There was once a time when bitterness was synonymous with beer.
So much so that traditional English ale was called just that, ‘bitter’.
But as lager revolutionised both the mechanics of brewing and the
global taste for beer smooth drinking became the byline for beer,
and it quickly drifted away from it’s bitter roots.
That might have been the end of it right there, if not for the advent of the American West Coast craft brewing scene and it’s readoption (and consequent reinvention) of IPA. Suddenly, bitterness wasn’t just back, it was being harnessed at completely unprecedented levels.
Bitterness in beer is measured in International Bitterness Units (IBU). Though they will be intrinsically linked, an IBU isn’t a qualitative indicator of perceived bitterness, but a quantitative measure of the concentration of iso-alpha acids (the bitter tasting ones) derived from hops. As a point of comparison, New Zealand brewed Steinlager, regarded as a firmly bitter lager internationally, has an IBU of around twenty. These new West Coast IPAs were rapidly approaching levels exceeding
one hundred…
Our early craft brewers and drinkers jumped on the trend, and the IBU chase was on in New Zealand. Examining the output of just a single producer – Epic – their iconic Pale Ale carried an IBU of thirty when it released in 2005, which was then doubled by Armageddon IPA just three years later. Epic’s bitterness wave approached it’s height in 2014 with a special release named ‘Lupulingus’ which broke the triple digits at a hundred and one IBUs…
As popular as IPA had become, it was (like all good things) not for everyone, and as the craft beer industry’s margins narrowed, brewers needed something to tempt the vast number of drinkers who had remained in lager’s shadow rather than stepping into the tumult of IPA. The answer was hazy, a new style that could present all the fashionable new fruity hop flavours, without the palate-checking bitterness as a barrier.
To the dismay of IBU aficionados like myself, the hazy gambit worked all too well. The crown of IPA fell in a mere couple of years as the popularity of hazy beer exploded across the industry. But one can’t fault producers from steering towards what sells, and the reality was that hazy beer was bringing in new drinkers and actively expanding the market. However, for better or worse, once the dust settled truly bitter beers were (and remain) an endangered species.
Even as the popularity of hazy beer now wanes, the new generation of ‘Bright’ IPAs that are popping up to fill the gap are a shadow of their past glory. The roar of bitter beer has once again fallen quiet.
But if you, like myself, still crave something to test your palate, there are a few core-range offerings that still fly the IBU flag.
PARROT DOG: ‘Bitter Bitch’ IPA 5.8%abv [70 IBU]
GARAGE PROJECT: ‘Pernicious Weed’ DIPA 8.5%abv [80 IBU]
LIBERTY: ‘Citra’ DIPA 9.0%abv [99 IBU]