What do you look for in a Double IPA?

Citrus,stone fruit, and tropical fruit flavor from the hops, enough sweet and bready malts to balance it out and of course a pleasing bitterness.

 

Nailed it.

 

Drinkabity. Vibrancy. Not too resinous. Moderate carbonation. 8% ABV

 

I've encountered too many what I call India Brown Ales. Founders is a class act and the dark wheat sounds interesting. Thanks for the heads up but Founders isn't easily obtainable here.

 

Malt profile strictly for staging the tropical, juicy hops, and make mine unfiltered/cloudy.

 

With the exception of the big alcohol, it sounds like you are drinking the wrong style of beer. Seriously. Try a Blind Pig, Head Hunter or Nelson if you want hops, bitterness and little malt.

 

What can I add that already hasn't been said? Big hop flavor and well hidden high alcohol. I prefer lower malt content as well. I enjoy the citrus DIPAS but I also appreciate drier ones. Some favorites that come to mind are pretty much all three floyds DIPAS, half acre navaja, and square grouper

 

Complex yet big hop flavor that's well balanced and easy to drink. My biggest problem with a lot of DIPA's is they are too boozy and they are one dimensional and nothing really going on except hops.

 

Tropical fruit, smells dank, just enough malt to be balanced, resiny on the finish, 8-9% abv, but no alcohol burn

 

Noble Ale Works Nelson Showers may fit the bill.

 

Citrusy DIPA's are what I gravitate towards.

 

someone to hand it to. I really don't like American craft IPA anything, so I hand them to someone who will appreciate them.

Yes, I am occasionally in the position of being handed free product. I always have a line of people eager to relive me of the IPA stash

 

I am not a big hop fan, and don't favor a lot of the "hop bomb" IPAs. I do like many DIPAs, generally those with a notable malt presence.

 

Lately? Freshness. I've been checking bottle dates like a maniac on the off chance that that beer was bottled like a day ago.

 

I like DIPAs that have a lot of everything. I want juicy tropical fruits upfront, a solid malt backbone and then finishes with piney bitterness. I've heard it referred to as a Pliny clone (not having had Pliny, so I had to take his word), but I really liked AV's Heelch O'Hops.

 

I just did a 5-year vertical tasting of 90 Minute (don't ask) and found the older ones (4-5 years) extremely enjoyable. As you might guess, they more resembled barleywine than IPA, but I think the hops (and their degradation) still contributed positively to the flavor.

I've actually aged a few DIPAs and I've found that the more malty, English-style ones (90 Min for example) age best. Heavy Seas' Big DIPA is another great one for aging. After 2-3 years I get a lot of vinous, grapey notes, along with bubblegum in the case of 90 Minute.

I actually tend to prefer even my fresh DIPAs to be a little on the sweet/malty side, of course with tons of hops. My favorite recent example of the style is Hi Res -- perfectly balanced, but still aggressively hopped and boozy.

 

Balance.

 

I look for weapons-grade hop flavor, aroma, and bitterness. Body can be medium and even a bit oily.

 

Intense hop flavor. Very clean tasting with very little malt. Dry as a bone finish. I hate DIPAs that are super malty.