Northeast Haze through a microscope

But american IPAs aren't traditionally brewed in the UK.

 

So by "traditional" you mean "over the last 15 years"?

 

I am a bit hesitant to enter these shark infested waters but…

I think that BAs would be interested in knowing that the brewing of IPAs in America is not a recent thing. IPAs have been brewed in the US for well over a hundred years. This brewing history is detailed in Mitch Steele’s IPA book on pages 109-119.

One extract from the book:

“C. H. Evans, Frank Jones, Christian Feigenspan, Ballantine and Mathew Vassar were some of the predominant IPA brewers in the 1800s”.

It seems to be ‘popular’ to utilize Ballantine IPA as an exemplary historical American IPA. That beer was historically produced from 1878-1996. This beer was ‘resurrected’ a few years ago and IMO this ‘new’ Ballantine IPA is a tasty beer. A few weeks ago I bought another case of this beer since I enjoy it a lot.

An interesting article here about the ‘new’ Ballantine IPA: http://allaboutbeer.com/ballantine-ipa/

Cheers!

 

How about "traditionally modern american ipas are brewed with less chlorides"?

 

I'd have used the word "usually".

 

does anyone honestly determine their preference for beer based on haze vs clarity?? I think I tend to prefer unfiltered IPAs but by no means would I make a judgement based on how hazy a beer is...

 

Have you been sleeping for the last 12-18 months? All the cool kids are in the haze club & they got pictures to prove it

 

loll I understand that its cool ... and as someone who enjoys juicier IPAs I do indeed get excited pouring out a fresh Trillium or VT IPA. but I dont let that affect my taste preference!

 

It's good to see there are some discerning beer drinkers like yourself in MA. There are however a lot of folks who drool at the sight of turbid IPA. So much so the MA Office of Travel & Tourism has adopted a new slogan for beer tourists, "Hazier than Beijing".

 

I don't know your process as far as bottling goes, but if your cellar smells glorious that's aroma that's not going into the beer - aka oxidation. That's not to say the cellar should smell bad, but in judging competitions more often than not beers that may have been hop bombs originally fall off very quickly. Personally I'm big on dry hopping in the keg, and counter pressure filling bottles if need be.

http://brulosophy.com/2016/06/27/warm-dry-hop-vs-cold-keg-hop-exbeeriment-results/ is an interesting read.

 

I have been homebrewing for over 20 years and my process for bottling is the same: I transfer the beer to a bottling bucket where I add the priming sugar. My hoppy beers (e.g., APA, IPA, etc) do experience hop fade over time (e.g., 3 months or so). Hop fade over time is true for commercial beers as well. I can report that my homebrewed beers do not drop off as quickly as beers like Ballast Point Sculpin, Russian River Pliny the Elder, etc.

If you wish to drink hoppy beers at the peak of hop aroma it is best to drink them fresh (e.g., less than 3 months old); this is true whether that beer be homebrewed or commercially brewed.

Cheers!

P.S. There was a very good presentation on the topic of oxidation at the recent National Homebrewers Conference (Homebrew Con). Are you a member of AHA? If so, you will be able to read/watch this presentation.

 

That talk on oxidation was maybe the best I saw at the conference.

 

It was in my top 3 (I took the AHA poll).

Cheers!

 

You've done a Pliny the Elder clone correct? If so, did you find your homebrewed clone did not fade as quickly as Russian River's bottled Pliny the Elder?

 

My version of Pliny the Elder held up quite nicely. Even at about 3 months of age the hop aroma (while diminished as compared to a 1 month old bottle) was quite evident.

One aspect of my beers are that they are bottle conditioned and the presence of live yeast in the bottle 'acts' like an anti-oxidant.

Cheers!

 

Another benefit of brewing your own hop bombs is that you don't have to search the neck for an illegible 'bottled on' date, you can just check your notes!