The unfiltered craze.

Again what we are seeing is not brewers emulating familiar flavors using hops.

What we are finding is that hops are extremely complex little plants and for some wierd reason some of the oils they produce are identical to those is fruits.

Likewise it's amazing that some of the oils hops produce transform into an identical compound to a skunks spray when exposed to light. It even takes more effort for a brewer to purposefully skunk their beer than to make it taste like the tropical fruits that everyone is raving about.

The skill of the brewers here are how to make the beer hazy without it tasting chalky.

 

Because they get you going!?!

You gotta admit that drinking beers is 'better' than eating prunes!

Cheers!

 

To further your point, Jack, I think the soft feel, low bitterness (generally speaking) and flavors tending more towards the "fruity" makes these beers more accessible. Reflecting on my own journey with the IPA, it would have far easier to "develop a taste" for the NE style "IPA" based on what you describe. My first few attempts were "why do people drink this" until I learned what to look for in the more typical US IPAs. That may have some bearing with the popularity - palate experience, if you will, and patience in learning the attributes of a particular style.

We're also dancing around the "local factor" which runs strong with this particular style, and it is a topic previously beaten to death in other threads, yet it has to be a major player in the style's rise to fame.

I am certainly in the if it please my palate I will drink it camp, but find I can only drink so many of the NE "IPA" style before I tire of them. I find many to be monochromatic and "me too" beers.

 

Larry, frankly there was a 'getting accustomed' to the appearance phase for me; it took me a little while to get over the murky/turbid look but with a bit of 'effort' and time I accomplished this mission.

Do you have experience in using a centrifuge in your business? Do you have ideas on which 'knobs' JC tweaks in using the centrifuge at Trillium Brewing Company?

Cheers!

Jack

 

I wonder if north and south Germany went through this shit with kristalweiss and Hefeweizen...

 

I don't know. But if I want a murky juicy drink I can just drink some orange or mango juice.

If I want a hefeweizen there isn't anything I can do except get a hefeweizen... Maybe make a banana smoothie... But I don't want to eat my beer.

 

just going to say you can have an unfiltered beer that is clear and not hazy.

 

A centrifuge won't typically break a true haze. It will reduce particulates, but typically can't break a "haze".. I run fruit mash through a decanter style centrifuge removing pulp and suspended solids, but the "cloud" and some particulates will remain with the juice. A disc centrifuge runs at a higher G-force, but on grapefruit juice it will pull out pulp and leave the cloud intact. I believe the disc machines are the common one in breweries according to my centrifuge rep. So my somewhat experienced guess would be that the gravity-driven separation of a centrifuge will remove particulate hops and a substantial amount of yeast, but do little to remove a chemically formed haze or suspension, or "cloud"

Short version - possible to run thru a centrifuge and come out "cloudy".

 

How is this a major flaw in the construction of the beer?

 

Reading the posts here, I think some people are under the mistaken impression that these beers all contain actual juice or that they taste the same as a glass of OJ. That's clearly not the case.

These style beers are one facet of the many different styles I drink and enjoy. I do enjoy the flavor of the hops and a less bitter beer is sometimes exactly what I want.

Some people have come to associate murky beer = good beer, and that's obviously not the case either, but you still see "wow, that looks like a fantastic beer" as a comment of a pic of a murky beer. It's just not that simple.

As far as people bashing that style of beer as "not beer"....get a life. The beauty of beer is that there are many styles, with radically different flavor profiles and some of us enjoy the variety. When you consider an IPA, a sour, a saison, a porter and and a barrel aged stout, then throw in things like nitro and such, which ones are the real beer? To come along and say it's a beer for people who don't like beer....what exactly is the "correct" beer that someone has to like to be a beer fan? That's just elitist hogwash.

 

I don't think anyone here has mentioned the fact that IPA is a very effective marketing term today. Label anything a such-and-such IPA, and it will sell better than an identical beer (or, say, fruit juice) by another name. Session IPA vs Hoppy Pale Ale, Black IPA vs Cascadian Dark Ale or Hoppy Porter, etc.

I see this trend of hazy, juicy IPAs, along with the trend of adding actual fruit to IPAs, as a way to bring non-IPA drinkers (or even non-beer drinkers) into the IPA fold. That way, beer drinkers are happy to be able to say they like IPAs, the hot thing in craft beer. Plus there's a bonus in this for brewers - IPAs are a lot more expensive and likely have a higher profit margin than fruit juice or light lagers.

For people who already enjoy "regular" IPAs, this new style simply represents a change of pace for those who enjoy it. Variety is the spice of life, and I don't think NEIPAs will ever replace their west-coast cousins entirely.

All that not withstanding, I do like these beers and seek them out when a good example becomes available to me. I've enjoyed examples from Trillium, Tired Hands, Modern Times, and Alvarado Street immensely. They're pretty much one-and-done for me, though, whereas I can drink "regular" IPAs all day (or at least until I pass out ).

 

That is my understanding as well.

Cheers!

 

Yes, in fact I do, sir...there are several ways you can manipulate a centrifuge to "tailor" the output, but only so much. It works by gravity - centrifugal force and there is a law of diminishing returns. Stoke's Law will tell you the relationship between particle density and G-force needed to remove a particle. G-force will typically not produce a crystal-clear product. You can get close, but without ultra-high G's you can't get there. The machines I have seen at breweries are not ultra-centrifuges and will have limitations on G-force. But you can play with flow rate, differential speeds, the timing to when the machine "dumps" solids (aka, bowl opening"), some timed sequences, and manipulate the finished product. At least on the machines I know up close and personal.

Cheers!

 

I kind of enjoyed how the overall message of your OP was someone explain why you prefer the awful looking and overall inferior hazy IPAs.

However I will say that I've found many whose taste I really enjoyed. I don't really care about the appearance one way or the other. I don't get the bias against them though.

 

And for many millennia since circa 2000 BCE beer drinkers enjoyed drinking unfiltered beer.

Perhaps unfiltered beer was the motivation for the invention of the straw?



Cheers!

 

@Tdizzle I'm not offended by your OP. You prefer the taste of WC filtered/dry/piny over NE unfiltered/juicy which is fine. I personally like both depending on my mood.

But I would say that the one thing you haven't acknowledged that some people have mentioned is mouthfeel. NE-style IPAs are much more full bodied, creamy, soft. You may prefer the thinner cleaner West Coast-style, which is also fine. But I do want to say that feel is a quality that many people enjoy about NE.