The unfiltered craze.

I take it you have not homebrewed a so called 'NE' style IPA yet? Last spring I brewed a clone of Trillium Galaxy Fort Point Pale Ale and it turned out great.

Cheers!

 

To be honest, I'm not quite sure. I don't know that I could really justify any popular trend other then it's what folks are talking about right now. If I had to take a guess, I would say rarity, and more and more breweries trying to emulate the look of leading IPA brewers like Treehouse and Trillum. Why the new unfiltered beers may or may not be as tasty as their older hazy brothers and sisters, they at least give off the appeal letting drinkers think they're getting something comparable.

 

All this fascination with "Looks like juice" and "Tastes juicy" is something that I just don't understand. Why not just go to your local grocery store and buy a carton of juice instead? It's cheaper, easier to get, and healthier for you.

I'm not one to pass judgment on something without trying it first though, unless we're talking about a harmful substance. So, on my rounds visiting LA area breweries I've tried these hazy IPAs from all the highly rated ones you mentioned, as well as some lesser known local breweries, and even some from out of state.

My thoughts after trying a number of them? Not bad, but certainly nothing which made me want to order another. I'm glad that I gave them a try, but in the future will be putting my money towards other styles of beer.

 

I'm an IPA fan first and foremost and enjoy drinking both WC IPAs and NE IPAs and do so for different reasons. That said, lately I find myself leaning towards wanting more of a mash up of the two styles over one or the other, a happy middle-ground of sorts. Give me a tropical hop bomb with Citrus/Pine undertones, slight malt backbone and moderate hop bite and I'm a content man.

 

In a previous thread I quoted BA HopsintheSack since he articulated my views:

“In my eyes if West Coast style is one side of the rainbow and Trillium/Tree House is the other side, Alchemist/Lawson's/Hill are the best of both worlds.”

This pretty much mirrors my thoughts on the ‘spectrum’ of American style IPAs. I enjoy drinking West Coast style IPAs (e.g., FW Union Jack) and I enjoy drinking the so called “NE” style IPAs but for me the ‘sweet spot’ are the hoppy beers of Hill Farmstead (and Alchemist).

If you want to ‘translate’ this to an appearance thing:

· West Coast style IPA are relatively clear (those beer are typically either filtered or passed through a centrifuge)

· The so called ‘NE’ style IPAs are murky/turbid/opaque

· The Hill Farmstead and The Alchemist beers are in between those two

Cheers!

 

You know, it's funny I think part of the reason Alchemist threw "DRINK FROM THE CAN" front and center on their Heady Topper was that even five years ago consumers would have been thrown by the hazy, hop-particulate laden beer. Now, for many, it's become a point of pride. A lot has changed in the IPA game in the past few years for sure.

 

At first I didn't get it either. Had Tree House Julius and was like "Meh, it's ok, but I don't see what the fuss is all about." Then I started trying Trillium's beers and was like "Ohh ok, now I get it." It seems to be an approach that's quite delicate because, yes, I've had some that are too chalky and bland with minimal bitterness resulting in a glass of murky puddle water that's boring to drink. But, when done properly, the method can pack a shit ton of juicy and dank hop taste into every sip and reveal layers and dimensions of flavor that haven't been seen before. Case in point: The Veil is absolutely crushing it with the hazy approach, particularly with the IBU series which are among some of the best IPAs I've ever tasted. So OP, if you have yet to try The Veil, you might want to get your hands on some before you totally write off the "style." Oh and I've had some Monkish beers before and, while they were good, I wouldn't put them up there with Trillium and Veil.

To answer the fundamental question of the thread though, as someone stated earlier, a lot of people who don't like the bitterness of IPAs have found this new take on the style to be pleasing. They have a softness that is a 180 from the west coast bitter bombs that reigned prior, so these people are seeing it as a refreshing turn. Also, the average IPA drinker has started to favor actual juice being added a la Enjoy By Tangerine, Grapefruit Sculpin and so on, so it's not surprising that these "juice bombs" are striking chords with them. Also worth mentioning, these beers are attaining a high level of drinkability given their ABVs. I may not have found Julius particularly appealing when I first had it, but I couldn't deny that it was incredibly crushable for 6.8%. Whether done well or not, these beers always seem to hide the booze extremely well which of course is a big plus for the average beer drinker. Add to all that the allure of a new defiant look and rarity and you've got yourself, for better or worse, a trend.

For the record, I still love dank and assertively bitter IPAs. I even still enjoy, from time to time, an old school malty, sweet IPA where the hops aren't necessarily showcased. But, having had some of the more impressive "juice bombs" that have struck a chord with me personally, I know I'll be continuing to seek them out and I feel there's no denying that they're not a fad that's going away any time soon.

 

I wish there was a way to filter these photos out of my Instagram feed. I cringe every time I see one. I feel like saying, "if you'd like me to come from New Jersey to show you how to properly pour a beer I'd be more than happy to."

 

I'm sure there's some groupthink contributing to the popularity of this style, but mostly I think it just tastes good to a lot of people.

I've been away from the beer world for a while and recently returned to see the popularity of these beers. My preference always leaned toward hazy, light colored, and fruity IPAs, so I was happy to see that beers with these characteristics had become popular.

 

all of that your opinion though, just like you stated it's our opinion to like them.

long story short, they taste good so a lot of people like them.

sloppy vs intended, also opinion. I've homebrewed IPAs that i intend to be turbid, and they come out turbid. if i intended for them to come out that way, am i still considered sloppy? where is there an official description of APA or IPA that states that it must not be hazy?

sounds to me like you're in a great boat though! you dont have to wait long timeframes for the beer you prefer... wish I didn't have to wait to get these juice-bombs!

 

Seek out some Night Shift.

 

Here are my thoughts on the "craze" :

1) I'm in the group (minority or majority?) that thinks the super hazy TH/TR-like beers look awesome. I really like super saturated color in general, so this type of IPA really speaks to me, in the same way that I prefer thick, oily-looking stouts to thinner, less opaque ones. I understand that this sometimes implies lack of standard "good brewing practices," but I'm not a brewer or brewing aficionado, so I don't care about anything but the end product.

2) I'm a huge fan of unfiltered beers in general, and the ones that are more hazy tend to be the ones I end up preferring. The first batch of Enjoy By: Unfiltered really blew me away, because it was super hop-forward while also having a good feel and lower bitterness than I'm used to from Stone (the latest version of EB: Unfiltered was excellent, but not quite up to expectation). Focal Banger is one of my top 5 IPAs ever, because I love the combination of strong citra and mosaic with a nice full malt backbone and relatively low bitterness (Heady and Crusher are great too, for similar, although not exactly the same reasons). While I know that unfiltered beers can be clear as hell, the ones that have been the most pleasing to me overall tend to be slightly hazier (although not necessarily to the point where they look like juice).

I haven't had the big NE boys (unless you count the Alchemist), just similar stuff from around my area. While I can (so far) confidently say that I don't necessarily need/want my IPAs to look/taste like fruit juice, my experience with cloudier IPAs so far has shown me that when done right, they can add a positive element to the beer that I wouldn't get otherwise.

 

You described my same journey almost exactly. These days I find beers along the lines of Heady Topper are the best of both worlds and where my sweet spot lies.

Valid question by the OP and lots of good reasons provided so far. The one thing I would add is that whenever this topic comes up people say "people like the taste of juice more than beer". That may be true, but liking the tastes of things other than beer in one's beer seems to extend well beyond the realm of NE IPAs these days. Stouts seem like they have to taste like dessert toppings or bourbon (or both) these days to make much of a splash, and as someone mentioned above, there are plenty of fruited sours that don't taste much like anyone's canonical idea of "beer" either.

It's kind of cool really. A "beer" can taste like anything. Not sure that's true for many (any?) other beverages.

 

You ask about official descriptions of APA and IPA's?

Look at the Beer Judge Certification Program's beer style guidelines from 2015 for possibly controversial but official guidelines for beer styles. These were created for homebrewing competitions and there is an American IPA and a "Specialty IPA" category. The Specialty IPA category basically says nothing but new styles of IPA's are constantly being created so the guidelines for those depend on what was recently created. That's where you would find the specifics for the NE IPA. But it hasn't been around long enough to put an official entry to PDF.
http://www.bjcp.org/docs/2015_Guidelines_Beer.pdf

BUT American IPA:
Appearance- "Color ranges from medium gold to light reddish-amber. Should be clear, although unfiltered dryhopped versions may be a bit hazy. Medium-sized, white to offwhite head with good persistence."
It should be clear but may be a little hazy.

My understanding is the NE IPA also has lower perceived bitterness than the guidelines for the American IPA and different mouthfeel...

But then again the NE IPA is a specialty IPA so there really aren't guidelines for it.

 

I generally agree with these points - and I'll add another pretty dumb reason:

In the age of Instagram and Facebook - they look different, so they stand out in pictures. A glass of certain IPAs look the same as a glass of Miller Lite. But there is no mistaking these beers, and once they became popular, it became cool to post these types of photos. Although a lot of the pics I see look like they are "processed/filtered/photoshopped" to heighten the color.

 

I'm not sure if this has already been mentioned, but I think this next evolution or discovery in hazy NE fruity/adjunct craft beer is similar to the "craft" food evolution that is also taking place simultaneously. Like chefs/bakers/food truck owners, brewers are taking new risks, utilizing older or perhaps under-appreciated techniques in order to separate themselves from the competition. This is probably only the beginning. Think about all of the people in your life that aren't into craft beer or perhaps aren't into beer at all. It is an extremely large market that brewers can attempt to sway into the craft beer scene because a lot of these new brews are less bitter/less hoppy/sweeter etc . By throwing in a bunch of juice components and making it look like a GD milkshake, they potentially gain new craft enthusiasts that all but have written beer off entirely.

 

Over the last few years, I've drunk and traded for a ton of NE IPAs, and I've come down to preferring the mouthfeel of many while leaning more towards the "bitter end of juicy," if that makes sense. There are a couple of breweries, Trillium and Bissell Brothers come to mind, who still manage to incorporate that bittery aftertaste I associate with, well, "beer." Swish might be in my top 3 beers ever. Tired Hands strikes this balance about 30% of the time, although their Milkshakes are, to me, almost undrinkable. Also, Modern Times here in CA seems to be nailing the bitter/juicy/hazy thing with their last few special release cans.

 

I think another thing worth mentioning is just because the beer is hazy does not mean it is unfiltered. Trillium uses a centrifuge and filters all of their beers as does Other Half.

 

I will say that I love unfiltered very hazy hefeweizens.

And living in Texas I have never been able to try the examples of NE IPA that everyone talks about.

But I will say my love of beer has moved way past IPA's and the quest for extreme hop character (bitterness, flavor, or aroma).

I find IPA's very tasty but very boring just as I get bored quickly trying wines. I love the craftsmanship behind beer. In addition to the work that the grain and hop farmers do I love the way that maltsters transform simple grain to hundreds of new types of malt. I love the work that the brewers do to craft and transform grain, flowers, and water into a wort that then yeast can transform into the wonderous beer.

IPA's completely neglect the efforts of the people working with the grain and while NE IPA brewers have to provide protein and slickness with the grain all the beers are is essentially hop liquor.

Then above and beyond the general boredom I find within IPA's I find the ones focusing on the new fruity hops to be the most boring and one-dimensional... I don't know exactly what the complexity of flavors in Trillium's beers are but I can drink a mimosa or screwdriver if I want a full bodied juice bomb.
I must go to a good brewer to get a well crafted Bitter, or Pale Ale, or Hefeweizen, or Pilsner. I love beers where the different aspects have to intermingle and play nicely with each other.

As brewers attempt to make more NE IPA's I'll try them as I can find them. If I want hazy I'll find a hefeweizen.

I went through the hop craze and now I've moved past it to understanding the sublime area of well balanced beers.

 

I started out with west-coast style IPAs from breweries like Sierra Nevada, Stone, Founders, Lagunitas, and some other popular breweries. It wasn't until a year or 2 into my craft beer exploration that I saw some Trillium - Fort Point Pale Ale in a store and decided to give it a try, and I realized what the craze was about. It's not even the appearance that is different, but also when these beers are fresh they usually smell and taste intense and incredible, like hops to the 10th degree. I can understand how it can be too intense, too hoppy, or too "juicy" (unbeer-like) for some, but that doesn't make it bad, it is just like most things, not for everybody, as everyone is different and likes some different things. I personally enjoy the more juicy feel, softer palate, thicker mouthfeel, intense aroma and flavor, but I always find myself going towards other IPAs too that have more of a malt backbone and are less intense, and if I had to say which is better I would say the one I like more. I have had unfiltered IPAs that were nowhere near the level of Trillium or Tree House, and so they are not always that good, but there are some other breweries that are on level, Swish from BB was great, and there are many I haven't had as well. The Alchemist brews are great too but like most people have said, not fully cloudy with more of a hybrid west-coast style feel, which I think makes Heady Topper a great beer. Lawson's SoS is really great too, even not being as "juicy" with more of a malt character, and I personally like Sip of Sunshine even more than The Alchemist IPAs, and I know other people prefer The Alchemist brews. The unfiltered opaque appearance is attractive to some people, but for many it is also the intensity of the hop flavor and aroma, paired with the softer mouthfeel that sets these IPAs apart from the West-Coast style. I still love a good West-Coast style IPA too.