What beer started the turbid/cloudy IPA trend?

Hefeweizen-Early 1600s
The House of Degenberg
and later on, Schneider.

 

King Sue was most decidedly NOT a turbid haze bomb when it was originally released as a “Brewery Only” selection in bombers. This pic is from 2016, and it was picked up at the original brewery the day it was packaged.

 

As you have illustrated so well, Pseudo Sue, like King Sue, was NOT a turbid hazy - it was originally only available at the brewery in bombers.

Made the trip to the original brewery more than once for those bombers, 5 hours round trip.

Worth every second, IMHO.

 

Okay, @jonphisher, here we go. Just purchased a couple of cans for science and to further the discussion .....





The appearance is obviously not a “HazeBro” NEIPA, but this beer is nicely hazed - holding the glass up to a fairly strong light source, you can’t see your finger on the other side of the glass.

VERDICT: Hazy IPA, but in now way “turbid.”

The aroma is full of dank, spicy citrus aromas. Is it juicy? Maybe a little - but it’s more juicy with a bite, like a screwdriver with an extra shot of vodka. There is no “soft and juicy” on the nose.

VERDICT: A little juicy, in an old-school way.

The taste is dank citrus, maybe a smidge juicy, but more dank and resiny pine - there’s a bitterness that is in no way associated with the “new school” HazeBro hazies like Julius, Swish, et al (yes, I’m dropping Latin bombs).

VERDICT: Dank, fruity, but leaning REALLY hard toward the WCIPA end of the scale.

The mouthfeel is the stake in the heart for Heady as “HazeBro” offering. There is nothing - as in ZERO - in the mouthfeel of this beer that suggests it’s a hazy. It’s pretty dry, and has a big ol’ nite.

VERDICT: If you drank this blind, the mouthfeel would tell you this was brewed by Stone.

So the look is hazy, but all the other components go away from the turbid side of the IPA spectrum and land more toward WCIPA, with the strong hop flavors tugging a smidge back toward JuicyVille.

But is this GroundZero for launching a thousand (million) hazies?

Maybe.

But the evidence says, “Probably not.”

PS: this thread is why I love BA so much. What a great discussion.

 

Thanks for tagging @ovaltine it is a beer I cherish and love and I gotta say you made me feel like I was drinking one right now.

This is a perfect description and wording and why I think heady is so cool and why I love it so much. Seriously solid write up I’m gonna read it again now. And I agree this is great where this thread has gone. Fun discussing this topic. You should’ve mic dropped after that post haha.

 

Very nice post but you might have buried the lede. You purchased HT in Indiana?

 

Not an IPA and it might will get frowned upon on around here but Blue Moon Belgian White was one of the first hazy-cloudy beer available to the masses imo. Came out in 1995

 

As far as trends exploding I think a case can be made that not only was Heady first, but it ushered in the next level of haze craziness in our culture There were folks offering big cash for people to take their glasses into the Alchemist bathroom to fill taster vials. There hasn't been anything like that, before or since. Not Beatification pH1. or even the nutty craziness of TG moved things that far into the next level.

Fact is, the cloudy, turbid trend was started at Vermont Pub and Brewery in the 90's with the use of Conan yeast, and brought to the Alchemist and Hill Farmstead who used that yeast in their IPA. Heady started the haze trend. Heady brought the trend to the next level of popularity, Heady is the obvious choice. I am amazed, as always, there is argument against, but that is America.

 

I have sources.

 

John Kimmich has never given the impression that he doesn't care. Here's something he said back in a Beer Massif podcast:


Interviewer: Heady, that’s pretty much the beer that started it all I guess for a lot of the New England style stuff, but if you talk to a lot of people today, they won’t call it a New England style IPA.

John Kimmich: Of what New England style IPA is now, I wouldn’t call it that either.

I: But it is, isn’t it? Really, if you think about it… it’s the quintessential one.

JK: Absolutely. I don’t deny that, but I feel that what a lot of people now associate with New England IPA is not what we do.
[...]
JK [referencing his beer]: That’s a haze, that’s not murkiness, that’s not milkiness, that’s not muddiness.


Kimmich also goes on to talk about how much he doesn't like 95% of the beers he's had that people call NEIPAs. He struggles to drink them due to their taste and feel. I think it's pretty safe to say that Kimmich considers Heady to be part of the landscape of beers of his time and region, but not part of what people have coined a "NEIPA" style beer.

@JackHorzempa
@cavedave

 

Yes indeed, Heady Topper lacks both the cloudy/turbid/murky aspect of a 'NEIPA' and it lacks the soft mouthfeel as well.

Cheers!

 

I feel like I’ve heard stories of people doing this with Pliny the Younger before this year when it was a draft only release.

Speaking of Pliny the Younger/Elder, kind of surprised no one mentioned that beer considering we’re mentioning Heady...

 

Case closed I guess.

 

Agreed, as do I. And I'm certainly not critiquing the practice, I applaud it. I always check dates, and it certainly affects my purchases. With that said, however, hopefully we agree that both PtE and Heady Topper had more then just "drink fresh" and bottled/canned on dates on them, to encourage consumers, it was part of advertising of the label, PtE especially, it's states Do not age" "drink fresh", etc. All over the label. Stone's Enjoy by sold well, and probably still does, for such advertising efforts too, as another example of what I'm getting at. Anyway, tangent aside, for this thread, I still vote Heady Topper, lol.

 

Resurrecting this thread. I want to change my vote to NEBCO fuzzy baby ducks which was brewed before heady topper. Change my mind.

 

Exactly how far east would I have to go to get this?

 

The version of TG that you see today was not hazy IPAs. Their beer was kind of generic. Then they hired Mike, the current brewer, back in the early 2010s and they made PsuedoSue. That changed everything for them. That beer had a haze and juiciness to it.

 

2003, same year Heady was first brewed right?

 

A year is a long time. From what I can find FBD preceded HT chronologically. Add in the fact that heady does not fit what we traditionally call NEIPA while fuzzy does. If there wasn't enough evidence to at least bring it into play I would not have resurrected this thread. But all the evidence is there for NEBCO FBD to have truly been the beer to start the craze. If it had been a big DIPA heady wouldnt have eclipsed it I dont believe.

 

Never even heard of Fuzzy Baby Ducks... I assume very limited or no distro? My vote it still Heady but I'm ignorant of FBD so who knows.