Non-Hazy IPAs That Get Hype?

There's a bunch out here in NE England that aren't hazy: Lawson's; Exhibit A; Lord Hobo; Night Shift; Wormtown, Maine Beer Co; many others

 

Check out any of the West Coast IPAs from Societe and Revision for the biggest hyped. My personal favorites are The Pupil and The Apprentice from Societe and Drifting Through The Hopyard and Dr. Lupulin from Revision. Other personal favorites breweries making fantastic West Coast IPA are: Sante Adairius, Monkish, New Glory, Moonraker, Bottle Logic, Alvarado Street, Pure Project, pFriem, Freemont, and Fort George.

I've heard good things about Great Notion, but I haven't been able to land any yet.

 

Do you know what exact clarifying agents they are using? The so called 'NE' style IPA has a heavy load of proteins-polyphenols. I suppose that maybe just using finings will 'get the job done' but I wonder about this.

I am confident that Weedy (@honkey) can comment further on this topic.

Cheers!

 

I guess that was what I was trying to say. The clear ones, purely as a guess, might use biofine clear, but they don’t have oats or wheat as far as I know. So they wouldn’t have near the protein content of a beer with those things.

In my experience, a heavily hopped and heavily wheated and/or oated beer could not be completely cleared with fining agents alone.

 

Thanks for sharing that additional information. Yes, there is something interesting in the results.

I agree that even with unsalted crackers and water 10 may be too many beers. An additional improvement beyond what you suggest is a blind triangle test in which two cups are samples of the same beer and one is a sample of the other. Then the taster is asked to tell which is the "odd man out." Less chance of being right by chance alone (1/3 chance rather than 50-50).

 

I could envision that being the case as regards beers like Pale Lagers. I would think that for a robust beer like an IPA/DIPA that drinking twelve of those beers in a flight would be challenging.

Weedy, have you ever participated as a judge in a beer competition (e.g., GABF)? When it comes to the IPA beer style, do they stick with the 12 beers in a flight rule?

Cheers!

 

Thanks! Useful to know.

Especially with the critical words being “well trained” and “experienced.”

 

A local brewery of Sly Fox will periodically serve their Pilsner (Sly Fox Pikeland Pils) unfiltered on draft:

http://slyfoxbeer.com/beer/keller-pils

FWIW that beer tastes notably different to me vs. their 'regular' version with the biggest difference to my palate being the mouthfeel. I also think it has a differing expression of the hop aroma/flavor but I personally would not use the term of "muddled" to describe it. I personally would describe it as being more vibrant.

Cheers!

 

I guess that would depend on what question you are trying to answer. I personally don't believe that biofine creates loss of hop aroma more than natural settling, and a fining process for clarity leaves more hop aroma and flavor than filtering. I also believe that filtering changes the characteristics (perceived or real) of hops. This is all based on experience and is anecdotal. As far as the experiment, I would just be interested in people describing the beers more than them trying to pick which one is cloudy or not. I would want descriptor to see how much of a difference the turbidity makes.

Yes, I'd agree with the fining issues as I was attempting to state above. I think with colder crashing, longer crash time, and slower process time through the centrifuge, you could possibly achieve a clear beer, but yes, in most situations, you're most likely going to have some chill haze type haze from the protein levels. Personally, at a chill haze level o turbidity, I would put that more in the clear beer category than NEIPA category. Indeed, many centrifuges will allow you to fine tune turbidity levels. I'd argue that it would be actually harder to leave a beer hazy than to make it clear while using a centrifuge.

In my experience, a high oat and heavily hopped beer, tastes, feels, and smells different pre and post clarifying whatever the method may be. I guess I feel the same about even more "traditional" IPAs. In my opinion, some methods for clarifying are better than others.

I haven't homebrewed in over a decade.

I think lager yeast in suspension generally leaves undesirable flavors. Obviously, that's just my personal tastes, but I'm surprised by the recent desire to consume them. Lagers are where I'm pro-filter, and tight filtration at that.

 

I'd argue that number, which seems a little random, would be very beer dependent. A a clean, light lager is going to create less palate fatigue than a heavily hopped IPA.

 

Ah, looks like this was covered during my other long reply.

 

I don't doubt that biofine reduces hop aroma. I just question if it reduces it more than letting sediment settle naturally over time. Leaving all that stuff in suspension is part of the argument for NEIPAs, but that doesn't mean you can't make a high aroma/flavor IPA that is clear. It's just when you make those, you accept that there will be some loss, and adjust your recipe accordingly.

 

La Cumbre recently brewed "1968 IPA"--reference to type of yeast used, not the year. "Clear" ipa with nice malt balance and quite good. Might be also called an English style ipa? La Cumbre is also brewing a series of canned and on draft "hazy" IPAs. I still prefer their Elevated IPA and varying Project Dank.

 

Some brewers a

Please fire away, and free me of my sad ignorance!

 

So that's a "no" then? Thought so.