CulturAle Press

Far From India: India Pale Ales in the 21st Century. Quattro Goomba’s Old School, Aldie, Va.

Date:  March 29, 2019

The Story—  This is the second Beer of the Day from Quattro Goomba’s in the not-very-central but scenic Aldie, Virginia.  You can see the previous gem from brewer Chris Jacques here.  As we near the end of our March madness of IPA styles, we circle back to the version that started the craze.

There were plenty of IPAs in America in the 19th century; Prohibition decreased them but a generous handful continued into the 30s and 40s.  The most successful was Ballentine, which brewed some of the most flavorful beers you could buy in its heyday in Newark.  Even after Falstaff picked up the brand and brewed it in Fort Wayne, it still had exceptional character.  Ironically not long after the last bottles of it disappeared from shelves in the east, adventurous brewers in the west that showed Ballentine’s lingering influence.  Anchor’s Liberty ale in 1975 made extensive and innovative use of Cascade hops.  Bert Grant brewed the first craft beer labeled IPA in the early 80s in Oregon.  Sierra Nevada’s Celebration and Lagunitas’s IPA smashed remaining doors down.   By the mid 1990s the hop forward taste had spread to the east.  Some consider Tuppers’ Hop Pocket Ale the first East Coast IPA, though the Tuppers never labeled it as such.  Today, though we don’t think anyone’s done a definitive count, we estimate there are at least 20,000 American IPAs in production right now, with several times that brewed over the course of a year.  Not all breweries match Quatro Gooba’s numbers– five different IPAs on tap when we were there a couple of months ago– but some like Pizza Boy in Enola, Pa. offer far more.

This version from Quatro Goomba’s is one of the best we’ve had lately.  A beer such as this would have been shockingly fruity in the early days of IPAs, but today we’ve grown to accept entire fruit wagons rolling over out taste buds and these “old school” hops offer a spectrum of flavor beyond the fruit bin.

The Beer—Cascade and Centennial give as much leaf as fruit in today’s context.  Herbal notes also grow and a big even full malt is a fine palate for the supersplash of hops and the lingering oils and tangy long bitter.  There’s a bit of a struggle between the big hops and firm malt as it drinks, but every sip calls for another.

Value —  Good.  Quatro Goomba’s offers very good beer at entirely fair prices.

Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

In March we’re taking a look at the incredible variety of IPAs.   The style is by far the biggest seller among craft beers in the US and probably in Europe as well.   Even century-old breweries in Reinheitsgebot-narrowed Germany are brewing IPAs (if the brewer calls it “ale” it doesn’t have to conform to the strict purity law).   But you have to ask these days: What is an IPA”?  We’ll take a look at almost a dozen recognized and semi-recognized styles of IPAs in the next couple of weeks.

 We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers,   and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”