Have East Coast Hazemakers Changed Direction?

I agree, and from the limited discussions I’ve had with others they agree. Too sweet!
IMO Fresh Treehouse is fairly sweet or perfectly balanced. Trillium is very similar to Monkish. Hop burn present. Not sweet.

 

Since last summer I've been noticing that Other Half has been uneven. Many labels have been disappointing, others have continued to be excellent. Ditto Equilibrium but, since they're in distro up here now, I chalked that up to no longer tasting 'rare' (because I'm shallow like that). IME, Tree House IPA's continue to be consistently better-than-excellent.

 

I’m far from an expert, but leaning to low on the bitter a bit sweeter is kind of a thing. I don’t care for them or the ones highly astringent that burns the back of my throat, they smell great but hard to drink. Imo these beers remind me of Session ipas, severely lacking in balance. Give me a fresh Pliny or Heady any day. I’ll add I liked Very Green more than the others I’ve had, but in general TreeHouse makes great beers, Trillium is hit or miss on the astringent stuff.

 

I'm going to suggest they sell well as the obvious reason breweries put them out. Not trying to be flippant, but sometimes the obvious needs to be said.

It seems the trend has gotten even more towards sweet and thick while I have been away from the "action". I am also going to suggest that every craft beer trend that has had its day has gone on to be replaced or supplemented by a trend(s) quite different. I see it as a split between the people who want things to stay the same and the people who want things to constantly change. One side values traditional and sticking to known quantities, the other side the opposite. Together they meet in the middle in hopes of craft breweries making enough profit to stay in business.

I bet in 12 years there will be popular styles of the day that are almost unknown now. For those who think this is ridiculous I have this to say- Gose, Fruited Sours, Berliner Weisse, Wild Ale were barely available or completely unavailable to most of us 12 years ago. I also think folks will have tired of hop milkshakes types of beer.

 

Tastes and trends change. I'm just as guilty. I went east coast to west coast to hazy.....now I love black lagers wth is that? And its not like I never had a black lager before. I had sam adams version a decade ago and liked it. But now it just scratching an itch I have. . I'm sure I'll move on from there and be all about something else in time. If it's hard seltzer I just ask that someone put me down

 

I feel the same way as you. I think what is happening is the original dank, the oily haze was their first evolution in the IPA game, now what we are seeing is a trend towards lactose cloying sweetness, because it sells, so this is the next perceived step for them.

I think they're fully capable of getting back to where they were, but, it's harder to make a balanced beer than it is to make fruit salad, and fruit salad sells, baby.

On a related note, EQ just started distribution in my area and I've been let down by every single one. They're all a jumbled mess. The body is there and they hid the ABV but nothing had legs or depth. I've tried at least 6 different labels of theirs. We have random small Indiana breweries that put out more complex, fun IPAs/Pales

 

I really don’t like lactose in my beers, I can live without wheat as well, leave out the oak flakes too. Did I miss anything? I’m not anti NEIPA, but the ones I really really like are pretty rare, mostly they’re ok, some are terrible. I keep trying them because when you find a great beer you found a great beer, and you only find it by trying new beers.

 

I'm not sure what the real answer is. Many of the breweries you've mentioned have had momentum where whatever they brew sells. Do they need to invest in QC or beer consistency at all if that's the case? Many of these breweries are selling the majority of their beer on site.

There's definitely an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality. I stopped buying Trillium due to their drop in quality and inconsistency when I lived in MA and have done the same here in VA with Aslin. I think that it's difficult to scale up with this style but I also think that these breweries are brewing so many different beers (even if they're all IPAs), less attention and care is being given to each brand.

 

Could you please provide more details here? What specific changes have you noticed or is it simply that each new batch tastes different from the previous batch?

In the OP there is mention of "oil-driven, dank profile" as a description of 'old school' hazy beers. I personally can not relate to those words. I have been drinking the Juicy/Hazy beers of Tired Hands beers since they opened and the stereotypical flavors of their Juicy/Hazy IPAs have been more along the lines of citrus/tropical fruits but some of their brands (e.g., Pineal) would have a hint of something else (pine in this case) in addition to the citrus/tropical fruit flavors. In other words it has been my personal journey as regards Hazy IPAs that "dank" was not typical of their flavor profile; I do not personally see a flavor 'evolution' here.

I should point out that I have never had a beer from Other Half. I have had a gazillion beers from Tired Hand and also beers from Tree House, Trillium, Bissell Brothers,...

Cheers!

 

I don't smoke so I don't think I can speak to the "oil driven, dank profile." I started going to Trillium very early on, like before they started bottling early. I would say their beers in the come up were characterized by intense hop character but with a certain degree of refinement (i.e. no hop burn). The distinct character of individual hops were prominently featured in their beers particularly in the Street and Fort Point series, since those had one hop featured in the dry hop. If you side by sided different Streets or Fort Point, you could distinctly decipher which was which. At the time, I would have pointed to Trillium as a brewery that was one of the best at featuring certain hops.

Would I characterize those beers as oil driven? Yes, I think so. The first beer I had that I felt was crossing this line was Headroom which was super oily and milky in its original iteration. I wonder how much the popularity of that beer damaged the psyche of what their beer should be.

Trillium had a noted fermentation profile change that a lot of people attribute to the decline. There are other factors like an ever revolving door of head brewers or some bad crops of galaxy that may have affected beers that feature that hop (Galaxy FPPA, Congress St, etc) that you could point to. I don't know the cause of the decline, but I get a lot more hop burn now on the rare occasion I revisit their beers. I don't get that distinct hop feature.

I should note that I don't go to Trill when I'm back in the area and probably won't when I move back to the area (save for if I'm meeting friends and I'm not the one picking the venue). They charge a premium for their product and for what I was getting it wasn't worth continuing to patronize their breweries when there are other breweries putting out a more consistent product. Sure, there might be lightning in a bottle (or can) once in a while, but there are far too many misses to make it a regular part of my home selection.

Thanks for always asking questions @JackHorzempa.

 

Nice review. I too remember liking Trillium much better many years ago as well. When I see one of their beers I’m thinking astringent first and it’s gonna burn my throat, and some do some don’t. I opt towards Alchemist and Lawson’s products.

 

It could be that part of the problem is some breweries do not have flagship beers, instead they are constantly changing and chasing the next taste. So certainly could have moved to sweeter tastes

Personally I like some consistently. There is already enough variety in styles without breweries making new ipa beers each month

 

When I'm in Mass, I can get Sip of Sunshine at a local retailer fairly easily. Kind of no reason to go out of my way to grab Trillium.

This is only observational, but I think this is absolutely the case. I don't hear complaints about, for example, Triple Crossing who produce a few select and dialed in IPAs. The number of new IPAs Hill Farmstead is banging out is few and far between. They kill their current portfolio. Bissell is always brewing Substance and that's almost always consistent. That new new is good for FOMO, but dialing in is good for quality and consistency, again observationally.

 

I have been seeing equilibrium adding marshmallow to some of their DIPAs which I'm not a fan of at all. I usually pass on their beers because they are 30.00 for a 4pack and as for other half I was not impressed with them but I did really enjoy the double Simcoe forever that was awesome. But there other beers lean toward the sweeter side like strata+mosaic.