My latest article for The Bulletin tackles West Coast IPA as seen through the lens of Three Creeks Brewing and its latest canned beer—Dankness IPA. The longer version of the name, as it appears on draft at the Three Creeks pub, is Dankness on the Edge of Town IPA, riffing on the Bruce Springsteen album.

“(Pat) ‘Patio’ Shea is the mastermind behind this,” said head brewer Jeff Cornett via email. “Our three brewers, Ryan (McVay), Patio and I, spent last year developing new West Coast IPAs at the brewpub in the hopes that at least one or two of them would make it into our package lineup in 2023.”

“Dankness had the biggest and baddest bite of them all and our ‘hop-lover’ customers crushed it.”

I’ve referred to West Coast IPA before, but never delved into what makes an India pale ale “West Coast.” In fact, before the advent of hazy IPA in the past decade or so, all American IPAs were West Coast IPAs. When hazy IPAs hit the scene, they were first referred to as New England-style, based on their region of origin.

It’s the first year-round beer going into 16-ounce cans from the brewery, out this month. You can read more of my thoughts on West Coast IPA and the beer itself in the article, plug you can read more about Dankness from the brewery here.

And for a bit more, photo-wise, that just my crowler shot above, the brewery provided me with this product shot: