Knee Deep Hoptologist DIPA
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Tasting Notes
The aroma leads with a dense wave of resinous pine and tropical fruit — think mango, grapefruit pith, and a hint of dank cannabis. On the palate, aggressive hop bitterness is balanced by a surprisingly firm, slightly sweet malt backbone that keeps it from tipping into astringency. The body is full and sticky, as you'd expect at this strength. The finish lingers long with resiny bitterness and a faint warmth from the alcohol.
About the Brewery
Knee Deep Brewing is based in Auburn, California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills, and has built its reputation almost entirely around hop-forward beers. They're best known for their Hoptologist line and a rotating cast of IPAs and DIPAs that have earned consistent recognition in West Coast hop circles. Their brewing identity leans hard into resinous, high-gravity hop showcases rather than a broad mixed portfolio.
Food Pairings
Spicy Thai curry finds a useful foil in the beer's malt sweetness, which tempers the heat without erasing it. A charred burger with sharp aged cheddar echoes the resinous bitterness and stands up to the body. Fried chicken works well because the fat and salt cut through the hop intensity and reset the palate. Strong blue cheese — counterintuitively — matches the beer's assertiveness and lets the fruit notes in the hops come forward.
Style Guide
American Double or Imperial IPA pushes the base IPA format to an extreme, typically running between 7.5% and 10% ABV with hop additions scaled up accordingly in both quantity and variety. The style originated in the early American craft movement of the 1990s and 2000s, with West Coast breweries driving the format toward resinous, piney, and citrus-dominant hop profiles. Unlike a standard American IPA, the malt bill has to be meaningfully beefed up just to keep the beer from collapsing under its own bitterness, which gives DIPAs a fuller, sometimes slightly sweet body that single IPAs don't carry.