Ohio makes the best IPAs in the country.
That claim would have been laughable years ago.
But today?
There’s a valid case to be made. Let’s examine the mounting evidence:
• Ohio brewers have won the gold medal in the imperial IPA category at the Great American Beer Festival three years running. Fat Head’s Hop JuJu won in 2013 and 2015, while Columbus Creeper got the top honor in 2014.
• Since 2010, Ohio brewers have won four medals for American-style IPAs at the Great American Beer Festival. Fat Head’s Head Hunter took a silver in 2010 and a bronze in 2011. Columbus Bodhi won a bronze in 2014. And The Brew Kettle White Rajah got bronze last year. (JAFB Rain Delay IPA won a silver in the International-style pale ale category last year.)
• Speaking of White Rajah, Paste held a blind taste test last year with 116 IPAs. White Rajah came out on top.
• Head Hunter won silver medals in 2012 and 2014 at the World Beer Cup.
• Head Hunter won the Brewing News National IPA Competition twice — in 2010 and 2012.
• The Brew Kettle El Lupulo Libre took home the crown in the Brewing News National Imperial IPA Competition in 2014.
That’s a consistent run of honors over the last several years. And it doesn’t even include Ohio fan favorites such as Hoof Hearted, Hoppin’ Frog and Rhinegeist, which are pumping out sought-after IPAs.
In case you weren’t adding up medals, Ohio brewers have taken home seven medals in the American-style and imperial IPA categories at the Great American Beer Festival since 2010 — second only to the 14 awarded California brewers.
California has, like, 8 ba-jillion breweries so its odds are greater at taking home hardware. Its well-deserved success on the national stage is the only thing standing in the way of declaring Ohio the undisputed IPA king.
Despite its penchant for producing medal worthy IPAs, Ohio seems to get little national notice.
“We don’t get the recognition we deserve,” Fat Head’s co-owner and brewer Matt Cole said. “People don’t think we’re capable.”
Maybe it’s an attitude that nothing so tasty can come out of the Midwest. Cole, who travels often, has heard that East Coast and West Coast bias.
Let’s face it, much of the national IPA discussion is focused on Heady Topper this and Pliny the Elder that.
One person who doesn’t have to be convinced about the Buckeye State’s prowess is Joshua Bernstein, author of The Complete Beer Course and a Dayton native.
He is working on a new book about IPAs and plans to include Fat Head’s, Columbus and The Brew Kettle.
“Ohio is making great, balanced, IPAs, forthright with hop presence but not over-the-top,” Bernstein said when asked about Ohio’s reputation. “They can stand toe-to-toe on a national stage. They’re not quite the new hotness of the Northeast IPA — essentially, unfiltered hop milkshakes full of aroma and flavor, not bitterness — but that’s just fine.
“The Ohio IPAs banish neither malt nor bitterness, but they remain bright, fragrant, and eminently, compulsively drinkable, from the first bottle in the six-pack to the last.”