This weekend we’re taking a serious look—er, taste—at some widely available commercial craft beers in a quest to find the best widely-available IPA. With nearly every craft brewer in America seeking the quintessential hop rush, we wondered if the label factors in to how we perceive taste. Thus, the Educated IPA Blind Tasting was born!
Jimmy’s No. 43 owner Jimmy Carbone notes, “There are may ways to judge beer. Around the country—and at Jimmy’s No. 43—BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) courses are taught to discern flavors and styles based on the BJCP style guide. We wanted to create a blind tasting and judge IPAs based only on taste, to find out how the commercially available IPAs stack up against those hard-to-find beers.”
While we won’t be sneaking in any Pliny or Heady Topper, we will have an extensive list of IPAs from Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada, Bell’s, Smuttynose, Lagunitas, Victory and many others.
Day One (Friday, April 25) of the Educated IPA event is an invitation-only professional judging with a panel of esteemed judges, who will conduct a blind tasting of 10 IPAs. Judges include beer writers (e.g. Justin Kennedy, Paul Sullivan), food bloggers (e.g. Chris Schonberger), and some of New York City’s favorite beer bar owners (Ed Berestecki, Jimmy Carbone), among other special guests. The judges will blind taste the 10 entries and vote on the best example of the style (based on BJCP style guidelines). The IPAs will be judged from specialty IPA glassware courtesy of Spiegelau/Riedel. The winner will be announced during the Public Tasting on Day Two!
Day Two (Saturday April 26) offers the public to “be the judge” with a ticketed event (get them here) that includes the same 10 IPAs, plus food and “swag” giveaways from industry reps. Certified Cicerone Ross Shepard will teach you how to properly taste and judge an IPA. You’ll be making “Educated” judgments, with a list of breweries whose beers are entered, as well as a description of the hops used in the entries.
The Saturday event begins at 4 p.m., but we’ll have pay-as-you-go options from noon. Come and mingle and get your hop on with two days of Educated IPA tastings.