New England style IPAs will continue to dominate in 2018

It is especially funny to me to get the hate as I am likely one of the few members of this site who loves pretty much every style I have tried and goes out of my way to get good examples of them when I can. Add to this I am old enough to remember before there was this wonderful world of great beer. In my wildest dreams back when I wished for an America filled with great beers made by great American brewers I never imagined that if and when that world came to be it would also be filled with clueless folks disparaging things they don't enjoy and the people who enjoy them.

And no need to say goodbye, I have been enjoying great beer before most of these new to the party haters and likely they will be on to other hobbies while I continue to enjoy fine beer.

 

Why are NEIPA's so Polarizing in the beer community? Lets see...

1) Many of the people drawn into this style are people doing it for instagram likes and 'street cred'... millenials and desperate baby boomers who were shanghaied by hipster dorks that knew how to market and take advantage of the social media/instagram/ millenial shitkid smartphone culture. A lot of people who follow the style religiously, the 'hazebro's' etc, aren't your typical beer nerd - they probably 'got into' beer 6 months to 2 years ago MAX (see many of the new accounts on BA hyping up the haze for example), and many hold a holier than though attitude about it, praising it as the next beer Jesus.

2) A great tactic in beer is to make beer that doesn't taste like beer, because most people don't like beer. Shocker? (Why light lagers still outsell any other style tenfold).
A beer that tastes and looks like fruit juice just as much as a standard IPA is a good gateway to get people to buy your product as a beer. I think a large majority of the beer nerd community can see right through this, and shake their head at in the same regards as they would a AAL drinker, drinking their 'water pretending to be beer' but on a different plane.. 'juice pretending to be beer'.

3) Because there are more interesting and flavorful styles out that don't get to bask in the conversational light of day. La Guillotine has much more intense fruit flavor and complex drinking experience than any NEIPA, yet you don't see 30 people a month making threads on Belgian strongs.

4) Because breweries are charging on average $16 a 4 pack of 16oz cans. Many are doing $20+, especially if its a new release.

Remember when $10 a 6 of 12oz bottles seemed like a lot? In many parts of the country the cost of living is increasing while wages and economic opportunity are dead stagnant, and have been for awhile. This goes back to point one, many of the people enjoying these styles are either kids in college living off of mommy and daddy, or well off old baby boomers who got to see the better years of the American economy. Your average working-class beer nerd in middle America (or coastal city for that matter) feels like he's being taken for a loop paying $20 for 4 cans or $7 a half-pour in some re-branded wine glass. When you think about it this way, it is rather ridiculous, wouldn't you say?

Overall I'm neutral to the whole thing. I don't go batshit over them or hate them. I think its a good style, but pretty much a one-trick pony. I paid for a few $18 dollar 4-packs in my day- and the $9 triple ipa half-pours in the long stem but i'm over it. If you've had one you've had them all. I do think its a great thing that its getting otherwise non-beer people into beer though! In reality it is only a matter of time before larger craft commercial breweries make that 12-pack available to the average consumer for the same price as those 4 cans.

 

You guys need to make up some great terms to make fun of the folks who like sours. How about souridiots? sourfools? Can't be a cool kid and hate sour lovers without some great names to call them.

 

Actually, the more I think about it, I guess there are a lot of reasons why people dislike either NE IPAs or the people they attract--or both. Such as the fact that quality or attractiveness is based largely on the appearance of the beer; prices, lines, and inaccessibility are often ridiculous; this creates a culture of self-righteous, pretentious snobs. I know this isn't the case for all or even most NE IPA fans, but it's undeniable that all of this is at least partly true.
But I am confident that they are neither a fad--as they are too likable for too many reasons--nor are they going in away. In fact, I think most of the criticisms of NE IPAs and their devotees is the same as the West Coast IPA IBU wars of 10-15 years ago--such as the fact that they became suddenly and extremely popular, everyone started doing them, they created a culture of toxic competitiveness, many were mediocre, IBUs were used a measure of perceived goodness, etc.

 

Summer of '16 every brewery made one, I personally felt there was a fall-off in '17, and less national options. (do you still see SN Otra Vez on shelves?)

 

The only Otra Vez I find is really old, but that seems to be the case with Nooner, too, sadly.
I think goses are still going pretty strong. Founders is brewing Green Zebra again this year. Southern Tier is releasing a concord grape imperial gose. Long Trail is about to release a cranberry gose.

 

If you read my post again, you'll see that I was not referring to all lovers of NEIPA, but rather the new and uneducated palates that come into contact with the style as one of their first craft beer experiences, allowing it to form their early perceptions of quality. And like it or not, I find it hard to argue that the sight of a hazy IPA doesn't trigger a bias one way or the other.

I think you are the one making some big assumptions. Upon re-examination of my post, you will also see that I have acknowledged that there are great NEIPAs out there just as there are bad ones. I am not here to attack anyone's personal preferences. We are all allowed to like what we like. However, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't strive to hold the industry to a higher standard. As someone who judges beer, I'm sure you've tasted flawed beer. It could be acetaldehyde in a pilsner or oxidation in an NEIPA. You would judge those harshly, no? Flawed beer is flawed beer and should be recognized as such. Have you ever put a cloudy NEIPA can in the fridge for a couple weeks, only to then crack it and find that it has magically dropped bright? Have you ever cracked cans of NEIPAs from multiple batches to find that they were an oxidized mess after a month? Why has that become acceptable? Why are some of these specific, flawed beers reaping high praise? This is a problem that needs to be addressed at the industry level.

 

I don't know if you spend a lot of time on Instagram, Untappd and Facebook, and you are certainly better off if you don't but yes, on social media haze does drive the craze.

The criticisms aren't pointed at you, the criticisms are pointed at the broader population of 'hazebros'. And most of these 'hazebros' are indeed what has been described by these posts. Is juicehead a less pejorative term?

 

Yeah, I should clarify. I would not really advocate calling out breweries in a public forum either, which is kind of what I was trying to articulate when I wrote "in a polite and proactive way". The point is not to start a witch hunt, but rather to bring quality back to the forefront of the conversation. I think this is something that has to happen mainly among industry peers, and through continued efforts at education at the consumer level.

 

i have yet to try a new england ipa looking forward to trying the samuel adams new england ipa and sierra nevada hazey ipa

 

Also, maybe I'm imagining it, but I could have sworn I saw someone say "#notallhazebros" earlier, and I can't stop chuckling about it.

 

"What style of beer do you like?"

"Both of them: NEIPA and WCIPA."

 

I'll be touring Ca. in late summer. What is the name of this place, and where is it located? Sounds like my kind of place! TIA

 

LOL, we could call them "warheads" (it's the name of a really sour Australian candy - kids used to eat them on a dare back in my primary school days).

I like Hazebro though, it's a cool term, I'm probably mostly a fan of Tripels than anything else... I guess Tripelhead would be the best way to describe people like me, we're tripelheaders

 

I get that you're just having a bit of fun there. Nonetheless, it sure reads like you're advocating for embracing snobbery.

 

Can't we all just get along?

----Rodney King

 

It seems the discussion has more ire against the newly self-proclaimed "NEIPA is the best ever" expert than the beer itself.

I enjoy some but have tired of it a bit. This week I picked up some very fresh SNPA and ordered a Lager of the Lakes at my local spot and remembered the simple elegant pleasures of classic well made beer.

 

Ya think?

 

I laughed reading this part, I have a great friend that every time he comes over I get him to try craft beer he tastes it and says nope I like my beer to taste like beer. All he drinks is Natural Light!!

 

I picked up some SNPA this week as well. Piney, crisp, and really hitting the spot. Always a good buy. A distributor was also kind enough to give me a couple sample cans of the new Sam Adams NEIPA that's about to be released, and I'll be interested to crack that this weekend too.