Traditionally, IPAs get two hop additions during the brew process – one at the beginning of the boil for flavor and one at the end for aroma. But, here at Dogfish Head, we like to take a more ... continual approach. 

What is continual hopping? 

It all started with a bowl of soup and a vibrating football game. Back in the mid-90s, we started messing around with extreme and super hoppy IPAs. We would put foolhardy quantities of hops in these IPAs, and while people loved the pungent hoppiness of these beers, they had a really pronounced bitterness that seemed out of balance. Not quite what we were after. We wanted a really hoppy beer that wasn’t crushingly bitter. 

One day while brewing at our original brewpub in downtown Rehoboth Beach, our founder & brewer Sam Calagione caught a few minutes of a cooking segment on the TV above the bar. The chef was describing a method of adding small pinches of fresh-cracked pepper to soup in equal increments the entire time the soup boiled. The idea was simple – the method would bring more complexity and evenness to the spice of the dish than adding the whole volume of pepper at the same time. Insert said ‘aha’ moment … continual hopping was born! 

Sam tracked down an old school vibrating football game and duct tapped a bucket to the top of it to help feed the beer a continual stream of hops. Sure enough, the vibrations caused the hop pellets to drop out of the bucket, down the game and into the boiling beer. A few weeks later, the beer went on tap and this time … it was a hit. The continual hopping made it outrageously hoppy without being crushingly bitter. 

While that original football game only lasted a few brews (the steam killed the electronics), much more sophisticated contraptions have taken over our continual hopping process, but the theory and execution are essentially unchanged. 

And thus, our Minute Series came to fruition.  

The first beer created with our method of continual hopping was 90 Minute Imperial IPA. Continually hopped for a full, you guessed it, 90 minutes, it’s abundantly hoppy and compelling complex. Inspired by the continual hopping process invented with 90 Minute, soon came 60 Minute which builds on the original process and flavor. From there, siblings 75 Minute and 120 Minute have come into the picture, and most recently … our new 30 Minute Light IPA! Each is continually hopped for its respective number of minutes and each perfectly balanced in its own right. 

Did you say LIGHT IPA?? 

We sure did! 30 Minute Light IPA is an IPA first and foremost that’s light only in calories. This brew is the new and improved recipe for our beloved Slightly Mighty. It’s still low in calories and carbs, but 30 Minute is now continually hopped for 30 minutes to create a more aromatic, less bitter and easy-drinking light IPA. It’s hoppy, crisp, and crushable and is hitting shelves as we speak ... er, type! Find it near you with our Fish Finder.  

95 calories, 3.6g carbs, 1g protein and 0g fat per 12oz serving 

So, let us know ... how many minutes of continual hopping do you prefer??