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As a person of good beer taste, I have moved to Germany and to my horror I discovered, nobody here considers Indian Pale Ale to be beer.

Having looked intensively for Indian Pale Ale for several years now, I only found it in one bar that has it occationally and one "Späti" (Liquor/Tobaco store).

Am I missing something? Do Germans have some alternative to Indian Pale Ale or are they a lost nation missing out on imho. one of the best beer types in the world?

They have things here like Bock, Doppelbock and other strange things I never heard of. Are any of these similar in taste to Indian Pale Ale?

firelynx
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Generally speaking, Indian Pale Ale is not a type of beer you would typically find in Germany, and, as you hinted at, many Germans do not even know IPA. Furthermore, at least to my knowledge, none of the different styles prevalent in Germany (basically, bock and doppelbock are just beers with higher alcohol content and gravity) is a real alternative to IPA.

BUT! over the last few years, there definitely was progress, and some small breweries startet producing IPA (see, for example, Schoppebraeu (Berlin)). In addition, there are some small marketers that have IPA's in their range of products (see, for example, Braufaktum with many points of sale in Germany and, especially, in Berlin).

Muschkopp
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It doesn't help you today, but Stone Brewing Company is opening a brewery in Berlin later this year or early next year. They make plenty of IPAs.

http://www.stonebrewing.com/news/140719/

Bryan Cain
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  • Unfortunately Stone Brewing charges almost three times as much for their beer as any German beer anywhere else in the area. I'd love to patronize them, but I don't feel like being extorted. If you're near the north side of Berlin, I'd recommend Two Fellas. Their beer is excellent and much more reasonably priced. – solidcell Oct 26 '18 at 10:17
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You may find a few microbreweries making IPAs there, but I have no idea how restrict are their distribution.

Off course, if you're a hophead, your best bet is to wait for Stone to kick-off their production and distribution there.

As an advice: give german styles a chance too. In general, they're much less extreme than american ones, and definitely not hop-forward, but they have their own beauty. They're delicate, balanced and diverse. If you really like beer, explore as much as you can. You're probably going to find something that pleases you. ;)

Edson Marquezani Filho
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I had the same impression in my first time in Germany, its a nation of good beers, but (maybe thanks to their old purity law), they are very closed on their own styles. I could say the same from Czech Republic.

Both nations make the best beers in the world in their main schools, but limited on other genres. And both mostly produce lagers.

I never tasted a German beer simmilar to an IPA, but at least thanks to EU you can always buy something from England or Belgium

gabrielhidasy
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