IPAs have always been about preservation. In fact, the history behind the style is rooted in it, where beers bound for India were heavily hopped to maintain their viability over lengthy overseas voyages. The style has certainly stood the test of time. IPAs are repeatedly the number one selling craft beer style in America, representing about one-fifth of all craft beer sales. If you’re opening a brewery, it’s practically self-preservation to ensure you have an IPA in your arsenal day-one.
Hops can fight a number of things—from sweetness and expiration dates to anxiety and scurvy. When applied in high doses, it can be a stroke of pure generous or shroud certain shortcomings. The pale ale style continuum begins with sessionable pale ales and progresses to double and triple IPAs. Arguably, the higher a beer falls on that spectrum, the easier it is to hide behind hops, joining a pack of mediocrity with relatively high drinkability if it falls short.
Throwing a new IPA into the ring takes guts. Introducing three new IPAs the same year throws caution to the wind. But it’s a calculated decision for Madison-based Ale Asylum. With successes all along the pale ale continuum—Demento session pale ale, Hopalicious American pale ale, Ballistic IPA, Bedlum Belgian-style IPA and Satisfaction Jacksin double IPA—the brewery isn’t looking to fill a gap. It’s seizing an opportunity to show what it does best with the power of its newer brewery behind it.
The first new Ale Asylum release of 2015 is Velveteen Habit, a 7.5% ABV IPA hopped with Citra and Cascade.
Tasting Notes
Strawberry-lemon Kool-Aid powder aromatically collides with lemongrass, onions and garlic for a straight on Citra-Cascade nose assault. Some juicy pineapple bubblegum gets vertically wedged into the nasal passage as well. The first sip bastes the tongue with pineapple-mango caramels and fruitcake on a honey graham cracker crust. The Citra shines alongside pithy Cascade pine. Fresh heaps of onion and garlic powder linger delectably in the finish.
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