Green Flash West Coast IPA

Origonaly Publish July 2010

Recently America celebrated its 234^th birthday accompanied, as usual, by miserably hot and humid weather, explosives and lots of beer. As a bit of relief from the weather, this week I have chosen a West Coast style India Pale Ale (IPA) from Green Flash brewery called the West Coast IPA. I enjoy drinking IPAs during the summer because the sharp bitterness of this style give me a bit of a jolt, allowing me to briefly forget the humidity.

The India Pale Ale style was developed in England in the 18^th century at the height of the British Empire. The most popular story of the creation of this beer is that the levels of both alcohol and hops were increased to preserve the beer during the long voyage around the Cape of Good Hope en route to India. This story is lent some credibility by the inherent antibiotic nature of both alcohol and hops, however there are reports that other styles of beer survived the journey as well. Regardless of who created the first beer, this style was popular in the British export markets, and was being brewed in Australia, America and Canada before the beginning of the 20^th century.

New life was breathed into this style in the United States during the microbrewery revival in the past twenty years or so, as the American public has become more adventurous. Gradually some drinkers began to crave more and more of the hop character that they could taste in Pilsners, and the brewers turned to the IPA. In the early 1990s Vinnie Cilurzo of Blind Pig Brewing Company (currently of Russian River Brewing Company) and other West Coast brewers such as Rogue Ales fully Americanized the style by switching to local hop strains and further increasing the levels of both alcohol and hops.

This style should be very hop focused and quite dry, although some malt character should be present. The aroma should be quite intense and of an American hop variety, although the character will vary with the specific variety of hops used and are often described as citrusy, piney, fruity or resinous. The beer should be clear with a copper to light gold color, as well as having a long lasting, off-white head. Both hop flavor and bitterness should be medium to high, and some fruity tastes are acceptable. The malt character in this beer should medium to low with a relatively dry finish, since the sweetness is only meant to balance the hopiness. The carbonation should be moderate to medium-high, giving an overall smooth, medium bodied mouthfeel. The West Coast samples of this style typically utilize extra hops, and are often dry-hopping (adding additional hops during fermentation) to increase the hop aroma.

Green Flash Brewing Company is based in the town of Vista in San Diego County, California. The West Coast IPA is currently their flagship beer, and is distributed on both the East and West coasts. The breweries website states that Simcoe, Columbus, Centennial and Cascade hops are all utilized, giving the beer a blend of different hop characters instead of one distinct type. The glassware of choice for this style is a typical pint glass.

The beer pours a clear copper color, although you must be careful not to pour out the bottom of the bottle due to the yeast sediment (circulating this yeast is appropriate for some wheat beers, but not this style). Head coloration was slightly off white and disappeared more quickly than expected for the style, although a single layer of bubbles remained until the beer was finished. The aroma has distinct piney and resinous notes, but contains the complex and vegetative scent associated with dry hopping. The taste is quite bitter, but is balanced underneath with a solid, slightly sweet malt character. Due to the emphasis on dry hopping and various hop tastes and aromas, this beer should be consumed soon after purchase, as the hop character tends to fade over time.

Overall, I found the beer to be surprising well balanced for an IPA, with the malt flavor providing an excellent base without stealing from the hop character of the beer. This is probably my all-time favorite IPA, and I recommend it to any hop-heads, or to anyone who wants to find out what hops taste like.