What IPA is your "par"?

Brooklyn East India Pale Ale

 

Two Hearted

 

Bengali, Deviant Dale's and Jai Alai

 

This one's tough. I'd say hop devil or torpedo as those are the ones I began to drink regularly that created my hop-headedness lol

 

Anything citrusy, juicy and resiny so, head hunter

 

Im a big Victory Hop devil fan

 

torpedo for me as well. or smuttynose finestkind.

 

Alesmith IPA

 

Used to be Crooked Tree, but if at this very moment I could have any IPA I would take a Modus Hoperandi from Ska.

 

Westbrook IPA while at home or Deschutes Fresh Squeezed or Laurelwood Workhorse when I'm visiting family in Portland Oregon...too many IPAs taste like sweet feed (yes, the horse feed) and generic hops nowadays, and many of them are just down right bad.

 

crooked tree or two hearted

 

Red Racer IPA. It was really the first IPA that had the "wow" factor for me. After that experience, I guess you could say I base all of my expectations off of Red Racer. A few have surpassed this 'par' but many have not as well.

 

Good question, and for IPA's I'm not sure how to answer that. IPA's are all over the place so many things affect the product from light to age to batch variations. For Stouts easily BCBS is the one all others are usually judged by. For an IPA it would have to be local so it would be fresh, it would need to be dated, it would need to be popular so it rotated quickly enough if not dated. I would suppose NoDa Hop Drop and Roll would be my test IPA to compare to, a few years ago it would have been Two Hearted, but it's still good but I rarely buy, I'm kinda over all Centennial brews.

 

Mine too! It is very good. Definitely not my absolute favorite, but it is a good benchmark to judge others by as I too was raised on the stuff ( after breastfeeding of course ). The fact that that I've consumed so much and have it around most of the time makes it a perfect "par" if we're going with the golf theme, because of familiarity and the fact that It's pretty darn good...

 

I'm w/ the Sculpin crowd on this one.

 

Torpedo/Fresh Squeezed/Sculpin/Deviant Dale's.

I was going to say Hop Czar, but as memory serves that is actually an Imperial. Once upon a time, I might've said Two Hearted, but it's fallen off my radar. In fact, living where I do I can absolutely see the shift westward in my preferences. Need to get with some east coast stuff, I suppose.

 

SCULPIN... and then SCULPIN...

 

Heavy Seas Loose Cannon. When I'm factoring in flavor, freshness and price, this is what I compare all other ipas to.

 

Sculpin is what I keep in my fridge at all times. So maybe that is my par at home. But if I walk into a bar/restaurant and they have Lagunitas then I am happy and it is my par. Clearly, I have lower expectations when outside my home.

 

IPA -- Bells Two Hearted
DIPA -- DFH 90 Minute