[mjlee]

Which IPAs are made from concentrate? I've never heard of this.

Some beers are brewed at a higher gravity and then diluted with water to bring to the correct strength - this allows the breweries to get more beer out of their brewing capacity.

[surfingdino]

https://browin.com/shop/product/407400/brew-a-ipa-coopers-be...

https://www.thrillist.com/drink/nation/beer-concentrate-pat-...

[Nursie]

LOL, those are cheat kits for homebrewers, and pretty poor ones at that. It's not how a competent homebrewer makes beer, let alone a commercial brewery.

Someone has sold you a fairytale about IPA production because they don't like the style.

(edit - you'll notice at those shops they are selling all sorts of styles as concentrates, including "Polish hopped beer" - https://browin.com/shop/beer-brewing/coopers-concentrates )

[surfingdino]

These are small fish, the big fish but beer concentrate tech from https://brewvo.com/

[Nursie]

Which is not about brewing from concentrate like the home brew kits are, but brewing to concentrate and shipping like that for dilution in a bar, and it doesn't sound like it's in production yet.

Not something I'm interested in. But it certainly doesn't support your weird assertion that IPAs in particular are all made from concentrate.

I think you have a number of things mixed up in your head here.

[anfractuosity]

Huh, that's just a (poor) homebrew thing, however there's many decent homebrew shops that sell malt, nitrogen flushed hops etc. For example - https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk

Additionally the UK also makes very high quality malt including malt made from heritage grains and floor malted, which I've had in IPA form.

There are many decent IPAs available in the UK, such as American style ones comparable to beers such Heady Topper etc. Or more traditional ones such as made by Fullers etc.

Check out breweries such as Thornbridge / Verdant / Polly's / Cloudwater / Siren / DEYA etc.

Very curious as to what IPAs you've had.

[surfingdino]

Heady Topper? 8% alcohol. Seems a good fit for the UK market. I tried most IPAs available in London and France and they seems to me to go in two directions: 2x percentage of alcohol or using various syrups. They invariable give me headaches and I keep coming back to traditional beer.

[Nursie]

Just FYI - in London, IPA is a very traditional beer. Just not the hop-bomb american styles.

Go for cask real-ales on the big pumps rather than craft beers off the keg taps, and you're drinking old-school British beers brewed in the way they have been brewed for hundreds of years. Some of them will be IPAs. Most of them will be in the range of 3-6% alcohol.

They don't tend to be as massively hopped and flavoured as the newer 'craft' styles, they are less fizzy (natural carbonation only, rather than forced keg carbonation) and might be kinder to your head as a result.

[anfractuosity]

There are session IPAs and pale ales, which are both lower in ABV probably 5ish or less ABV-wise, re. headaches and just as flavourful hop-wise.

[mjlee]

Sure, I forgot about those. Those are homebrew kits, nothing to do with the IPA you buy at a pub or bar. You can't make a sweeping statement about IPAs based on those.

[surfingdino]

Yes, I can. BrewVo is already selling their concentrate process to the "craft beer" market, check out their partners https://brewvo.com/

More on the process here https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/concentrated-beer...

[Nursie]

I'm not sure how "IPAs aren't real beer and are made from concentrates!" ends up at "There's a company planning to ship all sorts of beers in concentrated form straight to the end user", but there was a change of direction there somewhere.