San Diego Pale Ales, India Pale Ale's, Double IPA's

San Diego Pale Ales & IPA’s Earn “A” Grades!

People who know beer give San Diego Pale Ales, IPA’s and Double IPA’s “A” grades.  Beer Advocate (www.beeradvocate.com) has reviews contributed by thousands of beer lovers who have logged on to their website and rated beers because—well because they just love beer!

San Diego is Brewing has compiled the following list of San Diego Pale Ales, India Pale Ales and Double India Pale Ales that were graded "A" by Beer Advocate reviewers.  The list shows the name of the beer, the brewery name, the alcohol by volume percentage (ABV%) and number of reviews for that beer.  Thank you Beer Advocate and Beer Advocate users for again recognizing that San Diego is brewing some of the best beer in the world! (Results as of January 2010 and courtesy of Beer Advocate)

San Diego Pale Ales:
•    Tuatara,  Alpine Beer Co. 4.20% ABV, 9 reviews
•    30th Street Pale Ale,  Green Flash Brewing Co. ??% ABV,
  9 reviews
•    (Honorable Mention) – Stone Pale Ale,  Stone Brewing Co. 5.40% ABV,
628 reviews (hard to believe, but this was rated a “B+” by BeerAdvocate.
Like Stone IPA, I think that this is a yard stick for southern California Pale Ales.)

San Diego India Pale Ales:
•    AleSmith IPA,  AleSmith Brewing Co. 7.25% ABV, 656 reviews
•    Duet IPA, Alpine Beer Co. 6.75% ABV, 114 reviews
(has a wonderful, floral nose!)
•    Nelson IPA, Alpine Beer Co. 7.10% ABV, 109 reviews
•    O’Brien’s IPA, Alpine Beer Co. 6.20% ABV, 22 reviews
•    Big Eye IPA, Ballast Point Brewing Co. 7.00% ABV, 444 reviews
•    Sculpin IPA, Ballast Point Brewing Co. 7.00% ABV, 470 reviews
(a favorite!)
•    Green Flash West Coast IPA, Green Flash Brewing Co. 7.00% ABV,
743 reviews (one of my favorites from San Diego County!)
•    Black Lie 7th Anniversary Liar’s Club Dark IPA,
Pizza Port Brewing Co. 8.00% ABV, 15 reviews
(an uncharacteristically dark IPA with a lighter colored head)
•    High Tide Fresh Hop IPA, Pizza Port Brewing Co. 6.50% ABV,
286 reviews
•    Wipeout IPA, Pizza Port Brewing Co. 7.00% ABV, 388 reviews
•    Hopnotic, San Diego Brewing Co. 7.50% ABV, 9 reviews
(a favorite, from this strip-mall style brewery)
•    Stone IPA, Stone Brewing Co. 6.90% ABV, 1896 reviews
(this flagship from Stone is often a benchmark for all other IPA’s)

San Diego Double India Pale Ales:
•    YuleSmith (summer release), AleSmith Brewing Co.  8.80% ABV,
688 reviews
•    Exponential Hoppiness, Alpine Beer Co. 10.50% ABV, 115 reviews
•    Pure Hoppiness, Alpine Beer Co. 8.00% ABV, 308 reviews 
(a personal favorite!)
•    Dorado Double IPA, Ballast Point Brewing Co. 9.60% ABV,
288 reviews
•    Green Flash Imperial IPA, Green Flash Brewing Co. 9.00% ABV,
509 reviews (another personal favorite!)
•    Big Barrel Double IPA, Karl Strauss Brewing Co. 9.00% ABV,
14 reviews
•    Hop 15, Pizza Port Brewing Co. 10.00% ABV, 518 reviews
(another personal favorite, using 15 varieties of hops!)
•    Hop Suey, Pizza Port Brewing Co. 9.00% ABV, 21 reviews
•    Poor Man’s Double IPA, Pizza Port Brewing Co. 9.00% ABV,
26 reviews
•    Stone Ruination IPA, Stone Brewing Co. 7.70% ABV, 1885 reviews

Beer Advocate lists 73 categories of ales, 27 categories of lagers, and 3 “hybrid” styles of beer!  If you are so inclined, find out more about their plethora of beers by checking out the “Beer Styles” under the “Education” category on the left column of the homepage at www.beeradvocate.com. It’s quite educational!
 
James Omlid
San Diego is Brewing