XPA: Extra Drinkable, Extra Refined, Extra Enjoyable

Scotty Hargrave would be the first to inform you that he didn’t invent the XPA. However, it appears fairly clear that he reinvented it, and he gave it definition.

That occurred by means of Balter XPA, a beer that started as Hargrave’s fine-tuned homebrew then blew up right into a runaway success. It impressed many others and arguably elevated XPA to turn out to be Australia’s signature craft-beer fashion.

Hargrave joined Balter in 2015, when the well-funded, celebrity-backed model was nonetheless getting off the bottom. That identical 12 months, he picked up two Australian International Beer Awards medals—for lager and pale ale—for Byron Bay Brewery in New South Wales. But even whereas brewing at Byron Bay—and earlier than that, at Stone & Wood’s close by manufacturing brewery—he was pottering at house, brewing trial batches on weekends.

After a number of years of brewing Stone & Wood’s all-Galaxy, semihazy Pacific Ale—one other influential beer in Australia​—Hargrave wished to brew and drink one thing completely different.

“I was just dabbling and trying to make some different beers to what I was doing at work,” Hargrave says. “And I started to see the Citras and Mosaics and all these newer American hops make their way to Australia, but we weren’t really using a lot of them. Stone & Wood was just all about Galaxy, obviously, and at one point I was probably throwing more Galaxy into more tanks than anybody else on the planet. So, I wasn’t looking to brew with that so much.”

He knew he wished to brew with a few of the newer hops, however—particularly in Byron Bay’s heat, subtropical local weather—he additionally knew that he didn’t need to brew huge IPAs round 7 p.c ABV. So, he requested himself, “‘Can I make a beer that has all of this great new-school hop flavor but is not overwhelming, and have the bitterness balanced but still punchy, and allow the beer to clean up nicely and be refreshing, and, you know, sit in a manageable ABV for our climate?’

“That’s where XPA came into being for me.”

There already have been a number of XPAs in Australia when Balter’s launched in 2016. However, like earlier American “extra pale ales,” they have been coppery, caramelly, and sometimes sitting round 6 p.c ABV—extra “extra-ale” than “extra-pale.” Hargrave knew he wished the latter.

“That’s why I kept this one really lean and clean and dry and light in color,” he says. “Climate played a big part in that, having a beer that allowed this hop expression and experience but [didn’t] just bash you around and overwhelm you.” In the summer time, when it will get as much as 100°F (38°C) and 98 p.c humidity, “you can get walloped pretty easy if you’re drinking really big beers.”

Hargrave left Balter in 2025 after a decade there, however by then its XPA had popularized the fashion and gained a slew of awards. It additionally impressed a number of American brewers who’ve sought out Hargrave for recommendation. They embrace Firestone Walker brewmaster Matt Brynildson, they usually embrace Blake Masoner, cofounder of Craft Coast Beer & Tacos in San Diego’s North County. In the previous few years, each breweries have gained main medals for his or her XPAs.

Before we dive into the small print, listed here are the essential pillars of XPA, as envisioned by Hargrave:

• The ABV is low- to mid-range, round 4.5 to five p.c.
• It ought to have an (extra-)pale grist and dry end, with the bottom malts and mash regime driving excessive attenuation.
• Bitterness needs to be balanced—maybe 30 to 35 IBUs on paper—with hot-side additions stretching from first wort by means of whirlpool.
• There needs to be loads of hop aroma and taste—usually floral and fruity.
• The fermentation profile is clear, usually through an American ale yeast (however Hargrave says a beer pressure might work as properly).
• Mouthfeel is mushy regardless of the crisp, dry end.

The XPA is a comparatively easy beer, Hargrave says, nevertheless it’s additionally detail-oriented—he describes it as a contemporary pale ale brewed with German precision. He at all times step-mashes his XPA, and the kettle additions matter. So does water—usually a balanced chloride-sulfate ratio, primarily splitting the distinction between hazy and West Coast kinds.

All these particulars contribute to a sensory expertise that’s as pleasing as it’s alluring.

“What I get is that initial generous, hoppy, rounded mouthfeel that takes you on a bit of a journey across the palate,” he says, “but it dries out and almost has a lager finish to it. And that was one of the things really early on that people would be saying to me: ‘It’s like this tropical session IPA that finishes like a lager.’”

Malt, Extra-Pale

Craft Coast’s Masoner was brewing at Pizza Port’s Bressi Ranch manufacturing facility in Carlsbad, California, when he met Hargrave and have become infatuated with Balter XPA.

“When I had that beer for the first time,” Masoner says, “it was like, ‘Okay, I need to reverse-engineer this thing in my own brain. But I know the guy that makes it, so I could ask him how to do it.’”

Masoner calls Hargrave each a sensei and a pal, and he was a frequent supply of suggestions as Masoner was growing Craft Coast XPA. It took about 10 iterations to land on a model that each he and Hargrave agreed was worthy of the fashion—and it went on to win bronze on the 2024 World Beer Cup, and silver the subsequent 12 months.

It’s now a core beer for Craft Coast. They not too long ago canned it for the primary time, “just because that’s what we all love and believe in,” Masoner says. It’s the beer the group likes to drink, “and now they’ve been flying.”

So, when Hargrave and Masoner be part of me for a transoceanic video name to speak XPA, I’m ready for the dialog to go in any variety of instructions. What I don’t anticipate—as we choose aside the internal workings of such a lean, pale, hop-forward beer—is for them to spend a lot time speaking about malt.

In Masoner’s view, in the event you’re going to be taught from the archetype of a mode, you need to begin from the supplies that those that brewed it used. Balter XPA is one such archetype, and it’s made with Australian malt.

“That is the foundation of the beer,” Masoner says. “Maybe the water is the foundation of all life, but when it comes to beer, the malt is the foundation that we lean on. So, I sourced some malt that’s grown in Australia, and that’s what our XPA is built on.”

It’s not merely a symbolic gesture. Hargrave and Masoner make the case that a few of the paler Australian base malts are inclined to have extra diastatic energy than their North American counterparts. That larger enzymatic exercise results in larger attenuation—and to the drier end they need in an XPA.

Masoner likes the outcomes a lot that Craft Coast is now utilizing the Aussie base malts for its West Coast IPAs and related ale kinds. “We tried a million different base malts, and then once I got hold of the XPA malt, it kind of turned into one of those things: ‘All right, let’s move some of those West Coast IPAs to that.’ And now, consistently across the board, we’re just drier, we’re more drinkable.”

While at Balter, Hargrave says, they might usually have malts with very excessive DP scores on the specs. “They’re really ‘hot,’ we would call them,” he says. “So, they convert really quick. And they’ve got so much diastatic power, they could convert a cardboard box. … I developed that recipe to the point where I’d have to temper it with a bit of Munich malt, or a bit of Carapils, to stop it being so dry and thin that it became harsh or, you know, a bit bony.” Another addition that he’d use to melt issues up: Australian wheat malt.

Besides the extremely fermentable malt, Hargrave says he’s at all times used a multistep mash. He likes to mash in at 126°F (52°C) as a result of he’s discovered it helps head retention. From there, he’d usually do steps at 151–154°F (66–68°C), one other at 162–163°F (72–73°C), after which as much as 171°F (77°C) for mash out. “And for whatever reason, it just worked ridiculously well,” Hargrave says of that regime. He believes it additionally helped the fermentation profile in addition to the steadiness of Balter XPA’s mild haze. “I think there were good reasons to do it.”

Craft Coast’s two brewhouses, in the meantime, are designed for single infusion, and Masoner says that’s labored simply superb for his or her XPA. Besides the Aussie pilsner malt, Masoner says they embrace some wheat malt to assist with head retention.

Whatever the grist, the thought is to have a low-color base and a dry end—and there’s no want so as to add sugar. Hargrave, a frequent customer to California through the years, says he usually meets brewers who add sucrose to drive attenuation in West Coast IPAs. “Why do you need to do that to make it that dry?” he asks. “With the Australian malt, you don’t because it’s so dry you don’t necessarily have to do that.”

Bitterness: Firm however Balanced

Balter XPA sits round 30 to 32 IBUs. The fashion can deal with extra, nevertheless it ought to by no means be harsh.

That bitterness additionally wants construction {that a} huge whirlpool cost can’t present—kettle hops are essential to the fashion. Hargrave says he’s additionally an enormous believer in first-wort hops.

“What I’ve always done is spread it right across—from a hot-side point of view—the entire kettle time,” he says. He’d usually add hops at first wort; at 60, 15, and 10 minutes left within the boil; after which at whirlpool. “That’s how you get that full, saturated hop flavor without any hollowed-out bits, without any dips, without any big slaps in the face. … For me, when you can intertwine the flavor with the bittering characteristic is when beer really is at its best.”

Masoner says his personal tinkering has led to the identical conclusion: Kettle hops are essential for beer taste, to not point out shelf life. He tried hopping solely at first wort and with an enormous whirlpool cost. “And I realized that my beers after a month, if they were still on tap, tasted like absolutely nothing because they had no backbone left.”

Masoner took that spread-out strategy to kettle hops and located that it additionally improved different beers. “XPA really redefined the way that I approached West Coast IPA,” he says. “It needs a diversity, a bitterness-to-flavor-to-aroma balance. … It took a lot of refining to get there.”

Those hot-side hops set up a basis, Masoner says, “so that by the time you go to dry hop, you just pull a sample off the tank and you’re like, ‘Okay, what more does it need?’ You’re not guessing anymore. You built a foundation. … ‘I’ve got this really nice beer. It’s perfectly in my IBU range. It’s already got good flavor, good aroma. All I have to do is add some bouquet arrangement to complete the whole thing.’”

The Bouquet Arrangement: Punchy… however Also Balanced

There’s at all times room for interpretation, however XPA as envisioned by Hargrave contains a mixture of floral and tropical-fruit aroma pushed by trendy hops. Where these hops have been grown and picked is much less essential.

There is not any rule that XPA wants hops from Down Under. There is not any rule that it may possibly’t have American hops. Yet it usually has each.

At Firestone Walker, Brynildson says he sees thiol-driven tropical taste—the type you usually get from Australian and New Zealand aroma hops—as essential to the fashion. Firestone XPA appeared in 2023 and instantly gained a bronze medal on the Great American Beer Festival. It’s now a seasonal providing unique to blended packs.

Since the beer launched “and we have had some time with it,” Brynildson says, “I feel even more strongly that what should in large part define this style is Southern Hemisphere hop character.” As a pal of Hargrave’s, Brynildson is aware of the fashion started partly as a strategy to get away from Australian Galaxy. “But from my vantage point, this beer style came from Down Under and should have an element of New World [or] Southern Hemisphere hops, preferably thiol-rich cultivars—whether they are Australian, New Zealand, or U.S. It should give that thiol-punch impression.”

Brynildson mentions the not too long ago named Thora—with its sweeter notes of ardour fruit, guava, and stone fruit, plus a dank edge—for instance of a U.S. hop that might have the identical impression. XPA, he says, “often works best with a blend of Pacific Northwest and Southern Hemisphere hops, but that thiol kick makes it for me,” he says.

Balter XPA, notably, is hopped nearly totally with Pacific Northwest varieties: Amarillo, Centennial, Citra, and Mosaic. (Hargrave says there’s one other “X factor”: a German hop for bittering.) Aromatically, what he’s aiming for is a profile that’s floral in addition to tropical—and there are other ways to get there. “There are hops from all over the world that can suit it,” he says.

An XPA may very well be the place to meld a few of the “more refined” tropical-fruit flavors of Pacific Northwest hops with the “rawer,” “wilder,” Southern Hemisphere varieties, he says. “And that’s maybe where the new frontier is.”

Breweries may have their very own most well-liked strategies on the chilly aspect, however Hargrave says he at all times dry hopped XPA twice—the primary time round Day 5, as soon as the gravity had dropped under 3°P (1.012), and the second time no less than 48 hours later. The Balter group would then wait no less than 72 hours earlier than crashing. Hargrave began utilizing that methodology as a strategy to mitigate hop creep—even earlier than he knew what it was. It labored “because I was leaving enough time in between the dry hops, and then between the second dry hop and the chill-back, for it to finish.”

At Craft Coast, in the meantime, Masoner has discovered that one late dry-hop cost works finest on their system—at or close to terminal gravity, then giving it sufficient time to clear diacetyl. “Then you just dump all of that together and start cold conditioning.”

Masoner initially was dry hopping twice, per Hargrave’s program. But he says transferring to 1 dry-hop load might have been a very powerful “X factor” in getting his XPA to the place he wished it. “We didn’t lose aroma, we didn’t sacrifice flavor or bitterness, and now we’ve given ourselves enough time for that beer to clear out and mature before we need to transfer it to the brite,” he says. “That was where XPA really turned the corner at Craft Coast: hitting an early enough dry hop so that the beer can condition longer on the back end.”

The floral high quality is essential to Hargrave. “I want it to smell perfumy,” he says. “I want it to smell like my wife, in a way, like she’s all dressed up and taking me out to dinner. … It’s that constant evolution in the glass that also makes it so interesting to people that aren’t brewers or beer nerds or really especially knowledgeable. I think a big part of [its] success here in Australia was that people loved drinking this beer, but they didn’t even really know why. But subconsciously, it was pushing all these sensory buttons in their heads.”

It’s additionally attainable to go too far with a few of the newer, trendy varieties that characteristic “sweeter,” candy-like aromatics usually thought to be crowd-pleasers.

“I’ve tried a few that have tasted very much like raspberry Jell-O,” Hargrave says. “And when those beers really don’t work is where you’ve got a really intensely candied sweet character with a really prickly, ugly bitterness. You get this really horrible clash in the beers.” That’s a reminder, he says, that extra isn’t at all times extra. And stability is “absolutely central to everything” in an XPA. “That’s the name of the game, right there.”

Yet that sort of stability doesn’t imply it must be restrained when it comes to complexity.

“I’d crack a can of XPA off the line, … and the first thing I’d want to smell is this beautiful floral character, and then passion fruit, and then mango,” Hargrave says. “And then, as you get down to the last half of the beer, this sort of citrusy lime character that I get from a lot of our Mosaic would take over. … It’d be a real journey. It wouldn’t be just citrus, or it wouldn’t be just mango, or it wouldn’t be just strawberry. It’s about that balance. And for me, XPA at its best is that journey.”

XPA as an Education

“It’s going to have a soft aromatic, a soft mouthfeel—that tropical character comes out really quickly,” Hargrave says, in describing a really perfect XPA. “It’s going to have a great hoppy mid-palate. … It’s going to have a very even, consistent hop flavor and aroma right across the palate, but it’s going to finish dry and clean and snappy and just leave you wanting another mouthful. And it’s going to leave you with a really nice hop experience without fatiguing your palate at all—which is, I think, quite a balancing act. It’s a beer that has that initial lush, delicious hop character, that manages to [stay] consistent across the palate—there are no dips or hollows in it, and it cleans up nice.”

Achieving that best could also be simpler stated than carried out—nevertheless it’s a quest from which any brewer can be taught. “I’ve seen lots of people send me what they think XPA is all about and how you do it,” Hargrave says. On one hand, “it’s a lot simpler than you think it is. But in another direction, it’s also more complicated than you think it is.”

At Craft Coast—from the Australian base malts to repitching yeast, from kettle hops to dry hops—the XPA is a beer that’s modified how the brewery makes its different beers. XPA is a beer, Masoner says, “that we can really lean on, and just look at for water-to-grist ratios, pounds-per-barrel of hops, hot-side, cold-side, attenuation—it all has trickled upwards from a small beer into West Coast IPA.”

Chasing a beer that you just love could be a nice studying expertise for any brewer or brewery. Its begins with the uncooked supplies, after which it goes into honing the method and approach.

“That’s where you really start to refine,” Masoner says. “I’m not attempting to repeat. I’m simply attempting to shut my eyes and envision a beer that I really like and drink. … That’s what I really like about this enterprise and this trade. You be taught, you analysis, you develop, you discuss to the skilled.

“And then you create.”