Is Brut IPA a new beer style?

Brut Squad IPA

 

Brut Strength IPA
Brut-Al IPA
Brutta (Italian for ugly) IPA

I’m just getting started!!

 

I had Champagne Hopi from Alvarado Street and wasn’t super impressed. I like the idea of a dry, low bitterness, highly effervescent beer with modern hops, but I found this example at least to be pretty bland. Anybody have thoughts on the advantage of using amylase vs. just using a highly attenuative (ie saison) strain that has a track record of producing world class beers with a low fg? I have had a number of hoppy saisons I liked a lot (including one by Alvarado Street), but don’t see that style a lot.

 

Pretty great Drake reference, though.

https://www.instagram.com/champagnepapi/?hl=en

 

No

 

Bill,

Thanks for your thoughtful post.

I am in Portland, OR right now and I have had my first Brut IPAs (commercial and hombrewed). My impressions of these beers is that they seem to be IPL beers but super thin. So far I have personally not been too impressed but further drinking is warranted here.

I am thinking of the IPL beer style. These beers (e.g., Jack's Abby IPL beers) seemed to be quite popular a couple of years ago. But not so popular today?'

It will be interesting to see whether the Brut IPA 'style' will follow a similar pattern.

Cheers!

Jack

 

The few Brut Ipa's ive had were all hoppy WC style with some fruitiness that were incredibly dry that weren't mistaking for NE style but were incredible drinkable and good.

 

Not yet, but it may be in the near future. All of the examples I've had in SF have been good to great. I actually just had Alvarados version last Friday, Champagne Hopi and it's drinking better than ever.

 

"This baby drinks and tastes like a sparkling white wine, super dry, spritzy, super refreshing.… Show More
This baby drinks and tastes like a sparkling white wine, super dry, spritzy, super refreshing. Introducing our Brut IPA collab with Omega Yeast Labs - Maplewood Mega Dry. We fermented it with Omega’s exclusive Voss Kveik strain for extra sex appeal."

Looks like Maplewood Brewing currently has one on tap.

 

I think we would have been better off if Kim Sturdavant had just called this brew a Brut Ale.. That way we could just yack about how the beer tastes and not about if it is or is not an IPA. I've only had 1 but was very impressed with it.

 

I bet that might make for an interesting sour. Not so sure if anyone would buy it though.

 

I'm willing to accept it as a new style. The one I had was very dry and easy to get into. It doesn't rely on a bitter, resinous aftertaste. As the brewer explained their recipe, it was a lot more based on dry hopping with only one pre-fermentation hop addition at flame out.

Others have mentioned it as a counterpoint to the thick and juicy NEIPAs, and I think that's true. Bruts seem to want you taste the hops not sugar and orange juice. But also not destroy your palate like a classic West Coast. They're probably going to wind up being gateway beers in the world of IPAs for a lot of drinkers.

 

That's what the brewer of the one told me. That it was the purest taste of hops that he ever had,

 

That's how a lot of brewers, including myself, make all of their IPAs. That doesn't make it a different style of beer.

Again, different techniques allow you to feature your hops in different ways than others. Just because you use those techniques AND amylase enzyme does not make your beer a different style, as a lot of other people use those same techniques to make "normal" hoppy beer.

 

What in your mind would a beer have to achieve constitute a new style? Personally I think finishing with the amylase is a defining distinction as well as aiming for the champagne like drinking experience (with or without grape must.) For me, though, these naming conventions help distinguish the kind of beer you're going to get and what to expect.

I don't disagree other brewer's achieve similar tastes, and just haven't put a name to it. But sometimes it can be a potshot when trying something new. For example, a beer labeled as dry hopped doesn't mean it wasn't also overly hopped in the boil.

If an IPA is called a Brut though, I would know to expect a bubbly, floral, dry finishing drink. Something I wouldn't mind pairing with seafood or light fare. Rather than just ordering one of six vague IPAs off a tap list and crossing my fingers.

 

It was an inside job. It is a sustainable practice.

 

With this in mind, do all Brut IPAs display the same characteristics? What, besides the descriptors that you've mentioned, distinguishes them from an IPA that isn't "Brut"?