop with. It's basically a giant container filled with hops that the beer is pumped through for four days, and boy does it show.

It's been a month since Stone Brewing's glorious arrival in Connecticut, so why not try something of theirs? Their regular IPA is a great blend of malt, bread and hops. The real deal, however, is their Ruination IPA. Hands down, my favorite IPA, and one of my favorite beers. Grab it if you see it, but the six packs can be a bit pricey.

Until next time, sláinte!