Vanilla IPA / DIPA / Pale Ale thoughts?

Dose a glass with your preferred amount of vanilla extract, pour your favorite pale ale on top of it, and go from there. I guess there would be hop combination that could work. But it could also be 1 month, 6 gallons, and a day wasted.

 

Their is a local brewery that does a vanilla bean blonde that doesn't even taste like beer, it tastes like cream soda (not my thing but super popular with some people). Anyway, not hoppy but somewhat similar of an idea.

 

Not a fan of vanilla in light colored beers. Its obviously done well in stouts and in pumpkin beers where it can be hidden with other flavors, but in a pale ale or lighter beer, I think it dominates the flavor too much no matter. It doesnt blend as well with hops as it does other beer flavorings like nibs and spices. Almost every vanilla ale I've tried just taste like a vanilla bomb and I end up pouring it out.

 

My immediate reaction is that it wouldn't work well flavor wise. That aside, if you insist on going the hoppy route I'd probably assume using grassy and/or noble hops would potentially be better than citrusy ones.

 

Black IPA might be the ticket if it has to be hoppy and have vanilla.

 

That's an interesting idea. Is it safe to assume you are suggesting a black ipa with moderate roast flavor rather than one with minimal roast flavor?

 

Dogfish Head's Burton Baton is the first thing that comes to my mind. It's sold as an Oak-aged Double IPA - so there's no vanilla flavoring, and it's not overtly hoppy either, but there's definitely some vanilla that comes through. It's a personal favorite of mine, especially with a year on it.

If I were to try a more American IPA with vanilla (which I probably wouldn't), I'd stay clear of citrusy hops, maybe with the exception of Amarillo (creamsicle, anybody?). I'd go for hops that are described as piney, woody, earthy, etc. Chinook, Fuggles, Tahoma...

The black IPA is a solid idea, but it's a style I just can't get on board with, so I can only support it in theory. In practice...none for me thanks. Unless you were to make it really black and hoppy (read: Imperial/Stout); in which case, I think you could have an excellent IPA on your hands.

 

Doesn't sound like anything I could have more than a small sample of. It might be interesting to try though.

 

I see no reason not to try it, I love the combination of citrus and vanilla!! I'd use the most citric hops you can find, and aim for the vanilla to be a background note. We were using a grapefruit-vanilla confit on cheeseboards at work over the winter, and it was dope.