Jeremy Warren, Founder and Brewmaster, Knee Deep Brewing Co.

Jeremy Warren was pretty sure he’d be studying active ingredients for a living—he just didn’t think lupulin would be one of them. Brewing replaced his idea of becoming a pharmaceutical salesman, much to the joy of hopheads everywhere. Knee Deep’s big, hoppy beers have a devoted following; although ironically, it wasn’t until the California native left the Golden State for college in Nevada that he “fell in love with craft beer.” He moved back to California in 2010 to grow Knee Deep from a garage operation into one of the country’s top breweries. Of course, it wasn’t all Hoptologists and Simtras along the way—Warren’s had his share of clogged hop funnels (“The hops blew right in my face while standing on a ladder 20 feet in the air”) and wasted wort (“We had to remove the end cap while the tank was full of beer and replace it with a butterfly valve. Can you say beer shower?”), all in the name of “creating excellent beers by blending our Humulus lupulus friends together.”

You guys brew some of the most-loved IPAs on the market. What’s your secret?
If I told you it wouldn’t be a secret anymore. But since you asked, I’ll tell you where the motivation of developing some really good IPAs came from. There was a time when I was drinking an IPA, and my dad was drinking a DIPA from a really great West Coast brewery—Russian River—and my dad looks over at me and says, “Do you know why these beers are so good?” and I said, “Why?” He goes on to tell me that when he finishes his glass of DIPA or IPA, the glass still smells full. With that said, I would go out and buy IPAs or DIPAs from different breweries and always felt something was missing, and since I lived in Reno, and couldn’t afford to drive to certain parts of California, I was left with only one choice: to brew the IPA or DIPA that I wanted to drink myself. [I] was lucky that others shared the same tastes.

What’s your opinion on the future of style categories?
I feel that the styles have a place. How can you learn to brew if you don’t have something to measure up to? Doesn’t mean you have to brew style specific, but if you understand the basics of a particular style, you can take it to the next level with your own finesse. I always reference a style to help describe a beer, as I feel that when you give someone a starting point, the base beer, it helps them understand what you’re trying to do.

You brew Simtra Triple IPA and Hopoholic Quad IPA. Do you think Triple and Quadrupel IPA should be made official categories, or are they more fun, loose terms for you?
I absolutely believe that the Triple IPA and Quad IPA should be official styles. I feel that IPA with at least 10.1-percent ABV and above should be considered a Triple IPA. When would it be a Quad? Maybe around 15.5-percent ABV and above.

With so many variations on the IPA, what do you think about the direction the style has been taken?
I love it. It gives us an excuse to throw a ton of hops into different styles, the base beer, so that we “the hopheads” can still have our hop fix while exploring new flavors.

What do you see as the future of the style?
I feel that the IPA is here to stay as long as hops themselves don’t become too scarce. If hops become scarce, it will drive prices up so high that breweries might not be able to afford to brew those styles. What I hope to see happen is more breweries create and brew lower-ABV beers with strong hop aromas and flavor. Let’s just say I would love to drink a few 4.5-percent-ABV Simtras in one sitting. ■