so as we get more and more breweries popping up on a weekly basis, we are getting more experimental beers that blur the lines between two traditional styles. what are some good ones youve had? ninkasi's dawn of the red IRA is a really good one in my book. as well as ballast point IPL fathom.
lets be serious, all of FFF beers blurs the lines between IPAs and Pale Ales for most of their beers. They try to do a good job but it just leaves me confused on what to rate it as. (i.e. Permanent Funeral is listed as an DIPA on this site, but as a pale ale on the bottle. What the hell is it?!?!
That's like sayng that someone called a poodle a dog. It's a Pale Ale . The PA part of DIPA is the clue. Pale Ale is the overall family name for a host of sub styles.
I guess I'm what you would call a purist. I like to have a stout or an IPA, Brown ale, just not big on crossing styles to try to create the next big thing.
Try Hops & Grain 'Zoe' American pale lager. Had me at first taste. Liked it a bit more than Fathom. http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/27696/92178/
My two favorite "crossbreed" beers both come from the same brewery. Enlightenment's Illumination is a cross between a Farmhouse and an IPA. The end-product is actually much more than simply a hoppy saison, however. Enlightenment's Transcendence: At this point, a one-off (hopefully will be repeated in the future). Ben took a Farmhouse Ale and aged it on brett over a summer, then brewed a fresh batch of the same beer, dry-hopped it, and blended together into the single best beer I had in 2013.
I'm wondering if we're looking at all this from the wrong angle.At one time brewers simply brewed what they wanted, using the materials to hand and with regard to the laws of the land at the time.Pretty well everything that's available today has been made before except with regard to the use of new ingredient varieties. Then "styles" appeared around 1980 and people started trying to fit everything into neat compartments.It's about as possible as counting the people in China because of constant change.Talk of crossbreeds is largely the result of too tight style descriptions.
I agree with the broad philosophy of your position, but I don't believe one can look at it in such black and white ways. I know I'm stating the obvious; but beer, ale, bitter, and porter clearly had some degree of meaning in the UK before 1980.
Founders Red's Rye Green Flash Hop Head Red Sierra Nevada Flipside 4 Hands Centennial Red- Red IPA You get the idea Hoppy reds are delicious to me
