Fruit IPAs and how we got there.

Yes, I've noticed many, many fruit beers as of lately. I dunno, I always believed that adding fruit to a beer is unnecessary considering nearly any fruit flavor can be achieved with the right variety/amount of hops. But then again, that's takes incredible skill and knowledge of hop scheduling and the brewing process to achieve the desired flavors. I supposed it easier to say "hey, I want it to taste like grapefruit, I don't want to experiment with cascade hops though, let's just dump in some juice!".

 

my wife hates ipas, but will drink these tropical ipa concoctions. she doesn't like them when they are too bitter.

 

After the last 2 watermelon beers I've had...I will never ever ever even give another watermelon beer a shot...

 

Constellation has been in the beer industry since the early 1990s when, as the Canandaigua Wine Company, they bought Barton Brands, at the time one of the two US importers of the #1 import, Corona, as well other large selling imports like St. Pauli Girl, Peroni and Tsingtao. Constellation eventually became a partner with Modelo, owning half Crown Imports when it was created and became the sole Corona importer. Constellation eventually bought the US GM rights and all of Crown and the largest brewery in North American in Nava, Mexico (thanks to a DoJ-ABI agreement).

A quick look at BA reviews and it appears that many of the Ballast Point fruit-flavored IPA's and other beers were all in existence in November, 2015 when the sale to Constellation was first announced. I don't think the blame on this long-lived trend of fruit-flavored beers can be laid at the feet of Constellation.

 

If watermelon beer makes her happy that's what I buy. Along with something I like of course. Keeps balance in my small little universe.

 

I'm not arguing against you, I just had some additional thoughts... Prior to 2015 most of Ballast Point's fruit/chile/spice infused beers were mostly available only at the brewery or very limited draft distribution, with only a few exceptions of greater distribution (like grapefruit and habanero Sculpin), which did extremely well for them. We can only speculate if it was Constellation's, Ballast Point's, or both of their vision to distribute more of these infused variants. Based on the timing I understand how some would attribute the trend to Constellation. If we're speculating....Personally, I think the pre-buyout success of grapefruit and habanero Sculpin and positive feedback from brewery-only pilot-test sales, which you note pre-date the buy-out, would have been plenty of reason for Ballast Point to want to pursue these infused beer variants further, and the rapid speed these infused variants hit distribution after acquisition suggests Ballast Point had these ideas in the works and Constellation just said "OK."

 

Well fruity flavors from hops were already popular in regular IPAs so I think it stems from that. I think some brewers were like, "why try to mimic flavors of fruit using hops when we can just put fruit directly into it?".

 

Do you think the same about the super juicy new IPAs that these fruit-addition brews mimic?

 

Sort of, yeah. I also think we're getting close to time to spin off the website IPA Advocate, for those that really only "explore" that one style and use it as the rubric for quality in beer.

 

Oh, hell yes. A few breweries are playing around with them around here now, and the best of the bunch are very whelming.

 

IMO @Beef_Curtains nailed the answer.

Beer consumers enjoy citrus/fruity flavors in IPAs so some brewers have decided to actually use fruit to 'enhance' these desirable flavors.

Can a citrusy/fruity IPA be brewed solely using hops? Yes it can but this can also be achieved using the actual fruits to flavor the beers and this method provides some marketing aspects as well.

Cheers!

 

i forgot a lot.

 

I think I see this differently than many here so far. I think this has little to do with mimicking the so-called opaque IPAs or fruity IPAs, and therefore has nothing to do with cost cutting. This has little to do with IPAs specifically. We're just seeing it in many IPAs because IPAs sell and they have the attention of people here. It's tunnel vision on our end to think that this is an IPA issue. We're seeing apricots in wheat beers, cherries in stouts, and pears in pilsners.

Brewers are making these beers because they satisfy two audiences:

- The beer geek who feels like he/she has tried "everything" and isn't interested in just another new beer that comes out. A cream ale is boring to this person, but a watermelon cream ale is something new to try. This person feels compelled to try this beer even though he/she guesses that he/she won't like it. Once the novelty has worn off, this consumer will move onto the next thing.

- The casual beer drinker who doesn't drink beer as a first choice in every setting. Maybe he/she only drinks beer socially on the weekends. Maybe he/she isn't crazy about the taste of the average beer. A watermelon cream ale looks appealing because it promises a novel flavor that's a little different than the average beer. It's a little bit of added fun.

I'm not looking down on such beers when I say that they are being made because they sell. This is a truth that has nothing to do with personal preference, quality or lack thereof. Most people who buy these will do so because they want it, not because they can't get their hands on an "opaque" IPA.

It's a very crowded market, and every brewer is trying to make sure that they aren't left behind or collecting dust. This is about attention. Here's the problem - what happens when the fruit beers start to eclipse the other options? I'm certainly feeling the effects of this by me. It used to be that I could buy a Schlafly pale ale, kolsch, or stout. Now, it's becoming impossible. Literally all I'm seeing in six packs are Schlalfly grapefruit, raspberry, and coffee beers.

 

Generally speaking, I prefer IPAs without fruit or other adjuncts, but I love Grapefruit Sculpin, and Stone's collaboration Sorry Not Sorry was also delicious.

 

How is this different from chocolate/coffee stouts that have added flavor?

 

Yup, I see it the same exact way. Clumsy, obvious and overblown flavors have sold a lot of beer to a lot of people for a good long while now .

 

I dont mind brewers adding actual fruit to citrusy IPAs, much like I dont mind brewers adding cocoa nibs to stouts. I do however mind when these adjuncts are used to cover up brewing flaws.