While SAVOR is a fun place to eat and drink, it’s also a place to spot the latest, or at least most popular, trends in craft beer. With 144 beers from all over the country, we crunched the data to bring you a hidden indicator of the state of beer in 2012: the popularity of IPAs that use Amarillo and Simcoe hops. Both these strains are proprietary, meaning that home- and professional brewers alike must purchase them from the growers, as opposed to growing them, which is patent and/or trademark fraud. The more you know. When combined, these hops often create a cotton candy-like sweetness that makes you want to come back for more and more.
Thirty-eight of the 144 SAVOR beers are IPAs, which speaks to the popularity of that style, far and away the most prevalent at the festival. It also speaks to the elasticity of that style, with some white, some black, some Belgian-style, and most just plain pale.
The following breweries at SAVOR are bringing IPAs hopped with Amarillo and Simcoe:
American Brewing Breakaway IPA
Ballast Point Sculpin
Cambridge Brewing Audacity of Hops Belgian IPA
Ithaca Flower Power
Schlafly American IPA
Flying Fish American Tripel is not an IPA, but the American modifier in the title lets you know it’s generously hopped with, you guessed it, Amarillo and Simcoe.
You might think that 5 out of 38 IPAs that use these hops isn’t a lot, but given that each is a proprietary strain, sold under monopoly conditions, we are impressed.
We suggest you tell us “who wore it best” at SAVOR, with a flight of these IPAs. Cheers.
