New England IPA

Admittedly I'm a homer -- but currently 8 of the first 150 of BAs top 250 beers are Trill ales...so there is clearly a level of popularity that would suggest they aren't overrated.

 

Severely? Not really, but I wouldn't put the few beers I've had from them (Melcher St, DDH Congress St, GDH FPPA) atop my IPA/APA/DIPA rankings. They suffer from the same issue I see in certain batches of Westbrook One Claw (a very similar beer) - the aroma and hazy appearance is there, but the flavors are muted no matter how much I allow the beer to warm before serving. Yes, it's juicy, but not terribly flavorful compared to some of my other favorites.
I think a big part of their beer's popularity is that it's essentially guaranteed to be fresh and there's no time for hops to drop off.

 

Setting aside Trillium for a quick minute (I've had Congress, which I thought good but not great, and FPPA, which I thought fantastic), I'm glad someone else made the One Claw (and even WB IPA) reference -- I remember getting my first cans of those and thinking, "Man, this is SO like the New England/Vermont style!" I happen to love One Claw (and their IPA), but mostly I'm just surprised that they're not more often used as a comparison for that take on the style.

 

I'm honestly quite indifferent on the subject of creating sub styles of IPAs in America. But, I could see it happening officially in the near future.

How much difference is their between styles such as English Pale Ale, English Bitter, English Pale Mild, Extra Special Bitter, or even English Brown Ale and English Mild. Aside from some strength differences, which likely have a similar range to American IPAs (which I've seen listed on here from session IPA strength all the way up to imperial strength at 8%).

Or what about styles like Kristalweizen and Hefeweizen? Two similar styles where the main difference is one is filtered and the other isn't.

What about stouts? How different is an American Stout, Milk/Sweet Stout, Irish Dry Stout...or Russian Imperial Stout, Foreign/Export Stout, or American Double Stout?

Perhaps differentiating IPAs by region in the US is the wrong way to go about it. Maybe something along the lines of American Bitter IPA and American Citrus/Tropical IPA, or maybe nomenclature surrounding the clarity/turbidity of the beer.

I have a feeling if someone completely new to the American craft beer scene took a sip of Victory Hopdevil, and then tasted a Treehouse Julius, they likely would think it was two completely different styles of beer. Hell, they sure would think that simply by looking at them and never taking a sip of either one.

 

Agreed - it's a dead ringer for the beers that are coming out of there and was made before Trillium ever produced their first beer. It has definitely been inconsistent though, although never worse than "pretty good"

 

Actually Hop JuJu is about as good as anything from anyone anywhere. This one needs a 16 oz can delivery system and year round Distro.

 

It's hard enough to get on the shelves in NC. Stop talking about it.

 

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One Claw is a great beer, IMO it's the best hoppy beer they make, never seen it here though.

 

Huh, interesting. I was in NC just last week and managed to find less than week old cans.

 

You guys get Westbrook in NC? Bummer if no One Claw comes with. I know it's sort of cliche to trot this line out, because it gets said about a lot of things, but I really do think that if One Claw was brewery-only from some spot in the NE, it'd rate a HELLUVA lot higher than it does currently. Great stuff for sure.

 

We're supposed to get Westbrook Distro, but I've never seen it here, maybe Charlotte though. I live in Burlington, work in Greensboro.

 

No doubt. It'd be in the top 250 easily, and I'm certainly no Westbrook homer. I've really only liked 3 beers from them and thought Coast across town was much better

 

Picked up some in Charlotte a couple days ago but goes super quick--we get it sporadically and sometimes on tap. My very favorite thing they make.

 

Is it just me..or is the NE thing starting to get really annoying..just seems like that arrogant,have to be best attitude is really stale..let it go

 

In the sense that there's a handful of people pretending that they're on a whole other level and nothing else is in the same universe, yes.

Generally, no. They're outstanding. There's a lot of outstanding brewers and they're in the upper echelon. Not for everybody, obviously, but I think the consensus is correct based on what I've tried.

 

I recently started homebrewing IPAs based on the "New England" IPA style, which I associate to be a lot of late hop additions, heavy dry hopping and a higher calcium chloride to sulfate ratio water profile to give it a smoother/softer mouthfeel. My IPAs have been awesome since that change, but what I notice the most is I can give those IPAs to people who aren't IPAs fans and they tell me they are really good and drinkable. Yes, they are my friends so they might not want to bust my balls but what gets me is the drinkable part.

I find Alpine Beer Company IPAs to following the same model. Tons of hop flavor/aroma minimal bitterness and soft mouthfeel. Call it what you will but the IPAs that focus on aroma, juicyness and minimal bitterness are what breweries are going to focus on, at least for now.

 

So why wasn't the term "West Coast IPA" arrogant and annoying?

That arose for the same reason, because the majority of the highest rated IPAs were coming from that coast. Therefore, the more aggressive, bitter, hoppier IPAs began being labeled as "West Coast IPA".

I do not disagree with you in that the "have to best attitude" is annoying overall. But I think that applies to much more than the term "New England IPA" in the US craft beer community.

 

West Coast/East Coast IPAs came around at a time when there was a great physical divide in the beer world. Trading wasn't common, the internet was barely around, there weren't nearly as many breweries or as many (percentage wise) experimenting and in turn the exchanging of ideas was limited. Looking to what the guys down the street were doing instead of what people on the other side of the country were doing. East had a lot of more traditional influences because of it's population/consecration/immigrant groups while the west was more of a "fuck it" mentality. The division was more natural.

Nowadays if the exchange of ideas is much easier, as is tasting and trading. There's a lot more breweries trying to stand out, do something different. We don't know if the west coast IPA was annoying as shit because at the time of it's inception in the late 90s/early 00's this site wasn't around/in it's infancy, the community wasn't as large. I mean a few years ago the beer community has this same tiff almost when American Black Ale came around. A style "invented" in NE and caught on so much in the PNW that people tried to call it Cascadian Dark Ale. In this day and age when ideas are traded so much/frequently and styles catch on at random, it's pretty silly to name stuff regionally.

Just my .02 cents.

 

It's just you

 

Has anyone else had Andromeda IPA by Galaxy Brewing in Binghamton, NY? Does that count as a "New England style" IPA? It's cloudy, non-bitter, and tastes like tropical fruit juice.