A look at a Turlock brewery’s IPA selection

Craft beer is a term used to describe American brews made in a less mass produced way than a Budweiser or Coors–but really, you could call any beer a craft.

California has some of the best breweries in the world. You don’t have to go far to find some amazing beer.

One of my favorite breweries resides in Turlock, California. Its name: Dust Bowl.

Although the they produce several different kinds of beer, what you’ll find in Fresno stores are mostly IPAs.

Beer enthusiasts, especially IPA enthusiasts, find it hard to narrow down their favorite IPA. At most, you’ll get an IPA enthusiast to list his top 10. Dust Bowl, assuming a he knows it, will probably make his list.

Here are three of Dust Bowl’s IPAs that you can find bottled and on draft around Fresno, rated on a five point scale:

Hops of Wrath 3.5

Dust Bowl’s most known IPA, Hops of Wrath delivers just what you’d expect. Hops.

Remember, hops are what give brews their sharply bitter flavor.

This beer is a must-have for any IPA lover. At 6.6 percent alcohol by volume, Hops of Wrath won’t knock you on your butt after having just one, but your senses will be shaken. The strength of the hops in this brew are high; with a name like Hops of Wrath it should be.

Strong in flavor, this beer will not disappoint anyone looking for a solid IPA.

Son of Wrath 4.5

My personal favorite Dust Bowl brew. Son of Wrath is the successor to Dust Bowl flagship Hops of Wrath. While its predecessor is a single IPA, this beer is a double IPA.

With double IPAs, you will almost always find a higher alcohol content. This brew is weighs in at 9.5 percent ABV, but can be dangerous for more reasons than just that alone.

One of the most appealing aspects of Son of Wrath is its incredible smoothness. When you take a drink of this beer, the sharp hop flavor is absent and instead is far more subtle. Since the high amount of hops usually makes an IPA less harder to drink, the fact that this beer is smooth means that it goes down much easier and much quicker.

A 9.5 percent ABV beer shouldn’t be as easy to drink as this is, so do your best to avoid drinking this too quickly or bad things might happen.

Therapist 4.0

Therapist doesn’t mess around. The name pretty much speaks for itself.

The beer’s slogan, “No appointment necessary,” makes a joke about solving your problems with beer: a joke I would never make. At a whopping 10.4 percent ABV, this beer means business.

At this high percentage, there is one reprieve to the fear of over-drinking: this beer is NOT easy to drink. It will give you a slap in the face and then say “you’re welcome.”

The hops in this beer are overwhelming. If you love IPAs, you’ll love this beer. If you don’t, then be prepared for Therapist because it’s going to destroy your mouth. You won’t taste anything but hops for quite a while.

This beer is delicious, but definitely not for casual drinking.

Dust Bowl has many other beers to choose from, some of which are harder to get in Fresno right now. Black Blizzard is a pretty amazing imperial stout, and Super Tramp is the best, and probably the only, strawberry wheat beer I’ve ever had. If you see these gems in a store, pick them up as well.

You’ll be happy to know that it’s almost impossible to find a beer from Dust Bowl that isn’t great. So try something new; you’ll be impressed.