New England IPA

No. I don't think that. All IPAs are about the same level of perishability. Cloudyness is not unique, etc., etc.

 

Although your story may seem pretty and logical - I completely disagree. Specific consumer items retain geographic descriptors not because of market saturation or prominence. They do so because of their origin story. If Vermont was the first to make such an IPA, then I say it might be fair to declare it so semantically. However, there must also be valuable and material difference between its product and those being consumed elsewhere (as mentioned previously in the thread).

Lets say the above becomes true...

...The day that Cellar Maker, Alpine, Boneyard, Societe, and similiar west coast IPA factories write on their menu board "Vermont Style IPA" as a descriptor - is the day.. *insert impossible, apocalyptic, metaphorical clause here*

 

Some people just want their local products to be different and special. I don't get it. Maybe I should take the good IPAs that are made in KY and rally for a new style because these are made using limestone water as opposed to other forms of H2O.

Not saying the IPAs made in the NE aren't good (some are great), but there's nothing that distinguishes them from IPAs made in every other part of the country. It's not as if they have their own hops only the NE is using. Make great beer? Absolutely. Create a new genre of a well-established style? Nope.

 

Not really, it has to do with the signing of a Declaration of Independence, which did not take place in New England.

 

Naw, you gotta get the mid-Atlantic to agree to that and they don't.... :-)

 

Whoops. I missed the twinkle in your eye when you said that.

 

Whoah there. The East is not all on board with this. Gotta limit the conflict to the Northeast vs the rest of the world.

 

ha this is crazy. If the IPA taste good I drink it, don't give a damn what you want to call it.

 

No.

 

The Heady Topper in my fridge from when I visted VT a couple weekends ago would disagree.

In full disclosure, I'm mostly against new beer classifications in general. More often than not I find "new" beer styles are just a new trendy name for something that was always around within the existing styles, and has more to do with marketing and rebranding than the properties of the beer.

 

Massachusetts wasn't British? And Floridians aren't Americans? And to be honest none of them were Americans. Only one race can lay claim to that.

 

Viking Tower in Newport, RI?

 

Nah

 

If there were an IPA brewed with some salt water, that could be called a New England IPA. Brewing a beer that isn't really any different than a lot of other unfiltered IPAs doesn't deserve a designation.

 

Until New England is no longer part of "America," we should keep them classified as American IPA's.

If this were a poll, it might be the most lop-sided poll in BA history.

 

Time to add a poll...

 

with about 98% of the "yes" votes coming from the New England area...

 

I agree with not establishing some new style or official classification, but it's a very useful descriptor.

I also think folks on this thread have missed a couple fairly significant component that does lend a unique quality to New England style IPAs in some cases: Yeast & water source.

Alchemist most notably use their own & there are rumors of other breweries having worked on proprietary strains,in addition to some other brewing techniques that contribute to this style (Tree House, HF, Alchemist, Lawson's, Fiddlehead, Trillium, Beer'd, etc..)

I've still yet to find particularly good examples of these type of hoppy beers outside of the New England area, Topping Goliath would likely be the closest in my experience.

I'm not making a value judgement, but I do think there are a handful of world class breweries in the region cranking out some unique hoppy beers and the market seems to agree.

 

Only if we can add a cajun or swamp IPA category for Ghost in the Machine.

 

Well, here you go. The moniker is being used commercially. Couple points about Harpoon IPA:

- It probably would not be seen as a match for the kinds of IPAs the OP is describing
- It's probably been around longer than any of the IPAs the OP is referring to
- It's probably being poured from more tap handles in New England than any of the IPAs the OP is referring to