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CJ Coyne & Nicole Simeone
West Coast IPAs
As a person of culture, and believe you me, I’m refined as fuck, I know a good beer when I see and taste it. West Coast IPAs are just that – fucking delicious. WCs are loosely defined by their high-intensity bitterness, nose tingling hop aromas, and a get yourself loose ABV. Now I’m not going to bore you with the history of IPAs. (We’ll let Nerdy take care of that) But just keep in mind this was a style of ale brewed to keep fresh, flavorful, and, most importantly, antiseptic, on the six-month painstaking journey from England to India. Or England to anywhere in the 19th century really didn’t matter where you were going, on an old wooden galley, it took six months if you didn’t sink.
As you all gleaned from last week’s debate on NEIPAs, (I fucking hate them), WCIPAs are king. They are really one of the few good things on the West Coast. When I say West Coast, I really mean Portland, Seattle, and NorCal, because lately, SoCal is doing fuck all with West Coast and instead getting their NEIPA one. Boo.
WCIPAs are superior because:
- Filtered. Who the fuck wants a hazy bitterness mixed with barfy fruit
- Hoppy. Generally, I am not a fan of malt-forward beers. I find them far too sweet. But higher malt content also means higher ABV, so yes, please. Extreme hop-forward bitter notes of pine and grapefruit help cover up the sweetness, while still getting me drunk.
- Astringent. These bad boys are dry as fuck. No syrupy fruit haze here!
- They are not NEIPAS.
Now Nerdy is going to try and dissuade you. She’ll tell you lies. Her velvet tongue will spew untruths. Don’t listen! Pop open an IPA, a real one. Or hell, start with a pale ale. Pale ales are the precursor to India Pale Ales. They are hoppy, with an abv that ranges from 4.5% – 6.5% ish.
Sierra Nevada makes a great one, commercial brewery or not, they make great beer. If you’re feeling a little adventurous, try a Lagunitas IPA. If you are down to clown and get your crazy on, pick pretty much anything Stone Brewery makes, even their non-IPAs are hoppy as fuck.
Open the bottle or can and pour it into your choicest glass. Look at that beautiful amber-colored liquid. As clear as the Caribbean sea, beautiful, right? No hint of haze here! Put your nose to the glass, and give a real good sniff. Inhale those aromas, don’t be afraid! You’ll get grapefruit and pine and a field full of fucking flowers, oh my! Flowers, you say?
Oh, that’s right. Hops give off an amazing floral aroma when added late to the wort boil, or after during the secondary fermentation. As a lover of plants, I do enjoy my beer smelling of flowers and pine. Who the fuck doesn’t love pine trees! I suspect these people hate Christmas as well, bah humbug to them. Now take a sip of that beautiful liquid. Be a real pretentious fuck and swirl it around your mouth. Lemon, grapefruit, gardenias, Alaskan pine trees! Beautiful!
You’ll get a little piece of heaven with every sip. Dry, puckering heaven, non of this cloying hazy fruited heaven that some people apparently enjoy. I like dried out chicken, dry British comedy, and dry beer. I’m gonna go pop one right now. Have a few beers for me this Labor day weekend! Peace!
History is not boring. Let’s start there, shall we? If a few more people paid attention to history, maybe- just maybe, we wouldn’t be in the dumpster fire we’re in today. While generally titillating, history can, I’ll admit, be dry at times. Probably why folks shy away from it. From her ode to WCIPAs here, I’d think CJ would relish the subject. But, I guess her affinity for dryness goes only so far.
To oblige her, West Coast IPAs are, as I mentioned in the Saturday special edition, a more established beer variety than NEIPAs. WCIPAs being the first variation of the European IPA to take serious root after the more general style’s resurgence in the US during the 70s and 80s.
Green Flash is usually attributed as one of the variety’s forefathers. Their West Coast IPA debuted in 2005, consequently spurring their domination of the craft beer scene. All good things must come to an end. They have, in recent years, declined in popularity in favor of the NEIPA.
They are not, despite CJs proclamation, King anymore. Starting to see the root of her ire, are you? History is a useful tool.
While we’re in the subject of history, I don’t know how many times I’ve heard her lament a beer needs to have balance. Yet, here she is, taking up with the likes of sours and WCIPAs. Two very unbalanced styles.
WCIPAs, in particular, with their focus on packing in the hoppy bitterness.Not that NEIPAs are the portrait of balance. Although, they do come closer to the mark through their diversification of hop usage.
WCIPAs double down on the trademark bitterness of IPAs as if we still travel at 1840 speed. As much as I like history, we don’t have to perpetually be mired in it. Hops don’t need to carry the burden of both flavoring and preserving beer anymore. But I guess better safe than sorry?
I can’t make the claim of being refined like my cohort CJ. In comparison, I am exceptionally low brow. My palette can’t hold a candle to hers. Listening to her running down all of the flavor and aroma notes is an experience, to say the least. I don’t try to compete. Low brow or not, my palette is what I’ve got to experience the flavors beer has to offer.
I have to say, this debate is different than the others we’ve engaged in. For the others, I’ve been either staunchly opposed or excitedly in favor of the style. With our current subjects, though, I don’t have the same polarized feelings about West Coast IPAs. There are some I enjoy regularly.
Just this past Sunday, I was enjoying Medusa’s take on the style, Ruction. It was very hop forward, as you’d expect. Yes, it finished dry and was bitter. It is not so bitter as to hit you over the head with it, but very present. The orange citrus flavors seemed mellowed by it, keeping the beverage from seeming like orange juice.
That said, who can enjoy sipping on a beer that tastes like you’re either licking a sappy pine tree or else chewing on a car air freshener? I’m not even going to throw the thin veil of asking for a friend over this. This is me asking. I feel no shame here as I’ve already admitted to a plebian palette.
Hints of resin and pine, fine. Actually, Ruction did have a bit of resin floating around to level out the citrus. But, when you’re dealing with WCIPAs, hint and hops don’t generally fit together. And I just cannot get behind drinking something that smells and tastes something akin to Pinesol.
Especially when there are far better options to spend your money on. If you like tropical, hoppy aromas and citrus flavors mixed with a pronounced bitterness, IPAs can fill your fancy. There’s no need to lean all the way over to WCIPAs.
So, now that you’ve heard our takes on the two styles, what do you think about WCIPAs vs NEIPAs?
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