Lupulin Threshold Shift has been a beer idea we’ve had floating about for what seems like an age. Surely you’ve been in a beery discussion with someone who has stated something along the lines of “that beer isn’t what it used to be”. One classic example of this from my own experience (apologies if anyone takes offence to name dropping another brewery) is Thornbridge Jaipur IPA, a beer that in my own beer-sphere was a revelation to many, myself included. In recent years we hear stuff like “they’ve changed the recipe”, “it hasn’t been the same since they moved to a new site”, “the recipe doesn’t work on their bigger kit”. Whilst there’s a chance any of these may be true, there’s a bigger factor at play- your palate. As you drink more and more heavily hopped beers, your taste buds acclimatise to bitterness, so that big flavoursome slap in the face you once experienced won’t have the same impact. Add to that you coming across rival beers with even bigger hop profiles, it’s forgivable to think your original benchmark of what hoppy is has changed, but chances are it’s you. This theory was coined “Lupulin Threshold Shift” by the founder of Russian River Brewery (Pliny anyone?) Vinnie Cilurzo.

I would add that it probably extends beyond hops. Our Bad Kitty recipe has taken a few leaps in vanilla usage since it’s debut in 2011, as more vanilla-led beers land on shelves or bars, possibly even compounded by breweries who are as close to making milkshakes as they are beers.

Anywho, I digress. Our tribute to this theory is a triple IPA weighing in at 11.5%, massively hopped at a rate in excess of 30 grams per litre, and giving a perceived bitterness of 130 IBU (international bitterness units). Given most folks can’t detect any change above 80 IBU, whilst the most sensitive palates probably can’t determine a change beyond 110 IBU, LTS is hop sauce. But highly drinkable hop sauce.