West Coast IPAs still abound in San Diego, if you know what to look for.
Now, some of you kids may be too young to remember, but there was a time when haze wasn’t the dominant characteristic of IPAs made in San Diego. See, this used to be a West Coast IPA town. Local breweries helped define the style and perfected it. And by perfected it, I mean created bitter, dry, and importantly clear ales. Clear enough to see the twinkle in your friend’s eye through two pint glasses as you clinked them together.
Then hazy IPAs swept into town, on their way to becoming craft brewing’s ‘it’ beer. We’re only five years removed from not being able to find an intentionally hazy IPA brewed in San Diego. But within a year of their arrival, the handful of local breweries that started making them were selling out of canned releases in a single day. Before long, a brewery effectively couldn’t survive without making something for legions of haze-craving fans.