Greene King has been brewing in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk since 1799 — long enough to have a legitimate claim on the English brewing tradition, and long enough to have watched the IPA style travel from its British origins to India, return to the US, transform into something considerably more hop-intensive, and come back to Britain again in a form that the original brewers would not have recognised. The Double Hop Monster IPA is Greene King’s response to that return: a Double IPA at 6.8% ABV with intense citrus and pine hop aromatics, firm bitterness, and a fuller malt body built to carry the hop load. If you are British and living in Tokyo and the standard lager shelf feels insufficient, this is the Greene King beer that operates in a different register entirely.
Suffolk’s double IPA, brewed since 1799
Greene King was founded in 1799 in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, and has operated continuously from that location across more than two centuries — making it one of the older functioning breweries in the UK. The Double Hop Monster IPA represents the brewery’s engagement with the higher-strength, hop-forward styles that have defined the contemporary British beer market alongside the traditional ales Greene King is historically associated with.
The Double IPA style sits above a standard IPA in both hop intensity and alcohol, and the Double Hop Monster delivers both. The pour is deep gold, and the hop aromatics are the first and dominant impression: citrus — orange peel, grapefruit — alongside pine, the two note types that characterise high-alpha American-influenced hops applied at double the rate of a standard IPA. The malt body is fuller than a single IPA to provide balance, preventing the bitterness from becoming sharp rather than satisfying. The firm bitterness carries through the finish, which is longer and more assertive than a standard session ale, and the 6.8% ABV provides enough warmth in the close to give the beer genuine substance. This is a beer that rewards attention rather than disappearing between sips.
How Double Hop Monster IPA Beer is drunk at home
Cheers, mate! (CHEERZ-MAIT) — the British toast, deployed at the pub and at the kitchen table without distinction. Bottoms up! appears when the round is moving quickly; Down the hatch! when someone at the table has ordered something stronger than expected. For a 6.8% Double IPA, the first Cheers, mate tends to be followed by a longer pause than usual.
In the UK, a Double IPA at this strength belongs to the Friday pub night’s more considered end — the beer ordered by the person at the table who has already had the session ales and wants something with more going on. It holds its own alongside a ploughman’s lunch: the mature cheddar’s sharpness and the pickle’s vinegary bite find a counterpoint in the hop bitterness that makes the pairing more interesting than either element alone. Fish and chips — the salt, the fat, the batter’s crispness — work alongside the citrus hop note in the same way that lemon over fried fish always works, the beer’s bitterness acting as the acidic cut without the sourness. The Sunday roast with its gravy and Yorkshire pudding is a heavier pairing, but the fuller malt body of the Double Hop Monster carries it more comfortably than a lighter IPA would.
Premier League football on a Saturday afternoon is standard-lager territory for most of the ninety minutes, but the Double Hop Monster is the beer someone reaches for when the match has produced something worth marking — a last-minute equaliser, a result that extended the afternoon.
How to drink it in Japan
The Double Hop Monster IPA suits Japan’s spring and autumn — April through June and September through November — when the temperature allows a hop-forward beer at 6.8% to sit comfortably rather than feel heavy in the heat or insufficient in the cold. It is also one of the more interesting British imports available through Omori Mart for Japanese drinkers who follow British brewing and want a Greene King beer that operates outside the standard ale tradition.
At FamilyMart, try it alongside spicy chicken wings from the hot counter — the heat of the seasoning and the crunch of the skin respond directly to the citrus and pine of the Double Hop Monster, the bitterness cutting through the fat and the spice amplifying the hop aromatics in the way that bold food and assertive hops have always worked together. For a considered pairing at home, serve it with yakitori negima — chicken and spring onion skewers, grilled shio — where the char and the green onion find a natural counterpart in the pine hop character, and the clean salt of the shio seasoning lets the citrus note come forward without competition. It is a pairing that translates the ploughman’s cheddar-and-hop logic into a Japanese kitchen without losing anything essential.
British Double IPAs are not a category that Tokyo’s import shops stock with any regularity. By the case from Omori Mart — 330ml × 24 bottles — the per-bottle cost is accessible for a beer at this hop intensity and ABV, and the case provides enough for a season of occasions that call for something more than a standard round.
Get Double Hop Monster IPA Beer delivered in Japan
Double Hop Monster IPA Beer is available from Omori Mart in a 330ml × 24 bottle case, delivered nationwide across Japan.
- Free shipping on orders over ¥15,000
- Pay at FamilyMart, 7-Eleven, or Lawson — or by bank transfer or card
- Nationwide delivery to any address in Japan
Rakuten and Amazon Japan do not carry this label. Omori Mart is where British residents in Japan find the Greene King beers that sit beyond the standard export shelf — including the one that takes the hop character seriously.
[Shop Double Hop Monster IPA Beer →]
https://omorimart.com/product/double-hop-monster-ipa-beer-330ml-x-24-bottles/
Cheers, mate in Bury St Edmunds, where Greene King has been brewing since 1799 and eventually decided that doubling the hops was a reasonable answer to the question of what comes next, and kanpai at a Tokyo table in October — deep gold, citrus and pine, firm to the finish.
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