New England IPA

Yeah its like watching a football game with a patriots fan

 

I'm a Pats fan and a NE beer fan, and I agree. This New England IPA discussion drives me up a damn wall. It's not enough that NE breweries produce a number of superb IPAs, but we have to invent a whole new style, the "New England IPA," to prove just how special and unique these New England brewers are. Just stop it.

 

Haha yeah man, I'm here in RI too so I totally get it. My biggest issues lie in the fact that I'm sure there are little pockets of tremendous, extremely hard to get beers, being brewed every day, all over the country. It's ignorant to think that NE is the only part of the country that can brew a chunky fresh IPA, or that it needs to be it's own style. It's extremely frustrating to me that distribution basically doesn't go over 30 miles wide and its damn near impossible to get your hands on any of it unless you wait, usually in lines, to get your hands on one...which I refuse to do. I guess that's my issue and one for a different thread, but I'm sure you can agree. I live forty minutes away from Connecticut and I can't get a Sip of Sunshine or a Sea Hag unless I drive there? Give me a break. All these beers are great out here, but until you can walk into a liquor store and grab a bottle or two with out frivolous seeking...I can't take them that seriously. And again, that's just my opinion and I don't judge anyone that can't pull their mouth away from the trillium nipple. Hell, maybe I'm just jealous...for now I'll stick to Captain's Daughter, my old faithful...If I can find it..

 

its not even close to its own style.

 

You mean your response that largely consisted of dismissing his points because you disagree with them?

 

I had a Meantime in Old England that was tres bon!

 

*Reads "New England IPA" sighs, rolls eyes, shakes head and sighs again*

 

I read the response before I replied. Your response seemed totally biased, opinionated, and backed by 0% factual information. If NE wasn't first to make these, why should it even be considered a style in the first place? And, furthermore...

...How can you make that statement? Have you personally been out to the west coast to see what they are brewing to easily claim nothing is as good as whats coming out of mass, VT, and Maine? I'm not trying to pick a fight or anything, just had a hard time wrapping my head around your logic.

 

Can we please stop with the "Oh, they're everywhere!" comments. No crap. That hasn't been the argument for a few years now. It's about the birthplace and popularity of the style. It came out of NE and grew a following and spread throughout the US (and abroad). It was never about "No one else can brew it like this!", it's about where it started. Anyways, no one can challenge the fact that there is a much higher percentage of these "NE style" IPAs brewed per capita in NE. VT/ME don't have big populations, yet everyone is drinking this (and it is still different than the majority out of the West Coast. I've had a TON fresh from the West Coast... very little compare. I don't say they aren't great, they just are different)

 

Citation needed

 

Im sorry what started in the north east? Because brewing beer didn't, brewing IPAs didn't, growing hops didn't, northwest hops didn't, brewing beer with northwest hops didn't, not filtering beer didn't, and literally nothing unique to IPAs has ever come from New England. I was born in Boston, Ill be in NH in two weeks. Love the beer, but there is by no standards of history, ingredients, or techniques anything unique about IPAs made in New England and there never has been.

 

Which breweries started making these beers and where did their ingredients come from? What makes them unique? All of their ingredients come from places outside of NE. The only reason the members of this website are hellbent on believing that it was NE that started this trend is because this is an east coast centric website that for whatever reason is unaware of most breweries on the west coast and what they have been doing for years. Does it not occur to you that you think that this spread from NE because all you are aware of or were aware of when you were introduced to a citrusy IPA was one that was, not surprisingly, made in NE? Thus you may incorrectly perceive for this to have been something that first happened in NE?

 

Heady Topper was popular in VT over a decade ago. Hill Farmstead has been redefining hoppy beer for almost 6 years now, Lawson's even longer. Nothing that I have had from anywhere in the US has resembled the beers these guys were making at the time. The only thing that I think comes close is Pliny, simply because it's more floral and juicy with less bitterness, but NE took it to another level. West coast tendencies were huge bitterness, much less on massive late edition and dry hopping (but even in those that did, the still tended to have much more aggressive bitterness). The haze also just didn't exist yet.

It's not about creating a whole new category of beer, it's a sub-style of IPAs, a bit of a different approach. It has nothing to do with the ingredients. Give 10 chefs the same ingredients and they will come up with 10 totally different dishes.

 

Im very sorry for a triple post but I really feel like there is a massive factor that is being ignored across the entirety of this thread, which you also didn't recognize. WC IPA came about because of the fact that it was an american ale being made with Northwest hops.. the focal point of it's flavor has and continues to be driven by the raw materials made in the west coast.. One more time. It was named after the hops farmed in the west coast. It didn't offend anyone because it was a beer made possible by the region it was made in. That cannot be said about any of the IPAs in New England.

 

My first IPAs were most certainly NOT VT IPAs. I had a good bit of classic and 'new' (at the time) West Coast IPAs before having anything from HF, Alchemst, or Lawsons. VT then blew me away at how different they were.

 

Why do subcategories have to be validated by terra local? It's called NE style IPA because people went up to Waterbury, Burlington, and Greensboro bend in 5-10 years ago and said "Oh shit, this is crazy." I'm not even suggesting that it be an official style, I'm just saying that the IPAs coming out of VT for the last decade have been different than what was produced elsewhere and it sparked a trend that has spread. I'm also not saying other brewers didn't have juicy IPAs without much bitterness, it just never gained the traction like it did 5 years ago in VT and spread throughout NE in the last 5 years.

 

Your post is riddled with "Ive had" and language that indicates that your perception of different in NE revolves around primarily drinking beer in New England. There are west coast breweries that you didn't list that have been around just as long as HF and Lawsons and Alchemist that make hazy, juicy IPAs. If you aren't aware of them it doesn't mean they don't exist and it doesn't mean they haven't made those beers as long as NE breweries.

Now your other comment. You say it's not ingredients and instead propose that what sets them apart is that they have a different approach. You are wrong. They don't make beer differently than west coast breweries. And your analogy is useless. Beer isn't food and beer style classification isn't food classification. The threads original question was actually asking if the brewers association would make a new style for NE IPA.. so this thread is about addressing NE IPA is an actually different beer style in a strict sense. If they aren't using unique ingredients, making unique flavors, or whatever else, then they will not be a different style because if you expand your horizon you will realize there is nothing that distinguishes NE IPA to IPA made throughout the west coast.

 

The Brewers Association style guidelines are just that, guidelines. I don't really care about judging or 'official' categories. I do think that historically the "NE IPA" exists. As for my experience, of course I base my opinion on my drinking experience. We are talking about flavors and nuances, not all of which we all even agree upon! I've had a lot from the West Coast. Of course I've not had it all. Of course I've had some really nice juicy, hazy IPAs with low bitterness. But if we are talking about the popular style of the region, it's a classic aggressive and bitter IPA. Not all from the West Coast are like that, but that is the style and what most are. The popular IPAs out of VT 5-10 years ago shifted to a juice bomb with low bitterness.

As for what I've had: loads from RR, Alpine, Kern, Green Flash, Stone, Lagunitas, Knee Deep, Firestone, Pizza Port/Port, Alesmith, Bootleggers, Beachwood, etc etc. Some great stuff, but really none of it is like Alchemist, HF, or Lawson's, let alone Tree House, Trillium, etc (and NY is killing it lately with juice bombs). It's just what I've found based on my palate and experience.