An intensified American IPA — bigger malt, bigger hops, bigger alcohol, but still showcasing hop character as the point. Typically 7.6–10.6% ABV with aggressive bitterness and a dry, deceptively drinkable finish despite the strength. Popularized on the West Coast in the late 1990s to early 2000s.
In the glass
Origin
Vinnie Cilurzo is generally credited with brewing the first modern double IPA in 1994 as the Inaugural Ale for Blind Pig Brewing, a small brewpub in Temecula, California. Cilurzo later recounted the recipe’s origin as a pragmatic hedge: by doubling the hop load on his first commercial batch on unfamiliar equipment, he could mask any off-flavors from imperfect technique. The resulting beer established the template — bigger malt, much bigger hops, still pale, and still built to showcase hop character above all else.
The style’s defining commercial example arrived around 2000, when Vic Kralj of The Bistro in Hayward, California organized what is widely regarded as the first double IPA festival. Russian River Brewing — which Cilurzo had joined as brewmaster in 1997 — brewed a beer especially for the event and named it Pliny the Elder after the Roman naturalist who gave the hop plant its Latin name. Pliny the Elder became both the style’s reference point and its object lesson in how dry, drinkable, and beguilingly balanced a 100-plus-IBU 8% beer could be. By the early 2010s more than a hundred American craft brewers were making double IPAs, “Imperial IPA” had settled in as a synonym, and West Coast beer enthusiasts were describing the “lupulin shift” by which palates adjust to very high bitterness.
Notes
The Hazy or Juicy form of the double IPA is now recognized as a separate sub-style with its own sensory profile — opaque, soft, tropical-fruit-forward — and appears in the catalog under Hazy Imperial IPA. “Triple IPA” is used informally above roughly 10% ABV but is not a formally defined category; most beers labeled Triple IPA sit within the high end of the double-IPA range or spill over into the neighboring Imperial Pale Ale / American Barleywine territory.
Defining examples
Russian River Pliny the Elder·Bell’s Hopslam·Stone Ruination·Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA