Style Details

Name
Spe­cial­ty IPA – Brut IPA
Cate­go­ry
IPA
BJCP Style Code
21 B8
Appearance
Very pale to light gol­den in color; tho­se with added fruit may reflect fruit color, but it’s usual­ly pale. White to off-white foam may be volu­mi­nous due to high car­bo­na­ti­on and can have good to mode­ra­te reten­ti­on, depen­ding upon alco­hol. Cla­ri­ty can ran­ge from bril­li­ant to modera­te­ly hazy from late-hop and dry-hop oils.
Fla­vour
Initi­al fla­vor should pri­ma­ri­ly reflect hop oils or added fruit. Gra­pe, citrus, tro­pi­cal, and stone fruit fla­vors are com­mon, while bit­ter­ness should be res­trai­ned. Low bit­te­ring hops will be exag­ge­ra­ted by the very dry finis­hing gra­vi­ty as well as car­bo­nic acid, but the­re should not be an aggres­si­ve bit­ter­ness as one would tas­te in a West Coast–style Ame­ri­can IPA. Malt fla­vor is all but absent; cara­mel or jui­cy sweet­ness should not be pre­sent, though alco­hol may pro­vi­de a sen­sa­ti­on of sweet­ness. Hop fla­vors should exhi­bit dry, some­ti­mes wine-like frui­tin­ess. Low tartness may be pre­sent from the pre­sence of real fruit but is not requi­red. Finish is dry to very dry (1°P or less) with low hop bitterness.
Mouth­feel
Body should be light to very light and, along with high car­bo­na­ti­on (up to 3.5 vol.), should lend a Cham­pa­gne-like qua­li­ty. Alco­hol may be high, with a sen­sa­ti­on of spar­k­ling wine-like vola­ti­li­ty, but should not be hot or harsh. Resi­du­al malt sweet­ness or dex­trin full­ness should be absent.
Over­all Impression
A very pale, very dry, high­ly effer­ve­s­cent vari­ant of Ame­ri­can IPA, usual­ly high­ly hop­ped with aro­ma­tic hops, but with far less actu­al bit­ter­ness. Aro­ma: Mode­ra­te to inten­se hop aro­ma fea­turing one or more cha­rac­te­ristics of Ame­ri­can or New World hops, inclu­ding citrus, flo­ral, pine res­i­nous, spi­cy, tro­pi­cal fruit, stone fruit, ber­ry, melon, etc. Any Ame­ri­can or New World hop cha­rac­ter is accep­ta­ble; new hop varie­ties con­ti­nue to be released and should not cons­train this style. Most are hea­vi­ly hop­ped after flame­out, eit­her during whirl­pool, dry-hop­ped, or both. Some “Cham­pa­gne” styl­es may incor­po­ra­te fruit aro­ma­tics from addi­ti­ons of actu­al fruit in addi­ti­on to or ins­tead of hop-deri­ved fruit; gra­pes or gra­pe must may be used in the­se ver­si­ons to bridge the gap bet­ween spar­k­ling wines and beer. A low to medi­um-low clean mal­ty-grai­ny aro­ma may be found in the back­ground. Sweet, grai­ny aro­ma­tics of corn or rice may be pre­sent but are not requi­red, as a mode­ra­te to high per­cen­ta­ge of adjuncts in the grain bill are often used as a means of incre­asing atte­nua­ti­on. Some bre­wers have repor­ted aro­mas of coco­nut from high amounts of rice in the grain bill.
Typi­cal Ingredients
Very pale base malt, some­ti­mes mar­ried with rice or corn adjuncts, high car­bo­na­ti­on and oil-hea­vy fla­vor and aro­ma hops added post-flame­out. Man­da­ri­na Bava­ria, Hüll Melon, and Nel­son Sau­vin are popu­lar. Sugar addi­ti­ons to aid atte­nua­ti­on are accep­ta­ble but must be kept low to avo­id hot or harsh alco­hols. Amy­la­se enzy­mes such as Ferm­fast Glu­co­amy­la­se, White Labs Ultra-Ferm, or Amy­lo 300 are used to pro­du­ce a bone-dry finish, which is fur­ther ampli­fied by high car­bo­na­ti­on. Crys­tal or dex­trin malts, lac­to­se, or any ingre­di­ents that will thi­c­ken or swee­ten the beer, or pre­vent com­ple­te atte­nua­ti­on, are not to style.
Histo­ry
This is very new sub­gen­re of IPA that has ties to the rela­tively rare Euro­pean style biè­re de Cham­pa­gne, but is gene­ral­ly attri­bu­ted to bre­wer Kim Stur­da­vant at San Francisco’s Social Kit­chen and Bre­wery. He is said to have used amy­la­se enzy­mes to make his tri­ple IPA more drinkable and won­de­red what effect they would have on a stan­dard-strength IPA. Some see it as a bone-dry West Coast back­lash to the New Eng­land IPA and milkshake IPA trends that favor sweet, full-bodi­ed, “jui­cy” fla­vors in a hea­vi­ly late-hop­ped beer.
Comm­ents
Amy­la­se enzy­mes, spe­ci­fi­cal­ly glu­co­amy­la­se or amy­log­lu­co­si­da­se, are used in the mash and/or fer­men­ter along with high­ly fer­men­ta­ble wort and often adjuncts like rice and corn to achie­ve clo­se to 100% atte­nua­ti­on. Clean, high-atte­nua­ting yeast strains are pre­fer­red, though the style will likely evol­ve as more bre­wers expe­ri­ment with more cha­rac­terful strains. Bit­te­ring hops should be used with res­traint sin­ce, even though it is an IPA, the low finis­hing gra­vi­ties will accen­tua­te hop bit­ter­ness; gene­ral­ly at or below about 20 IBUs.
Com­mer­cial Examples
Bear Repu­blic Brut Squad IPA, Black­stack Bot­tom­less Brut, Weld­Werks Char­don­nay Brut, Matchl­ess Fan­cy Stuff Brut IPA, Bar­rel Brot­hers Cham­pa­der­ade Brut IPA, Three Wea­vers Post­co­lo­ni­al Fri­end­ship, Dan­ge­rous Man Brut Bel­li­ni, Four Quar­ters Padd­le On
Notes
Hop­ped in a simi­lar fashion to New Eng­land IPA, but wit­hout sweet­ness. Pale, some­ti­mes slight­ly hazy like a West Coast IPA, but wit­hout high bit­ter­ness. High­ly car­bo­na­ted like a Bel­gi­an Gol­den Strong ale, but even drier, and wit­hout Bel­gi­an spi­ce and phe­nol character.
Ori­gi­nal Gravity
1.060 - 1.080 SG
Final Gra­vi­ty
0.990 - 1004.000 SG
Color
5 - 15 SRM
Alco­hol
6.0 - 12.0 %vol
Bit­ter­ness
15 - 25 IBU