Beer Styles

What is a West Coast IPA? It's a clear, golden-to-copper-colored, dry, heavily hopped ale with aromas of grapefruit, pine resin, and citrus. The name says it all: the style comes from the American Pacific coast, but has long since become its own thing in British Columbia. The BJCP guidelines list it as American IPA.

How does it differ from a pale ale? American Pale Ale is the smaller sibling. It has less original gravity, less alcohol, and less bitterness, but stays lighter and sits on many taps as a go-to beer. The IPA takes everything further: more hops, more power, a longer finish.

A West Coast IPA is easy to tell apart from a hazy IPA. The hazy is cloudy, juicy, and lightly bitter, while the West Coast is crystal clear and bold. Both share the hops, but they aim for different things: one for fruit juice character, the other for sharpness. According to BJCP, the hazy style comes in at 6 to 9 percent alcohol, often higher than the classic West Coast.

Beyond these two, the province's breweries naturally offer everything else, from lagers to sour beers. Walking into a tasting room, you'll usually find a pale ale and an IPA first, along with rotating seasonal brews, sometimes made with fruit from the Okanagan Valley. On Granville Island and in Kelowna, the IPA is almost always part of the core lineup, with alcohol content usually between 5.5 and 7.5 percent, and pale ale between 4.5 and 6.2 percent.