Describing IPAs/DIPAs as balanced

For me in the IPA/DIPA world "balanced" means I can taste the malt, I can taste the hops, and there's bitterness in there too. They sometimes play back and forth with one in charge and then another, but they always play nicely together and sometimes are all going in a trio. But there is never one in charge for the whole beer.

 

people who describe American IPA and DIPA as "balanced" really don't know what they are talking about.

 

It generally means there is no single flavor that override the others. In single IPAs, it means there's a malty back end (biscuity, bready, sweet) that cuts into the hops. In double IPAs, it usually means the beer doesn't end with a pronounced malt syrupiness.

Back in the mid-aughts, excellently brewed IPAs weren't nearly as easy to come by as they are now, and so finding a truly balanced, aggressively hoppy beer was difficult. Most IPAs were more like east coast or English-style, with big bread nodes, or else they terrifying bursts of alpha acid. Nowadays you don't hear too much about balance, though, since brewers have gotten really, really good at putting forth IPAs that don't come across as uneven or have any off nodes.

 

Pretty sure the malt and hop presence are both supposed to be big in IPA/DIPA. That's why they are also higher alcohol than some other styles. A balanced IPA has a lot of hops with a big malt presence to match. Maharaja is a good example IMO of a balanced DIPA. Haven't gotten to try Pliny, but many American IPA definitely lean towards the bitter.

 

To my mind, balance means more like "in correct proportion" than "equal influence." I think Pliny has become something of a gold standard (and boring to some) because everything is "in its right place." Something like Heady or Enjoy By really over-amplifies certain hop/malt characteristics over the other, which makes for a more unique, identifiable taste profile. I personally love both approaches and drink as much Heady and Pliny as I can get my hands on.

 

It's a stupid term, and people should stop using it. Saying a beer is "balanced" is like commenting on how your favorite athletes have "good fundamentals."

 

I don't think it necessarily has to mean equal hop and malt character. I think it's more like there's enough maltiness in there to make the beer satisfying to drink and not end up as nasty hop juice.

 

How about balance between bittering hops and aroma/flavor hops. (Palate Wrecker vs. Pliny) Palate wrecker=no hop balance, Pliny= perfect hop balance

 

If "Fresh Squeezed" wasn't a balanced IPA...then I don't know what is.

 

OP, I wouldn't even say Pliny has an excellent malt character. It's almost all 2-row malt. The malt taste is very simple and that's the point. Pliny is all about the hops.
The use of hops in Pliny happens to be very good, and people confuse the fact that the beer is delicious and not overly bitter, grassy, etc. for it being a very balanced beer. If I had to assign percentages to where the flavor and aroma come from in Pliny, my best guess is it's about 95% hops, 3% malt, 2% yeast.

 

"balanced" means "balanced": neither flavour having a particular dominance. If all you can taste is hops or malt, by definition it is not "balanced". Craft American IPAs and DIPAs are the definition of "imbalanced".

 

Gotta disagree.... the whole reason hops are in beer is to "balance" the maltiness. Beer without hops (or some bittering ala gruits) are undrinkable... beer without malt .... well is it beer?

 

So what do you have when you can taste a large malt presence, AND a large hop presence in an IPA or DIPA?

 

a British brown ale would be imbalanced towards the malts. American brown ales can be balanced, or hop dominant - if your brown ale is a hop bomb or a malt bomb, your beer is imbalanced.

 

... you can't use the term "dominance" and then say "all you can taste"

Dominant wouldn't mean no other flavor is detectable. Besides.. the malt bill in our IPA says that it's pretty balanced. You would absolutely be able to detect an imbalance in your favorite IPA if you cut out say 30% of the malt from the recipe. It would DEFINITELY change the flavor profile and you'd think the beer was imbalanced.

 

I think brown ales are expected to be balanced so only explicit and obvious imbalance would be remarked upon.

By contrast, IPAs/DIPAs are more likely to be skewed by design in a hop-heavy direction and, though this skewing makes for a built-in imbalance, balance becomes a measure specific to the style rather than to beer in general.

For example, I've found Founders All Day IPA to be imbalanced in a way that I don't like, in that the effort to keep the ABV down (I presume) has decimated the malt character. The first bottle strikes me as a bit imbalanced and then the second tastes like liquid astringency.