Beer Style Guide: Get to Know White IPA with Em Sauter
Another in the series of “IPAs of many colors” — the white IPA had a big heyday in the 2010-2014 timeframe. Its witbier meets fruity hops was a sensation when it came out and was definitely my favorite of this IPA trend.
History of White IPA
The white IPA was developed by American craft brewers (there’s no one brand that defines this style) to appeal to IPA drinkers but also Belgian witbier drinkers. It was brewed by some of the largest breweries in America and many breweries used it as a winter or spring seasonal. New Belgium’s Accumulation white IPA was a great example of this. Accumulation has now been rebranded as a hazy IPA as have many white IPAs. Some say the white IPA was a precursor to the hazy IPA’s rise and that theory could be a good one since they have some similarities (haziness, some juiciness).
How White IPA is Made
White IPAs are brewed essentially like a witbier: lots of wheat and pale malt although spices like coriander, grains of paradise and curacao orange peel are optional here. Witbier yeast is also used. The only difference is the hopping rate. Loads of American or Southern hemisphere (or if you are formulating a recipe now, those new German or English hops like Hallertau Blanc or Jester are excellent in this style!) are added to the end of boil, whirlpool or as a dry hop for big tropical and citrus flavors. The hops add a lot of citrus flavors similar to the orange peel, so that’s why the orange peel is optional.
Tasting Notes & Pairing
With the white IPA, you’ll be getting flavors of the witbier with its soft bready wheat and cracker, plus yeast flavors of pear esters and slight clove phenols as well as big hop flavors of tropical fruit and citrus peel. This is a delicate dance, similar to the Belgian IPA so you want to make sure everything is balanced and in alignment or you’ll get a mess on your hands.
White IPAs are great with foods since they have so many elements to them that can stand up to many cuisines. Sweet desserts that incorporate fruit like a tart or key lime pie would be excellent with this style as would flaky white fish tacos, fish and chips or anything that would benefit from a citrus kick.
Beers to Try
Deschutes Chainbreaker
You’re probably going to only find this at Deschutes pubs around Oregon but apparently they do brew this classic White IPA on occasion even though it’s not mentioned on their website (it had a brief reappearance in 2020 in six packs). Could be a good excuse to visit Oregon and hit up Bend, one of the best and most beautiful beer cities on the planet.
New Belgium Accumulation IPA
If you want to chart the trajectory of the White IPA aka its rise and fall, look no further than New Belgium’s Accumulation IPA which was once a white IPA and a popular seasonal. It looks as though they took the base of this style as it was hazy to begin thanks to the wheat malt and replaced the witbier yeast with london ale yeast (the go to yeast for hazy IPAs) and added some more up to date beloved hops like strata, a hop that was not around during the heyday of the white IPA. They did keep the high IBUs, which is a nice call back to IPAs of yore.
Your Local Brewpub
Ah yes the cop out answer but specialty IPAs, especially ones of a “vintage” (I use that term very loosely as beer evolution moves quite quickly) nature such as the white IPA, are best sought out at local breweries. It’s your best chance to see one of these beers in the wild.