What beer started the turbid/cloudy IPA trend?

Ohhh a spin off thread!

 

Question of the month!

 

As is common amongst brazen know it all's I want to say Heady Topper w/o any research whatsoever. Hope I'm right! BTW I'm definitely not a know it all. Far from it in fact. I'm just referencing that top 25 article that showed up today. I remember Heady was released in 2011 I think. Seems much older than the other breweries expect for maybe Tired Hands. I moved to Philly in 2013 and I think they were already established in Ardmore by that time.....so could be neck and neck between those two.

 

Wow easy and tough at the same time. I voted Trillium, but Tree House accelerated it by a lot. Hop Hands is a super bitter PA, it the anti OJ kinda beer, HT is a classic, but it’s not a NEIPA. I’ve had Edward on tap in Vt, nope. So Trillium. But... I love Tree House beers Very Green perhaps my favorite, but the King is absolutely superb.

The thing here is hazy beers aren’t new, HT always been hazy with the floaties. But imo Trillium is the one who took that and ran, with a lot of different beers on that tree. Alchemist for years stuck with only Heady, and why not the demand was absurd.

 

I voted Heady Topper, based on gut instinct. I think it’s one of the oldest hazy/New England IPAs, right? So much so that they apparently didn’t even want people to see what it looks like and consume straight from the can? I can’t think of another beer that popularized the trend more than HT.

 

You know now that you mentioned it Heady is a reasonable guess here. If I remember correctly part of their “drink from the can” motto stemmed from their beer being ,let’s just say at the time not exactly appealing when poured into a glass.

I am also almost certain that Heady was available before Treehouse, Trillium or Tired Hands we’re even commercial breweries. So Heady would be my vote.

That being said I’m not much into this haze craze so Im certainly not the authority on the matter.

 

Since Heady was added here almost 5 years before any of the others and has nearly double the amount of reviews of any of the others I think the answer is pretty obvious.

 

Don't know who started it but 95% of breweries haven't mastered it. A ton of them may nail the look but can't deliver on taste

 

I've said this before and have been upbraided by "purists", but I think Smuttynose Finestkind IPA may be a brew that was at the advent of this pervasive and lingering trend. I sold Smuttynose back in the early 00s and folks did not like the floaties and unfiltered aspect of Finestkind, both of which really intrigued me and made for a rich, tasty, dry as a bone IPA, :Not like its west coast relatives. People wanted to return the beer, but said at the same time that it was very tasty. All I can say is that Finestkind was a great beer and it did have "clarity issues". I kept it at home for many years...

 

Well Heady Topper's appearance has been refined over the years, back in the day it was Hazy as hell. When I first had it it was all chunky and stuff, now it is just a somewhat Hazy beer. I also think Heady predates every beer on that list by quite some time so I will give it my vote.

 

Was there any exchange of information / relationship between John Kimmich, Clark Lewey, and Mike Saboe? Toppling Goliath started before The Alchemist, I think (not sure, though).

 

Heady Topper is the answer, but I thought of Finest Kind. Finest Kind was around and was popular well before the haze trend.

That being said, The Alchemist debuted in 2003 with Heady as an occasional offering at the pub. So it predates anything else, even Finest Kind which debuted in 2004.

Here’s the time line of hazy beers...

1). 2003 - Alchemist established, Heady first brewed

2). 2011 - Alchemist starts canning Heady at their cannery two days after the tropical storm flooded their Pub. So all they had for awhile was canned Heady Topper, many argue this started the hazy IPA trend and the ubiquitous 4 pack of 16 oz. can trend.

Also of note, as many have mentioned, many theorize John Kimmich said “Drink from the can” on the Heady can to hide the fact the beer was considered ugly for the time. Clear West Coast IPAs were still the rage, and haziness was seen as a brewing flaw. See how people reacted back in the day to Finest Kind in @rgordon ’s post.

For me the above is when it started...with Heady Topper in 2011.

3). 2010 Hill Farmstead established

4). 2011 Tree House established

5). 2013 Trillium established

All three of these breweries (HF, TH, Trillium) produced truly turbid “New England” style beers, that dialed back the bitterness and upped the fruit flavor profile with that pillowy mouthfeel. But this was arguably just turning up the hazy, less bitter IPA trend from Heady Topper to an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10.

 

Heady, fo shizzle ma jizzle.

 

I would disagree with heady topper. What beer have people chased to try and emulate...julius I would say. Doesn’t the style chase fruity, soft, creamy, no bitterness. That’s very far from heady topper.

Now what cause tree house to try and brew those beers is another story I guess. But the trend I think comes mostly from those murky fruity beers from Massachusetts.