Why when coming up with a beer recipe and brewing the beer would you create something that was from the moment of conception unbalanced?
What I mean when I say that is that, very similar to food and wine, a beer should always be balanced. That is the sweetness, bitterness and any other adjuncts and/or flavours and ingredients used should all be in harmony with one another. The biggest and most popular examples can be Milk Stouts and Double IPAs. A Milk Stout will often use Lactose, a milk sugar that is non fermentable with standard saccharomyces strains so it leaves the beer with thick, sometimes syrupy sweetness, it softens and increases the body of the beer as well as giving a sweet finish. The lactose is in most cases there to balance the beer against the bitterness achieved from the use of coffee in many forms and/or cacao nibs a.k.a chocolate. Not all Milk Stouts will use coffee or chocolate but all contain lactose, sometimes it can just be used to add sweetness to offset the bitterness and astringency from roasted and kilned malts. A few great examples of Milk Stouts; Milk Shake Stout by Wiper and True, Bristol, UK. Milk Stout by Left Hand Brewing Company, Colorado, USA, or if you like them even smoother than their Milk Stout Nitro is a fantastic variant. Last but not least is Jet Black Heart by Brewdog, Scotland, UK, it was one of the prototype series that supposedly one a vote to become one of the core beers, they too do a Nitro version.
I have tried numerous Milk Stouts that haven't been anywhere near as good. Some are somehow hot with the lactose failing to compensate for the esters and boozy burn, which I thought would have been difficult to achieve from a sub 6% beer. Some are way too sweet from a what can only be described as a lack of understanding about what lactose is and how to use it. I know it can be used in secondary fermentation or even during the boil, both times get very similar results. Some of the sweet ones are so overly sweet that they become almost impossible to drink unless you have some sadistic tendencies and love to visit the dentist or just generally like sweet things. Another common problem with Milk Stouts can be from not using enough lactose, the bitterness can be too overpowering that after a few sips all you can taste is charcoal toast or burnt, overcooked coffee. I can only stress again, the importance of balance in beers.
Now another style that is way too frequently brewed with no consideration for any balance whatsoever. I'm not going to get into the debate of Clear vs Hazy at this stage but I'm sure at some point I'll get involved in the debate. I can get fairly heated on that topic but it's not the right time for that now.
Where do I begin, I suppose from its beginning. There probably is somewhere out there a database for the creation of every beer style, listing breweries, beers etc.. if not then there should be. You can argue all you want about who created the style, where and why but to put it most simply, there are a few stand out beers from the dawn of its creation. Pliny The Elder by Russian River, California, USA, including a lovely little write up about the beer, style and the man himself. I've not had the luxury of ever trying this beer and am still waiting for the opportunity to get my hands on a bottle, with all hop forward beers, the fresher the better. Another fine example of a beer that is often credited with being around at the time of the creation of the Double IPA is Ruination by Stone, California, USA. The link is for Ruination 2.0 which is a newer variant on the original Ruination. I have tried many bottles of Ruination which unfortunately were all old, the hop aroma had gone and the beer had started to oxidise leaving an almost unpleasant palate. It wasn't until the UK launch of the beers coming out of Stone Berlin that I got to try a fresh batch of what is now Ruination 2.0. the can must have been only three or four weeks old and oh my was it good. Intensely hoppy on the nose, some citrus fruit and pine. To taste it was equally as incredible, superbly balanced for such a big beer, by big I'm talking about the theoretic IBU's of over 100, not the abv. It is boozy but at 8.5% nothing that is gonna make you cry, you wouldn't be able to tell it has that amount of alcohol. It is such a clean beer, you can taste all the hops, the cheeky Simcoe and Citra coming through and adding a tropical fruity edge to the dankness. I've never had a bottle of Enjoy By, which I'm told is even better, a links to examples of Enjoy By. Then there's 90 Minute IPA, by Dogfish Head, Delaware, USA. Again, another beer I'm yet to try. I have had the 60 Minute IPA which is there 6% IPA and that was sublime. It's not that I haven't seen the 90 Minute IPA around, I just don't want to try one that isn't fresh as it would not be a fair taste test of what the beer really should be.
All of the above beers, are Double IPAs with varying abvs and IBUs but have a few things in common. Big noses, big bodies and big on the bitterness. From being a pale straw to a golden or amber beer, having a malty backbone with a dry finish or light, clean and crisp, they are all massively big on the hops, so much that as soon as you open the bottles you get a big slap in the face by hops... hops, hops, hops.
The first thing you get is the aroma, massive on the hops. Quite often dank but with some tropical fruit and citrus cutting through. When you pour it out into a glass the bubbles bring the rest of the oils to the surface increasing the aroma, almost past the point you thought was possible. It's another point to argue but I feel glassware is important, especially with IPAs. There's a reason that glass manufacture Spiegelau has been working with Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head in the development of such a glass. As soon as the glass gets close to your mouth, your nose gets right into the glass, then it touches your lips. The golden liquor slides past your now wet lips and into you mouth coating your salivated tongue. Your met with malty sweetness, a smooth mouthfeel, the kind you get from just the right amount of alcohol, fruity hops, then dankness and sweat. After the first sip you pull the glass away and the beer changes, the initial sweetness is washed away by the acids and hop oils leaving a drying and bitter finish. The right amount of bitterness is key to balance the initial sweetness and leave the finish dry. The hops remain throughout but your longing for more. After every sip it happens again and again. Each time just like the last, Groundhog day for your tongue.
That is what true Double IPAs were like, it's the style from birth, balanced yet at the same time intensely hoppy.
My problem now lies with some modern examples of the Double IPA style. The main problem being balance. Some can be so claggy that even a single can or bottle becomes a right old pain and hard to finish. These can often be thick, almost mud like, a vast majority of the hazy/murky IPAs and Double IPAs tend to be like this. Some can be cloying, similarly to the overly sweet Milk Stouts, that level of sweetness is for the sweet-toothed. On the opposite end of the spectrum you get the ones that are too dry or too bitter. Sometimes this can be from the beer attenuating further than expected so that the dryness/sweetness and bitterness is not in a state of equilibrium, much further onto the side of almost and quite often harsh and unpalatable bitterness. I can liken the bitterness and dryness to the same feeling you get from sucking on the wooden paddle you get on some ice cream lollypops. If the brewer sets out to create a beer that is far from the original style of the Double IPA then perhaps the beer should have a new name and not fall into the same category as some are already causing all sorts of confusion.
A great piece by Mark Dredge on bitterness in beer.
The one thing I cannot and will never be able to say with any certainty is what beer is best. There can be closest to style, biggest aroma, best mouthfeel etc... but none of them can compare to the overall balance of the beer. Everybody can and does have differing tastes when it comes to beers, some prefer them one way, say sweet, whilst others might prefer them on the dryer and bitter side.
I don't think I'm alone when I say, you can like any beer you choose but when it comes to particular styles, the best (not just in my opinion) are those that are closest to style balanced to perfection.
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