Juiciest West Coast IPA?

I've been to cellarmaker and although their beers are very good, they don't hold up against OH, Trillium, TH, etc

 

I am a West Coaster who has never consumed an NE-style IPA. What brewing methods make them "hop juice concentrates"?

I did share an aforementioned MT Mega Fortunate Islands last night and found that it had just enough bite to keep me drinking it, but just barely. Similar experience with Fresh Squeezed -- little too far on the juicy/non-bite side to keep me coming back to it. But then my juicy IPA experience is pretty limited.

 

It's documented pretty well in a few threads in the homebrew forum. Common ingredients and processes include 1. Grain bill containing pale/wheat/oat malts (minimal to no crystal malt), 2. English yeast strains such as London lll or Conan that tend to finish cloudy and are impervious to fining (further enhanced by the malt bill), 3. Water profile that is soft - 2:1 sulfate to chloride ratios, 4. Almost no boil hops -- massive post boil hopping (hop bursting) followed by dry hopping at the end of fermentation then again in the conditioning and/or serving tank - using the typical citrus forward hop varieties like citra, mosaic, Nelson, Galaxy etc., 5. Mash regiment that finishes beers on the dry side -- so mash temp is low ~150 f or so. Not all of these ingredients/processes are unique to NE IPAs but in combination produce one hell of a juice bomb....
This is a fantastic post/recipe discussion on the topic -- http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2015/10/softer-juicier-and-uglier-apa.html

 

Thanks, Chip. I figured hopping methods (lack of bittering hops) and maybe grain bill choices has something to do with it. That Modern Times beer has wheat.

 

Cannot agree with this, especially Other Half. They make some good beers, but to put them in league with Cellarmaker, Treehouse and Trillium is a bit of a stretch to my tastes...

 

And that is very much the crux of the issue. Folks like to utilize a descriptor of "juicy" but without an explicit and unambiguous definition of what this descriptor means it is extremely challenging to have a meaningful conversation here.

This very much reminds me of the "bring me a rock" story: Somebody in authority (e.g., your boss) directs you to "bring me a rock". You go out in search for a rock and bring one back to the boss and he replies: "Not that rock". This task of getting the 'right' rock can go on and on and on and....

Just like this thread discussion.

Non-cheers to the word "juicy"!

 

Juicy may have to do with the balance of the beer being hop forward. It feels to the taste like citrusy and juicy. There's no tartness although it's like orange or grapefruit. It looks like a slight haze.

 

Maria, if you can obtain 100% agreement/compliance of your definition by the entire BA community I will support you here.

Cheers!

Jack

 

One that comes to mind is Cellarmaker Double Dobis. The color is like orange juice, cloudy, and super dank.

 

Some how I don't think so. it's something I have asked you though. What is it about simcoe that is succulent just before it's catty? people don't realize a lot of the sweetness they think taste in juicy IPS's is actually floral.

 

Maria, I have no answer for you here since for my taste buds Simcoe tastes like pine to me.

Simcoe hops (and other hops such as Citra) is high in a compound of 4MMP. Some folks (and apparently there is a genetic predisposition for women) perceive 4MMP as cat pee. I have brewed and drank a number of IPAs that have featured Simcoe and Citra and I personally have never perceived cat pee in those beers. I once gave my homebrewed Citra IPA to two friends (Harry and Marilyn) and they both remarked after getting 2/3rds of the way they both perceived cat pee. To my utter shock they both asked to drink a second bottle of this beer!

The human palate and hop aroma/flavor perception is a mysterious topic IMO.

You might enjoy reading this article:http://allaboutbeer.com/article/flavor-hops/

Cheers!

 

to each its own, im a homer so to me there is nothing better than the beer that is made in Oregon but i do enjoy a muddy looking beer in fact ive enjoyed drinking unfiltered bottom of the keg full of hop sediment muddy ipas but thats just me. i really like hazy more than clear and the less filtered the better.

 

I'm the same way when it comes to haze. I feel like the haziness makes the mouthfeel super creamy and the taste a lot more raw. You just get this feeling like you're biting straight into a mound of hop cones.

 

stop it, im drooling. haha

 

Cheers. =)

 

I enjoy Betty IPA. Might be a little piney if that's not what you're looking for. Still has plenty of tropical and juicy notes though.

 

Do you think there is a correlation between this and freshness? It just so happens there is a freshness craze with IPAs (of course, it's been widely covered here that freshness is very important). Are these IPA's truly made cheaply to sell on hype and huge flavor? Can these beers stand any sort of age? I mean, can a beer really be considered great if it's a shell of itself with 2 months of age? I'm not saying any of these things are true, but it's an interesting discussion to me.

 

Just drank a Scaled Up yesterday. Great beer, but to my surprise...not a "New England Style hop juice bomb" at all. DDH Fort Point certainly will be, and Melcher. The Scaled Up is nearly clear, and has considerably more bitterness than is usual for Trillium...reminded me more of Pliny the Elder in some ways.

 

Yes, I think there is. Not one of Hill Farmstead, Lawson's, Alchemist, Trillium or Treehouse sees any distribution (other than local self distribution...and light distribution of Sip of Sunshine). All of them are sold out more or less instantly upon bottling or canning and are consumed in growlers probably more often than in any other container. I haven't tried sitting on a Julius or whatever and seeing how it holds up at 3 months, maybe somebody has. I suspect that the other beers that are considered comparable on the west coast or midwest probably share that characteristic.

 

I've never heard anything about them being made cheaply on purpose. They use way more hops than any standard IPA you'll see in stores, which contributes a lot to the haziness. And I think these new hop varieties that breweries are using have a much shorter freshness window than IPA hops of the past. Honestly, I don't think any IPA will taste as good with 2 months on it than it does fresh.