Are all Hazy IPAs mostly the same?

I honestly don't know the last four pack I bought. When it's just you, drinking a four pack of Hazies is a little rough even if they are good. Thankfully pretty much any decent bottle shop these days sells everything in singles

 

I was reading the last few posts in this thread, while drinking a Fremont Sister. Boy, the good old Sister is still an excellent excellent beer. And it's a reminder of what's lost when the crowd shifts to the relatively flavorless haze bombs. Now, I have had a few NEIPAs that were fairly tasty. But nothing that compares with the really well made traditional West Coast IPAs or DIPAs. Thanks, Fremont, for keeping the faith for us traditionalists.

 

Which is why some people won't buy Fuzz anymore... they don't know you change it up and the "ticker" mentality thinks they've had it before, don't really need it again.

It's damned if you do, damned if you don't. Breweries like Monkish etc pump out "new" beers all the time and get lines for blocks. If you guys renamed Fuzz all the times, s*#t would be crazy with lines. But many people don't realize it's all new beer from batch to batch... and are really missing out trying something new.

Really sad actually, so many people now days just buy beer because it's new.

 

I think Fields of Green, Head Full of Dynomite, et al. are proving there ways to communicate those batch distinctions under a consistent brand, though. Not advocating lines and hullabaloo, just success for the brewery.

 

Thanks for the props and while I know that changing the hop schedule/varieties makes a huge difference in the finished beer, rendering one with the same grist bill distinct from the next with a different hop bill, AlohoStyle has a point.

The alternative would be nobody cares about new beers and breweries close or don’t open because the customers don’t care. As long as we keep craft first and mind the breweries that make craft beer to make sure they are ethical and good to their employees, community and environment, good beer will flow...if not, corporate Beer will rule.

 

I give Stoup credit because they produce about only one Hazy a year -Coastal Confusion.

 

Just had Gigantic's Cloud City yesterday and found it delightful. Gigantic has been killing it since switching to the 16.9oz format.

 

If there was a list of most underrated PNW breweries, Gigantic would be right at the top.

 

Not a hazy, just enjoying a classic; a beer I haven’t had in year or two...deschutes hop henge (in sixers, when did this happen?). Reminds me why I fell in love with IPAs in the first place.

 

I would've included The Commons on that list, but we all know what happened to them.

 

Big time on Upright, always happy to have one of their beers.

 

That's also probably the one that I've had that I was most pleasantly surprised by. I tend to fall closer to @derftron on the subject, though maybe not quite so extreme, but I try to keep an open mind. It hit a point where I kept noticing the same 'juicy' flavour coming through so many from around the country that it tasted like artificial chewy candies... like starburst or something. And now all I can think about with them is Homer and his skittlebrau. The Simpsons really does predict the future...

 

Had a can of Mirage's Candy Rain on Friday night and its was one of best IPAs I've had this year, hazy or not. Smooth and easy drinking with some nice hop notes.

 

Had this last night myself; excellent. Just wanted to sit and huff it the nose was so good.

 

John - head on over to Tin Bucket and try the Moonraker Mt. Crushmore they have on tap. That beer, IMO, is a hazy IPA worth drinking. I've been uniformly disappointed by almost every other hazy IPA i've tried (including ones from Tree House, Great Notion, Modern Times and more) and for a change, this one made me smile.

 

I've been limiting myself to single cans of most new beers to cut down on my overall consumption and spending, but damn this beer was so good I went back for me.

 

One benefit for me of the overabundance of NE IPAs up here in the NW (and the reality that still too few breweries and bars are labeling hazy IPAs as such) is that I have branched out and am drinking a wider variety of lagers of all kinds, English-style ales like milds and bitters, kolsches, saisons, etc. rather than my regular rotation of IPAs, pales, porters, stouts, and sours.

It's opened a whole new world to me. I guess I should be thankful.