The lines separating different beer styles are anything but definite. The boundaries are smeared, hazy, and beers that make their home in this gray area can be hard to classify. Classification is especially difficult when dealing with the similar styles of pale ale and India pale ale.
The problem with the pale ale is that it is the parent to too many subgenres. There is the English pale ale, the American pale ale, the India pale ale (IPA)—so named because extra hops were added to preserve the beer on its long journey from England to India, the American-style IPA, the English-style IPA, the West Coast IPA, the dark IPA, the imperial/double IPA, the Belgian IPA, and hordes of others that one Examiner couldn’t possibly recall; with so many subgenres and so little differentiating each one, some beers straddle the lines of definition. For example, Dale’s Pale Ale is, obviously, called a pale ale by Oskar Blues Brewery yet, at a different brewery, its high level of bitterness might place it under the IPA designation; many times, the classification given to a beer is a matter of opinion and personal taste.
To best understand the differences between a pale ale and an IPA—slight though they can be—is to drink each type back-to-back and, for the sake of consistency, each one should be from the same brewery. Enter: Euphoria Pale Ale (6.1% ABV) and Modus Hoperandi (6.8% ABV), an IPA, from Ska Brewing Company.
Color:
Euphoria Pale Ale (EPA) – EPA has a thick, bubbly, off-white head with a clear, copper color like a two-year-old penny.
Modus Hoperandi (MH) – The color of MH is essentially the same as Euphoria except for the fact that it starts out slightly hazy. It eventually becomes clear.
Aroma:
EPA– The aroma is strong yet floral. It is bitterness mixed with a flowerbed.
MH– MH’s aroma is essentially the same except it is much more powerful. It still retains some floral qualities.
Taste:
EPA– The hop bitterness doesn’t strike right off the bat, it slowly builds up, peaks out, and slowly subsides like a bell curve. The final swallow leaves no lingering bitterness. There aren’t many other qualities to EPA’s taste other than this somewhat mild bitterness except, perhaps, for a little malt sweetness. Not very much, though.
MH– MH hits the ground running and doesn’t let up; the hoppy bitterness is an ever-present accomplice. It tastes like a tea made of pine needles and the strength of the hops is such that it creates a warming sensation all the way down to the drinker’s gullet. It is like having a tiny sun in one’s core.
Mouthfeel:
EPA– EPA is thin bodied and makes the mouth watery in the back of the tongue.
MH– MH is also thin bodied but is slightly wetter than EPA.
This comparison can be done with beers from other breweries, too: Upslope Brewing Company’s Pale Ale and IPA, Left Hand Brewing Co.’s 400 Pound Monkey and Stranger Pale Ale, Odell Brewing Co.’s IPA and 5 Barrel Pale Ale, et al.
Both EPA and MH are readily available in Denver-area liquor stores.
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