Has IPA become a marketing word?

"IPA" probably became a marketing term 10-12 years ago. Black IPA, Red IPA, White IPA, Rye IPA, etc. A hoppy Blonde ale is just an IPA with a slightly different malt bill. I a brewery wants to move a beer, they'll label it IPA, and curiosity will the best of folks.

 

It's been one for a very long time. It gives the drinker an expectation and piggy backs on the sales bump of calling something an IPA.

 

Yes. Example. Dogfish Head changing Indian brown, on the label it says dark ipa after the new packaging.

 

It HAS become a marketing term (much like "craft beer" has).
In fact, there hasn't been a true IPA on the market since late 1972, when the final bottles of year long aged Ballantine India Pale began disappearing from the store shelves (Historically, even in the old days ...I'm talking the 1800's... IPA was a "stock ale" aged in bulk for at least a year before it's long boat ride to India). IPA has traditionally ALWAYS been a long aged product, (at least until lazy brewers began pushing it out the door immediately after fermentation was complete).
After Ballantine closed up shop in Newark, NJ, most examples have been uninspired imposters using the name "IPA". Some of them have been decent enough, but without the long bulk aging most are very 'green' tasting.
I've gone on and ranted about this in the past ... and of course it falls mostly on deaf ears (except to those who remember what IPA tasted like in the '60 s and even early '70s and were able to enjoy the hoppy, intensely aromatic and decidedly bitter goodness of the Bally IPA...Those folks will know what I'm talking about).

Again...I'm not saying that all modern IPA's are bad, but the craft industry has successfully managed to reset the hop crazy American palate to actually expect "green" tasting beer, touting "freshness" (mainly because they can't afford the required storage space for aging and need to push the beer out the door more quickly).
You can disagree with me (and I'm sure many younger beer drinkers will do just that)....but really... you had to be there. I'm sure glad I was.

 

I've been dealing with that with several of my new customers. I've had them tell me that if it's not an IPA, they are not interested.

I enjoy good IPA, but I have never seen so much emphasis on it in shelf sets as I have recently. We just a beer reset at my store, and the vendor who did it also made sure his competition got fair shelf space. A few new beers were cut into the set, and almost all were IPAs.

Many of the breweries whose products we sell feature all sorts of this type. New Belgium comes to mind with their Voodoo line and such variations as Citradellic. Sierra Nevada has also been encouraging the hype with Hop Hunter, Torpedo and others.

I can't blame breweries from jumping all over this trend, and some really cool IPAs have come out of this. Still, the market feels totally saturated right now.

 

Sure it has, I have casual beer drinking friends who don't know what an IPA is but think they like IPAs.

 

I forget who it was on here but someone said it best a couple years ago

"It's getting to the point where we might as well just pronounce it 'ipuh'"

Hardly seems to retain it's original meaning sometimes

 

But the original meaning as @LuskusDelph has pointed out is of a long aged beer. Also it was low ABV and Brett affected. And it is the case that for a very long time IPA was just another name for Bitter. Greene King IPA is a present day example at 3.6% ABV and 30 IBU.
Beer styles are not set in stone. Look what happened to the founders of Kolsch who tried to protect their product yet now most Kolsches are not Kolsches at all.

 

This is very true and a good point to bring up. Maybe "original" was the wrong word to use but I was mainly referring to the meaning the name took on during the emergence of the American craft scene. Cheers

 

Considering waiters at some places (e.g. Applebees, Red Robin, etc) will list off "IPA" as if it were a specific beer and not a style, I'd say yes. Even average beer drinkers know it's a thing without having any clue what it is. That incentivizes brewers to put those three letters on a beer. The shifting styles within the style don't help.

Unfortunately, it has also become shorthand for craft beer. I was perusing a Facebook comment thread tonight (not advisable) and the average commenter was saying how they hate that their kids were trying to get them to "drink IPA." It was a blanket term for craft beer to them.

Still, I think that's a good thing overall. The average person knows there's more than just Bud and Guinness. If Fat Tire could convert thousands of drinkers, the only way is up.

 

Overall I think the term IPA does increase public awareness of craft beers generally. Easy to remember, easy to say and gives off an air of informed opinion.

 

Anything that is labeled as an IPA, should at the very least be hoppy. New England IPA and the juicy trend is anything but hoppy.

 

It hasn't turned into a marketing term. India Pale Ale was a marketing term in the 1800s. When wasn't it ever a marketing term? Brewers were even renaming existing beers with that term back then too.

 

Excellent points and I totally agree. Since you have had some decades to think about it, what name(s) do you suggest to replace IPA and do away with this confusion?

 

And while you're at it---get off my lawn!

 

It was just a name. Some brewers never used the term at all. And the Bass brewer once called it IPA,Pale Ale and Bitter in the same conversation.There were also domestic beers sold as IPA which were quite different from those sent to India

 

That gives me the impression IPA either was or was beginning to be used as a marketing term even back then.

 

Agree completely. At a most general level a "marketing term" can be viewed as a word used to differentiate one product from another in communication with actual or potential customers.