An IPA, or India Pale Ale, is a pale ale brewed with a heavier hop charge than other pale ales. That is the whole definition. Everything else, from the alcohol range to the haze to the name on the can, is a matter of style guidelines rather than law, and the guidelines have grown into a family tree: English, American, West Coast, hazy, double, session, black and more. IPA is also the biggest craft beer style in the country by a wide margin; it took 49.41 percent of craft beer dollars in US retail stores in 2024. Here is what an IPA is, what the numbers on the label mean, every recognized sub-style with its ranges, how one is brewed, how many standard drinks are in a can, and where the style actually came from (not where the legend says).
Last verified September 13, 2026. Style ranges are from the Brewers Association 2026 Beer Style Guidelines and the BJCP 2021 Style Guidelines; the federal definition from 27 CFR part 7; standard drinks from NIAAA; calories from the brewers’ own published figures; market data from Circana via Brewbound; history from Martyn Cornell, the BJCP and the sources listed at the end.
| IPA | Fact |
|---|---|
| Stands for | India Pale Ale |
| Style family | Pale ale, hop-forward |
| American IPA range (Brewers Association 2026) | 6.3% to 7.5% ABV, 50 to 70 IBU |
| American IPA range (BJCP 2021) | 5.5% to 7.5% ABV, 40 to 70 IBU |
| Standard drinks in a 12 oz can at 7% ABV | 1.4 |
| Federal class | Malt beverage (27 CFR 7.1); “IPA” itself is not a legally defined term |
| Share of US craft beer sales, 2024 | 49.41% of off-premise dollars (Circana) |
| Name first used | Around 1830, for pale ale brewed for the India trade |
What the numbers on the label mean
ABV is alcohol by volume. Under 27 CFR 7.65, stating it on a beer label is optional under federal rules unless your state requires it, and when it is stated it must be a percentage with a tolerance of 0.3 points. Most IPAs print it. IBU is International Bitterness Units: one IBU is one milligram per liter of iso-alpha acids, the bittering compounds extracted from hops during the boil. It is measured in a lab, not by tasting, and it does not track perceived bitterness in a beer with a lot of malt or a lot of late hops. The Brewers Association’s own guidelines say the IBU range for hazy IPAs “may differ significantly from perceived bitterness.” OG and FG, original and final gravity, are the density of the wort before and after fermentation; the gap between them is where the alcohol comes from. SRM is a color scale, from about 2 (very pale) to 40 (black).
Every IPA sub-style, with the ranges
Two organizations publish style guidelines that brewers and competitions use. The Brewers Association (BA) guidelines cover commercial beer and are updated each year; the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) guidelines are used for homebrew and many commercial competitions and were last revised in 2021. Neither is law. They are the closest thing the industry has to a definition, and they disagree a little at the edges.
| Brewers Association 2026 style | ABV | IBU | Color (SRM) | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| British-Style India Pale Ale | 4.5% to 7.1% | 35 to 63 | 6 to 14 | The BA’s name for the English style |
| American-Style India Pale Ale | 6.3% to 7.5% | 50 to 70 | 4 to 12 | The reference IPA |
| West Coast-Style India Pale Ale | 6.3% to 7.5% | 50 to 75 | 2 to 6 | Paler, with a slightly higher IBU ceiling than the American style |
| Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ale | 6.3% to 7.5% | 20 to 50 | 3 to 7 | IBU may differ significantly from perceived bitterness |
| American-Style Imperial or Double India Pale Ale | 7.6% to 10.6% | 65 to 100 | 2 to 7 | |
| Juicy or Hazy Imperial or Double India Pale Ale | 7.6% to 10.6% | 30 to 80 | 2 to 7 | |
| Session India Pale Ale | 0.5% to 5.0% | 20 to 55 | 3 to 12 | Anything over 5.0% is not a session IPA by the BA definition |
| American-Style Black Ale | 6.3% to 7.6% | 40 to 70 | 35 and up | The BA’s category for “black IPA” |
| BJCP 2021 style | ABV | IBU | Color (SRM) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12C English IPA | 5.0% to 7.5% | 40 to 60 | 6 to 14 |
| 21A American IPA | 5.5% to 7.5% | 40 to 70 | 6 to 14 |
| 21C Hazy IPA | 6.0% to 9.0% | 25 to 60 | 3 to 7 |
| 22A Double IPA | 7.5% to 10.0% | 60 to 100 | 6 to 14 |
| 21B Specialty IPA: Belgian IPA | 6.2% to 9.5% | 50 to 100 | 5 to 8 |
| 21B Specialty IPA: Black IPA | 5.5% to 9.0% | 50 to 90 | 25 to 40 |
| 21B Specialty IPA: Red IPA | 5.5% to 7.5% | 40 to 70 | 11 to 17 |
| 21B Specialty IPA: Brown IPA | 5.5% to 7.5% | 40 to 70 | 18 to 35 |
| 21B Specialty IPA: Rye IPA | 5.5% to 8.0% | 50 to 75 | 6 to 14 |
| 21B Specialty IPA: White IPA | 5.5% to 7.0% | 40 to 70 | 5 to 6 |
| 21B Specialty IPA: Brut IPA | 6.0% to 7.5% | 20 to 30 | 2 to 4 |
A few names you will see on shelves that are not styles in either book: “New England IPA” is the hazy or juicy IPA above, named for the region where it developed. “East Coast IPA” is a loose term for American IPAs with more malt than a West Coast version. “Milkshake IPA” is a hazy IPA with lactose (milk sugar) and usually fruit or vanilla added; “oat IPA” is a hazy IPA with a large share of oats in the grain bill. “Fruited IPA” is any IPA with fruit added. Those are descriptions, not categories, and their numbers fall inside the hazy or American ranges.
How an IPA is brewed
An IPA is brewed like any other ale. Malted barley (plus oats or wheat in a hazy IPA) is milled and mashed in hot water to convert its starch to sugar; the sweet wort is drained off and boiled; hops go into the boil; the wort is cooled and fermented with ale yeast; the beer is conditioned and packaged. What makes it an IPA is how and when the hops go in.
Hops added early in the boil have their alpha acids isomerized by the heat, which is what produces measurable bitterness (IBU). Hops added in the last minutes of the boil, or in the whirlpool after the boil, contribute more aroma and less bitterness. Dry hopping, defined by the Oxford Companion to Beer as “the addition of hops to beer in the fermenting, conditioning, or serving vessel,” adds hops after the boil entirely, so they contribute aroma with almost no added IBU. A West Coast IPA leans on the early and late boil additions; a hazy IPA moves most of the hop charge to the whirlpool and dry hop, which is why it can carry a low IBU number and still be intensely hop-driven. Hazy IPAs are also typically left unfiltered, which is where the cloudiness comes from.
Standard drinks in a can of IPA
NIAAA’s reference beer is 12 fl oz at 5 percent ABV, which is one standard drink (0.6 fl oz of pure alcohol). IPAs run higher, so the same can is more than one drink. The formula is (12 x ABV) / 0.6.
| ABV | Pure alcohol in 12 fl oz | Standard drinks per 12 oz can | Standard drinks per 16 oz can |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5% (reference beer) | 0.60 oz | 1.0 | 1.3 |
| 6% | 0.72 oz | 1.2 | 1.6 |
| 7% | 0.84 oz | 1.4 | 1.9 |
| 8% | 0.96 oz | 1.6 | 2.1 |
| 9% | 1.08 oz | 1.8 | 2.4 |
| 10% | 1.20 oz | 2.0 | 2.7 |
A six-pack of 7 percent IPA is 8.4 standard drinks; a four-pack of 16 oz cans at 8 percent is 8.5. The number on the can matters more than the number of cans.
Calories in an IPA
Beer calories come from both the alcohol and the residual carbohydrate, so they rise with ABV and with how much malt sugar is left after fermentation. USDA does not publish IPA-specific figures, so these are the brewers’ own numbers, per 12 fl oz, as printed on their sites at verification.
| Beer | ABV | IBU | Calories | Carbohydrates | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bell’s Two Hearted IPA | 7.0% | Not stated | 212 | 16.7 g | bellsbeer.com |
| Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA | 7.2% | 65 | 237 | 18.6 g | sierranevada.com |
| Lagunitas IPA | 6.2% | 51 | About 190 (not confirmed by the brewer) | About 14 g (not confirmed) | ABV and IBU from lagunitas.com; nutrition from a user-entered database entry |
Session IPAs at 4 to 5 percent carry fewer calories than the beers above, since both the alcohol and the residual malt sugar are lower. The brewer’s site or can is the place to check for a specific beer.
Where IPA actually came from
The story everyone tells is that a London brewer named George Hodgson invented a strong, heavily hopped beer in the late 1700s so it would survive the voyage to British India, where ordinary beer spoiled. Beer historian Martyn Cornell has spent years taking that story apart, and the BJCP guidelines now say plainly that Hodgson “did not create the style.” Here is what the records support.
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1700s | Beer of many kinds, including porter, is shipped from Britain to India and survives the trip. Joseph Banks’ journal from 1769 records porter still “excellently good” after a year at sea. No special recipe was needed. |
| By 1793 | Hodgson’s Bow Brewery, close to the East India Company docks in east London, is exporting pale ale to India. His advantage was location, generous credit terms, and a well-hopped October stock ale that happened to travel well. |
| 1822 to 1823 | After a falling-out with Hodgson, the East India Company encourages Burton brewer Samuel Allsopp to brew a competing pale ale for India. Bass follows. Burton’s sulfate-rich water suits the style and Burton becomes its home. |
| Around 1830 | The name “India Pale Ale” (and “East India Pale Ale”) comes into use; Cornell’s earliest firm citations fall between 1829 and 1835. |
| 1855 | A.A. Dunlop of Albany, New York advertises an American-brewed IPA, the earliest US example Cornell has found. |
| 1878 or 1890 | P. Ballantine and Sons of Newark, New Jersey begins brewing Ballantine India Pale Ale (the two dates come from Pabst and the Oxford Companion to Beer respectively). It stays in production into the 1990s and is relaunched by Pabst in 2014. |
| April 18, 1975 | Anchor Brewing brews Liberty Ale with whole Cascade hops. The BJCP calls it the first modern American craft adaptation of the English style; it was never labeled an IPA, and the recipe was reworked for its 1983 relaunch. |
| 1981 | Sierra Nevada first brews Celebration, which the brewery’s Tom Nielsen has called “one of the first three or four IPAs ever made” in the US, though it was not marketed as one for years. |
| 1983 | Bert Grant’s Yakima Brewing releases Grant’s India Pale Ale, generally credited as the first US craft-era beer to carry the name on the label. |
| 2024 | IPA takes 49.41 percent of craft beer dollar sales in US off-premise retail, $2.277 billion (Circana, via Brewbound). |
Two more corrections. IPAs were not unusually strong for their time; an 1843 description gives them “double the usual quantity of hops” and a drier fermentation, but a strength comparable to other pale ales. And the hops were not added as a preservative in any deliberate sense; hop-heavy stock ales were already a London product, and one of them happened to be what Hodgson had to sell.
What the law says
Federal rules do not define IPA. Beer is regulated by TTB as a “malt beverage,” which 27 CFR 7.1 defines as a beverage made by fermenting malted barley with hops, with or without other cereals and adjuncts. Style names are descriptions the brewer chooses. The only label rules that touch an IPA specifically are the general ones: alcohol content, if stated, must be a percentage of alcohol by volume within 0.3 points of the actual figure (27 CFR 7.65), and terms like “low alcohol” (under 2.5 percent), “non-alcoholic” (under 0.5 percent) and “alcohol free” (0.0 percent) have fixed meanings.
Frequently asked questions
What does IPA stand for? India Pale Ale, after the pale ales shipped from Britain to India in the early 1800s.
What is the difference between an IPA and a pale ale? Hops, mostly. Both are pale ales; an IPA carries a heavier hop charge and, by the Brewers Association ranges, a higher IBU and a slightly higher ABV. The dividing line is a style convention, not a rule.
How strong is an IPA? Most fall between 5.5 and 7.5 percent ABV. Double or imperial IPAs run 7.5 to 10.6 percent; session IPAs stop at 5 percent.
What is a hazy IPA? An IPA brewed with oats or wheat, most of its hops added after the boil, and left unfiltered, so it is cloudy and reads as less bitter. The Brewers Association range is 6.3 to 7.5 percent ABV and 20 to 50 IBU; New England IPA is the same thing.
What is IBU? International Bitterness Units, a lab measure of iso-alpha acids in milligrams per liter. American IPAs run 40 to 70; hazy IPAs 20 to 50; double IPAs up to 100.
Is an IPA one drink? A 12 oz can at 7 percent is 1.4 standard drinks; a 16 oz can at 8 percent is 2.1.
Sources
- Brewers Association, 2026 Beer Style Guidelines (updated December 31, 2025), checked September 13, 2026
- BJCP 2021 Style Guidelines, Category 21 IPA, with 22A Double IPA and 12C English IPA, checked September 13, 2026
- 27 CFR 7.1, Definitions, malt beverage (eCFR) and 27 CFR 7.65, Alcohol content, checked September 13, 2026
- Oxford Companion to Beer, International Bitterness Units, dry hopping and Ballantine IPA, checked September 13, 2026
- Martyn Cornell, Myth 4: George Hodgson invented IPA to survive the long trip to India and IPA: the executive summary (2010), checked September 13, 2026
- Beervana, Anchor Liberty Ale dates to 1983? (2020) and Bert Grant and the birth of American IPA (2020), checked September 13, 2026
- All About Beer, A fresh Celebration: the origins of Celebration Ale, checked September 13, 2026
- Pabst, Ballantine India Pale Ale relaunch release (August 14, 2014), checked September 13, 2026
- Brewbound, IPA continues to dominate craft styles, sales top $2.27 billion in 2024 (January 22, 2025, Circana data), checked September 13, 2026
- NIAAA Rethinking Drinking, What is a standard drink, checked September 13, 2026
- Brewer nutrition pages: Bell’s Two Hearted IPA; Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA; Lagunitas IPA, checked September 13, 2026
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