Pale Ale V IPA

[TexasDroughtBrewery]

So, I have been on a real IPA kick for awhile and have been trying everyone I can get my hands on. I also enjoy drinking Pale Ale's too...so a few IPA's ive tried recently were really not that hoppy...taste just like a Pale Ale to me... So I started getting confused on what REALLY made the difference between Pale Ale and IPA is it just the higher ABV that most IPA's have?

 

[NervousDad]

Commercial Pale Ales have definitely crossed in to the IPA territory. Traditionally a Pale Ale should have a bit more malt character, medium/high hop aroma/flavor, lower alcohol and lower bitterness.

 

[theowlman16]

It all runs together. The more I try to put each beer style in its own box, the more I learn it does not work.

 

[TheMadKing]

Beer styles were invented by convention in the 1970's and 1980's to provide a standard by which competition judging could occur. Don't think for a minute that they matter, other than to provide a common reference for all of us to speak from. If it tastes good, drink it! If your hoppy brown ale is called an IPA, it doesn't matter unless you enter it into a competition!

 

[TexasDroughtBrewery]

Fair enough, thanks for the feedback guys. i thought I was going crazy for a second.

 

[Weezy]

Commercial Pale Ales have definitely crossed in to the IPA territory. Traditionally a Pale Ale should have a bit more malt character, medium/high hop aroma/flavor, lower alcohol and lower bitterness.

...and no dry hop... traditionally.

TBH, IPA's are *really* all over the place, which is fun and cool and tasty. When you order an IPA, without any other descriptor, you don't know what you're going to get, and that's an adventure. Personally, I expect a pale ale to have a nice balance of malt flavor to hop bitterness&flavor. If it gets pretty unbalanced, I'd prefer they call it some sort of IPA... East coast, West coast, session, white, whatever they want to make up.

 

[Queequeg]

It all runs together. The more I try to put each beer style in its own box, the more I learn it does not work.

do as the Belgians do.

arguments can be made either way. More malty for an IPA, less hoppy for a pale ale.

IMO one is a scale of the other. An ipa is a scaled version of a pale, a IIPA an a scaled version of an ipa

 

[worlddivides]

Personally, I've always seen an IPA as more bitter than a pale ale (but not necessarily more "hoppy" - that's subjective, I guess).

Now, in reality, a lot of beers don't always follow these conventions, but to say what the difference between an APA (American Pale Ale) and an American IPA, I find that IPAs are usually higher in alcohol, higher in bitterness, and dryer.

Like, I made an APA a few months ago that no one could ever consider an IPA by any definition (although I'm sure a ton of people would drink it and say "Hey, this is an IPA"), but fit perfectly into the APA category. It was 5% ABV, had about 35 IBUs, and had very citrusy hoppy aroma and taste from citrusy American hops (such as Cascade, Galaxy, Citra, and so on). In comparison, the last IPA I made was 6% ABV and 60 IBUs. The last double IPA I made was 7.5% ABV and 90 IBUs. The last triple IPA I made was 9.9% ABV and 100 IBUs (but way more bitter and hoppy than the double IPA I made before it).

But, yeah, there is a ton of overlap, especially on the lower end of IPAs and the upper end of APAs (likewise, there's some overlap on the British styles too with British pale ales and IPAs).