IPA - Imperial New England

I would be fine with this change for an Imperial New England IPA. Seems like it is a style that isn't going away anytime soon.

 

The thing with this is, the IPA can be imperial whether it is NE style or not, so if it is a double or higher IPA it is always an "imperial IPA" regardless of how hazy it is. I guess the problem comes with ratings and comparing from the style, say a Tree House King Julius vs a Stone Ruination, they are hardly comparable. I can take it or leave it, it is helpful with differentiating the styles though.

 

I agree with New England DIPA being a separate style. Though some semi-hazy piney DIPAs could go either way

 

Agreed. But also WCTIPA and NETIPA.

 

IMO, we could get out of hand with substyles of the NEIPA but all you need to do is just read the ABV and that should give you alot of differences to expect between a 5.5% NE pale ale, a 7% NEIPA an 8.5% imperial NEIPA and the 10%+ Triple NEIPAs. You should know what to expect as far as thin/thickness and amount of body in general.

I'd be more content to see the Milkshake IPA additional style vs. mulitple NEIPA styles based soley on the ABV differences...lactose addition to an IPAs is very different animal IMO.

 

I don't want to get into distinguishing IPA from WC IPA, then you have to talk about Midwest IPA and where do you put DFH IPAs who are physically located no where near the WC yet at least helped start the trend. I think it's largely recognized all American IPAs were generally in line with WC IPA until NE IPA.

 

Regardless given the proliferation of TIPAS I think it's due it's own non-geographical recognition.

 

If we're going to keep up the classification of styles based on general ABV ranges, yes I agree. Ultimately more malt or fermentable sugars and longer fermentation time is required.

 

This is the same comment I just made in the Session IPA thread.

“This seems like a slippery slope. We could easily balloon the number of styles. Maybe just add a qualifier, so the like beers can be culled out for comparison.

Unless there is a significant difference in multiple criteria (primarily Aroma/Flavor), then some of these distinctions can be academic, with only the true geeks really concerned.”

 

I've thought about this a lot and would definitely welcome an Imperial NEIPA category. I'll try to summarize my thinking with this example.
To me, an 8.5% Imperial New England IPA will more than likely bear a much stronger resemblance to a NEIPA than a straight Imperial IPA. But putting that, and especially 10+% Triple New England IPAs in the general New England IPA category just feels wrong.

 

Many of the NEIPA’s are actually just hazy IPA’s. Similarly, alcohol level is one component of a complex profile. To me a new style should be a more rounded impression.

 

What's a hazy IPA?

 

I would say cloudy.

Cheers!

 

I also agree there should be NEDIPA.

Cheers!

 

Hazy, Cloudy, regardless.

I think some brewers are either ignoring the criteria for clarity, in an IPA, or trying to curry favor due to the NEIPA boon. The Look criteria is a minor component of the style guide, and too many of us give it a pass by accepting it in any IPA, or automatically calling it a NEIPA. The Smell and Taste of a NEIPA is significantly different (as it should be) between a NEIPA and the other IPA variants.

 

Unpopular opinion: get rid of the New England IPA category altogether. Then all double and triple IPAs can go in the Imperial category. (Save the Belgian, British, Black and Brut IPAs, of course. IPA styles that start with “B” get a pass when it comes to being single, double or triple.).

 

LOL !

 

What you're talking about is a failure to brew to either style, which you appear to be fairly cognizant of without explicitly acknowledging it.

A successful "hazy IPA" is, for all intents and purposes, a New England IPA. Just because some breweries are bucking the name and labeling theirs as Hazy IPA nowadays doesn't mean they aren't using the same method and aiming for the same experience of higher aromatics, sweeter flavor, fruitier hop expression and fluffier body.

It started in New England as really only slightly hazy, and some of them were actually quite ugly. There's a reason Alchemist still to this day says to drink from the can, (two words: fish food), which is an inferior method of drinking highly aromatic beer.

While the earlier progenitors are more bitter than where it ended up, it was subsequently perfected in New England at Hill and Tree House, et al, and the rest is a history of an explosive trend being seized upon. Not everyone has figured out how to produce this style correctly. Hell, some breweries still refuse to actually ask the right question of "how" to achieve the haze, assuming it's just a matter of not filtering a regular IPA. But the appropriate execution is becoming more prevalent. There are at least 5 breweries locally to me that are just absolutely knocking it out of the park, and while most of them call them "hazies," they're very clearly NE IPA. They either don't want to confuse their more casual customers who refer to them as hazies, or refuse to concede the origin of the style.

Maybe there's room for a qualifier or a co-name via " / " like many of the other styles here, but they aren't two different things.