Help with my NEIPA

That is a really good write up on his findings. My own results haven't agreed with his, but he does a good job presenting it and his conclusions do make sense. Recently, I changed our water profile at Tombstone for all of our hoppy beers and I've been very pleased with the differences in the mouthfeel. The reason I changed it was because after I brewed a Pilsener with 100% Pils malt and soft water, when the beer was unfiltered I though "Holy crap... This is the exact mouthfeel I want in our IPA." So now we are using low calcium, chloride, and sulfate and the mouthfeel is very soft. The mouthfeel of our Session IPA in particular was very exciting to me. I believe more in the glycogens and oats for achieving the creamy mouthfeel and the soft water to provide the softness.

Edit to Add: I think that some people started hearing about "higher" levels of chloride in comparison to West coast IPA's and ran with "high" levels. I also get a small amount of mineral character in Treehouse beers so it wouldn't surprise me if they do use a higher chloride content. However, I think that when people start making blanket statements like "NEIPA's use high chloride levels" they are weighing a few brewery's processes more heavily than others. Now as the style has expanded, many breweries are using higher chloride levels thinking that's just the way it is supposed to be, but there are many different approaches to these beers, just like any style.

 

Novel idea: Soft water=soft mouthfeel. I'll have to give some pilsner style water a shot for my next NEIPA.

Thanks for sharing!

 

Do you mean glycogens or glycosides? Softness and creaminess are related, but maybe it's just that soft water and oats don't contain a lot of sulfur...I would add another vague palate descriptor...roundness

 

@honkey , what does the water profile look like in your "soft water profile"? Cheers