Debunking Myths About Hazy IPAs

First off, I think I’m treading water here with this post as some people might view some of these statements as arrogant or condescending and that it absolutely not my intent. I’m more interested in helping advance some of the beer education that I believe most BA’s join the site to participate in...

A few months ago I started a thread asking if there were examples of beers that displayed good clarity but that had qualities associated with a New England style IPA. Part of the reason I was curious is because there has been so much debate in the last two years about the source of haze.

About 75% of what I brew in Tombstone is some type of hazy IPA variant. Besides that, we brew German style lagers, Imperial stouts, and the occasional Amber ale as taproom only releases. We also have a fairly large barrel program with funky beers being a big focus going forward.

The picture above of No Coast IPA was in our most recent can release on saturday. The idea was to brew a non-hazy IPA that is heavily hopped, low in bitterness, juicy, and unfiltered. The picture looks slightly hazier than it actually is due to condensation on the glass. There is a very slight haze that prevents it from looking like a filtered beer.

About the beer:

A common claim for hazy beers is that the haze comes from heavy dry hopping. This beer was dry hopped with the same rate of hops we use for our hazy IPA’s. In addition to be hopped with nearly 6 lbs of hops per bbl, I used pure hop oils at 3x the rate of the normal recommendation of the supplier. The hops used came from the exact same lot of hops that our NEIPA hops come from. No difference at all there. Varieties were Citra and mosaic.

Another claim I’ve heard/read is that brewers are just too lazy or impatient. This beer went from grain to can in 10 days. It was not filtered and it was packaged out of a unitank, which means it was never transferred out of the tank it was fermented in. That’s the same amount of time as all of our NEIPA’s and same process for packaging.

Next one up: dry hopping during fermentation is a source of haze. This beer was dry hopped during fermentation at the same time schedule as all of our hoppy beers.

Water chemistry is frequently cited as a mouthfeel and potential haze source. Of note to that point, calcium is a co-factor for yeast flocculation. Normally, from what I’ve seen in school, 120-160 ppm Calcium in the brewing water is recommended for flocculation and for beer stone development and settling before packaging. I use very soft water. This was 27 ppm Calcium for the brewing water.

A notable exception that this doesn’t cover is the use of oats or Flaked Wheat creating haze. I want to point out now that I have never (and will never) used flour in a beer. However, almost every amber ale and stout that I brew uses oats at the same rate as our NEIPA’s and comes out of the tank with good clarity.

So what makes our hazy beers hazy if we use the exact same techniques, timeline, hops, etc? My long held belief is that there are two yeast strains that I am aware of which will not flocculate in the presence of dry hops. In fact, without dry hops, one of those two strains is extremely flocculant and will produce a brite beer with no finings or filtration in a very short time frame. However, when you dry hop during fermentation, it will not flocculate. If you dry hop a few days after fermentation, they will still flocculate, but then you lose some of the volatile hop compounds with that technique. IMO, haze is a consequence or a byproduct of a certain flavor profile that has been deemed to be desirable. Some people have “analyzed” these beers with microscopes and have said they see no yeast present in their sample... it takes a LOT of yeast to show up in a small sample on a microscope, but it takes very little to make a beer cloudy to the naked eye in a glass. My belief is that hop oils coat yeast cell membrane and prevent aggregation and that a few strains are more susceptible to that phenomenon than others.

This particular beer has everything I love about IPA’s and is brewed with the same techniques and a different yeast strain. Instead of a peachy ester, this yeast strain displays more of a plum or red apple character. Cheers BA’s!

 

Thanks for joining in the conversation! I always enjoy your questions and commentary.

My goal was to create a very soft mouthfeel, but I wouldn’t describe it as velvety or creamy. It is soft in the way that a German Pils is soft, but not fluffy. That’s in part due to the water chemistry and in part due to using Weyermann’s Extra Pale Premium Pils Malt which always gives a very soft mouthfeel and a touch of honey like sweetness while also being very pale and providing a great head retention.

There were no oats in this beer. However, like I mentioned, a lot of my other beers use 10-15% oats in the grist and come out with good clarity and no filtration is required for those.

 

Missed a few questions. I use Imperial Organic for 99% of my yeast needs. I used A09 Pub which is the same yeast used in Fuller’s and is highly flocculant.

I used Weyermann Pils as the base and then Carafoam and a small amount of Gambrinus honey malt.

 

I realized I missed your other questions and answered them in a follow up if you missed that one

 

And yes, I would say it’s different than a hazy IPA, but it does have the juiciness. I don’t think it could reasonably be called any single type of IPA, but rather it incorporates my favorite attributes of each.

 

I did not see that thread. I could see how you would get there. However, my “Biffhoriffic Amber” used Boddington’s, 15% oats, Floor Malted Maris Otter, and was hopped at 3 lbs per bbl with Cascade and Citra dry hopped post fermentation, and it was clear within 3 days of cold crashing (11 Day tank turnover) without filtration or finings.

 

The big thing in my opinion with Flaked Oats vs Malted Oats is the mouthfeel change. They should have the same protein content, but the beta glucans are higher with Flaked oats. I use Flaked oats, not Malted oats. I reserve Malted Oats for beers that I want to have a distinctive grainy flavor... normally porters and stouts. I don’t notice a huge flavor contribution from Flaked oats, but the creamy mouthfeel is what I get.

For the Boddington’s I use Imperial Organic “Juice.” That yeast actually gives an awesome creamy mouthfeel even without oats due to the amount of glycogens it produces. I could not use that in this beer that I wanted to be clear since I already knew it wouldn’t flocculate in the presence of dry hops.

I do not believe it is possible to make a beer taste and feel exactly like a NEIPA without it being hazy, but maybe there is a yeast strain out there that can do it. I would have been close if I used oats in this beer, but still not all the way there without the glycogens.

 

In my experience using a trained, 12 person, blind tasting panel, it is true that the haze itself doensn’t contribute to the mouthfeel, however the mouthfeel won’t be creamy or velvety using most yeast strains and that the ones that do give that mouthfeel won’t flocculate in the presence of dry hops. So there is a relation, but haze is not the causation. I know of one brewer that centrifuged their take on the style and the beer had good clarity and the mouthfeel was close to the velvety mouthfeel that is desired, but I think they missed by just a little due to other processes.

 

Our tap water is terrible. It contains small amounts of lead and even arsenic. Before the brewery opened, we had our water tested on multiple occasions and not only was it terrible quality, it was crazily inconsistent. We have an oversized RO system which gets our brewing water down to 1 ppm TDS. The majority of what I brew is well suited for using soft water similar to what you’d find historically in Pilsen.