Double IPA as a style could be the apotheosis of the modern craft beer, or at least the hop-forward branch of that art. They’re so incredibly full of flavor that is at once insanely robust and at the same time delicate and evanescent. They are a like an incredibly beautiful and fragrant flower that fades quickly.

The aroma of a Double IPA, in my opinion, should be like sticking your nose in a bag of hops. The aromas should jump out at you, permeate the olfactory landscape like kudzu overruns an abandoned farm. They’re strong beers – yes – but this is really not the point. The point is the flavor, and there’s no real good way of packing that much flavor intensity into a more timidly brewed beer. Even if it were possible, it just wouldn’t have any sense of balance; typically Double IPAs are 8% ABV or more. We like ours right around that 8% line – it gives you enough of a base beer to shoehorn copious amounts of hoppy and fruity flavors into, without the alcohol getting too much in your way.

There are different ways to go on the malt profile. Some brewers opt for a drier finish up the fermentability by adding sugar or enzymes. We like enough of a malt backbone to hold the enterprise together; the malt very much in the background but those malty flavors acting like a glue holding together the hoppiness that wants to explode in every direction out of the glass.

Lime Green Gremlin is our first DIPA effort here at Gotahold; 8.1% ABV and brimmed up with hoppy flavors from a some of our faves in the hop toolbox: Mosaic, Amarillo, Citra, Ekuanot. There’s also an experimental hop that’s still running under the number 682 that we got our hands on. Fruity, hoppy and delicious, but keep it cold and drink it soon. It won’t last.