Each week on the Tavour app, we highlight top-notch beers from independent craft breweries across the U.S. — and sometimes even from abroad! Here are just a few of the nectarous IPAs we shared with beer lovers this week. Have you scheduled your beer delivery yet?
Resident Culture Brewing Company - Iconic Anonymity - Imperial IPA
This Hazy DIPA is a result of what Resident Culture’s head brewer Chris Tropeano calls “one of the most impactful and rewarding trips of my professional career!”
Traveling from the NC taproom to the hop-filled lands of Yakima, WA, it was the FIRST time he attended hop selection.
Giddy as a kid in a candy store, Chris surfed through rooms FULL of freshly picked hops. He analyzed each hop’s complex aroma until he stumbled upon the sweet and coconutty Sabro Hop!
It was the debut year for Sabro Hops, and Chris had never seen them before. But, he knew its unique character would pair perfectly with Citra and Mosaic Hops.
And, after a taste or two of his Iconic Anonymity New England DIPA, we can attest that Chris' travels were WELL worth it!
Iconic Anonymity bursts with refreshing splashes of zesty pineapple, toasted coconut, tangy tangerine, and a rush of evergreen. Afterwards, lingering notes of juicy apricot tease the tastebuds — urging another sip!
Belching Beaver Brewery x Revision Brewing Company - To Dream - New England IPA
“To sleep: perchance to dream: aye, there’s the rub.”
We have no idea if the collaborating crews at Revision and Belching Beaver had that Shakespeare quote in mind when they named today’s IPA. But, we do know this: if Hamlet had been holding a cold pint of To Dream IPA instead of a skull, his monologue would have been a lot more cheerful.
Forget ‘the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’ — he would’ve been waxing poetic about the ‘orange and peach flavors of delicious hops!’
We’d watch that play! Especially if the theater had a fridgeful of this stuff. Because nothing improves live theater like the tropical pineapple, candied orange, and ripe mango flavors of this juicebomb.
Sip it slow, and you might detect guava, passionfruit, and even a hint of watermelon!
Honestly, we don’t understand how these two powerhouse breweries pulled so much delicious fruitiness out of just hops — it’s even harder to comprehend than Shakespeare. All we know for sure is that they used a massive pile of 5 different types of hop cones, including plenty of rarely seen Samba.
Beyond that, these brewers are keeping the recipe top secret. But, that’s okay, because we trust both of these crews. Revision earned a spot in last year’s Craft Beer and Brewing Readers Choice Poll as one of the Top 20 Hazy IPA Breweries in the Country, and Belching Beaver has taken first place in the prestigious Alpha King IPA Challenge TWICE!
Ex Novo Brewing - Wizard & Glass - West Coast IPA
When it comes to crafting the increasingly elusive West Coast IPA, the GABF and Oregon Beer Award-winning crew at Ex Novo do not mess around.
They’ve dedicated an entire series JUST to perfecting the style! Their latest release, Wizard & Glass West Coast IPA, gushes with all of the crisp, clean citrus ‘n pine resin flavors needed to transport your taste buds straight to the Pacific Northwest.
These Portland-based hopheads use heaps of Nelson, Simcoe, Galaxy, and Amarillo Hops for fragrant swells of plush mandarin orange, swirled with the ever-so-refreshing foresty bite that West Coast IPA fans love.
All we’re saying is — imagine pummelling grapefruits into a pulp with a fresh-cut branch from a Douglas Fir tree, and you’ll have an idea of the citrus-meets-resin flavors in this brew!
Deciduous Brewing Company - Bigs - Imperial New England IPA
The crew at Deciduous plays their cards pretty close to the chest. We once asked co-founder and head brewer Frank Zagami how much hops he used in one of his beers, and he literally laughed at us.
Not in a mean way; he’s a really nice guy. More like a ‘you can ask as many times as you want but I’m not telling’ sort of way.
For Bigs Double IPA, all we know for sure is that Frank amped up its tropical flavors with “a blend of American and Australian hops,” including Citra, Motueka, and Topaz. We can also tell you that it tastes like a tangerine and a passionfruit absolutely beat the juice out of each other with a couple of resinous pine boughs.
Then, Frank collected all that resin-tinged juice, added a battle-ready 8.4% ABV, and called it ‘Bigs.’
The lucky early tasters who have rated it an eye-catching 4.27 on Untappd seem to like it as much as we do. They call it ‘phenomenal,’ ‘fantastic,’ and ‘top notch stuff!’
Burial Beer Company - Surf Wax - West Coast IPA
When it comes to hoppy brews, Burial is on a whole other level. Thrillist even calls them one of the 13 Essential American Breweries because of it!
Every year, co-founder Doug Reiser travels from Asheville, North Carolina to Washington’s Yakima Valley to hand-select the brewery’s hops.
Doug searches high and low for older generation Mosaic Hops because they boast loads of blueberry notes. Then, he uses these berry-tastic hops as the frontrunner in Burial’s dry, West Coast-style Surf Wax IPA!
No need for any haze-inducing additives here — it’s so crisp and clean, you can taste ALL the sweet melon and berry flavors from the Mosaic, backed with the piney, orange-zesty flavors of Citra and Simcoe Hops. And, with its 90% barley base, it’s incredibly smooth and totally crushable.
Further reading:
Buckle-up hopheads! We’re about to take a delectable trip down IPA memory-lane.Coming to us from some of our favorite brew joints around the country, each of these hop-loaded delicacies sport their own level of craft fame. Some grace the pages of Thrillist, Vine Pair, Food & Wine, or the Beer Travel Guide. Others sport out-of-this-world scores on BeerAdvocate, Untappd, and Tavour! So, we’re highlighting a few juice-soaked sippers that have filled Tavour members’ crates and rattled the craft-o-sphere in the best way possible. Here are 10 of the most popular IPAs to ever hit the Tavour app.
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Read MoreRemember IBUs? The “International Bitterness Unit” once appeared on beer labels and bar menus everywhere as the globally agreed-upon measurement for how bitter a brew is. But, as you may have noticed, it’s become an increasingly rare sight over the past few years. In fact, there’s a chance you didn’t see a single IBU in your last craft beer delivery, or store trip. There’s a reason for that, and it has a lot to do with how far craft beer has progressed.
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