There was a time, not so long ago, when one could go all the way from American pale ale (APA) to India pale ale (IPA) without running across a single other beer style. You’d leave APA at about 5 percent ABV, set the cruise, and let the specific gravity points fly by. By the time you hit IPA at 6 or 7 percent, the landscape had lost some of its malty texture, but dense, expansive lupulin forests more than compensated the senses.
Those days are long gone. APA and IPA are still there, of course, and better than ever, but where once there were vast open spaces in between, now styles blend together into an endless sea of pale ales. Breweries variously refer to this sub-Burton sprawl as double pale ale, imperial pale ale, strong pale ale, extra pale ale, or any number of other vaguely defined terms. As craft brewers continue to slip the surly bonds of stylistic constraint, a whole new class of pale ale has emerged.
What Is Imperial Pale Ale?
Neither the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) nor the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) guidelines have much to say on the matter of imperial pale ale. The GABF offers a starting point in American Strong Pale Ale category: