The American palate for India pale ales is changing.
IPAs were invented by British brewers who discovered that if extra hops were added to beers destined for the India colony, those beers would survive the journey better; we later learned that hops are a natural preservative and antimicrobial herb. After a while, the British soldiers began to prefer these bitter, floral, pale ales and so, voila – a new style was born.
As the craft beer revolution began in the early 1980s, IPAs were an integral part of that movement. Liberty Ale from Anchor (San Francisco) is widely credited as being the first American-made craft IPA. And being Americans, we tend to always go a bit overboard, especially with our beloved hops.