Fruit IPAs and how we got there.

I just think that a lot of the newer hop varieties with work better with fruit. A few places around here used to experiment with fruited IPA's back in the 00's and it never really seemed to work well.
I don't think caramel malts + high IBU normal addition timing C hops work well with fruit. A few randomly did, like a Cherry IPA made with Crystal and Nugget, but most didn't.
However late addition juicier hops and citrus blend well. At least IMO. They seem to sell well after all.

 

Sounds about right. Hops that evoked fruit let to culmination of hops + fruit. To me, fruit beers are a tightrope. Some beers showcase fruit very well. However, I tried a can of Mango Even Keel and was completely turned off this new fruity trend.

Hell or High Watermelon? Yeah, its pretty good. I recall years ago I actually liked Pyramid Apricot wheat.

However, when a guy in the store tells me the best beer in the shop at the moment is...

BP Watermelon Dorado!?!

I have to call BS on that! To each their own. For me, bring back the original Stone Ruination.

 

Aprihop has been around for what, 15 years? Fruit IPAs are certainly nothing new.
I do think some of the newer fad hops (juuuuuuiiiicy) lend themselves to fruit additives.
How many of the highly-regarded juice bombs actually have fruit in them (vs the fruitiness coming all from hops)?
Is using zest a less egregious foul that using straight juice?

 

I believe Grapefruit was a decent transition for a summer offering and everyone seems to have been ok with this and jumped on board. Where we got carried away was Ballast Point selling to concelatoin beverage (traditionally a wine distributor) for a cool 1 billion. This monster investment left them needing a huge increase in sales to generate revenue to recoup their investment by trying to get the female audience into the IPA world with pineapples, mangos, watermelons, and grapefruits. It was a big hit so here we are. However, I believe this to be a short lived trend that won't survive the winter.

 

The fruity characteristics of some hops probably led to going all overboard and such. "This reminds me of grapefruit....wait, grapefruit!". Nothing good can be left alone it seems. I've enjoyed a few blood orange IPAs, and grapefruit Sculpin was ok, but I think that adding anything to expand on the natural taste just comes off as contrived and throws off balance in most cases. Of course, there are exceptions but not nearly enough when compared to the lot.....and Hell or High Watermelon or whatever? Ummm, not so much....

 

Not a fan...

 

I HATE the addition of fruit.

Its one thing to add a slice to garnish the glass or use it to accent flavors more ( not sure its the right word here).

It is a complete different thing to add fruit to the beer to have it match the new craze of these Hazy/opaque/Juicy/JuiceBomb but adding fruit. Imo I feel this is exactly what they are trying to do. Its a way to compete at a lower cost (may it be time or money).

 

Beer Camp Tropical IPA, DFH Romantic Chemistry, Citradelic, Soul Style, Tropical Bitch, Dayglow, Rebel Grapefruit, Pineapple Sculpin, CitraSinenisis - i think they are trying to latch onto the juice bomb craze. but instead of haze, they are just adding fruit or juice.

 

I like the citrus additions that I've had (blood orange, grapefruit, tangerine) but not so much the mango, pineapple or watermelon...my .02c

 

Does Beer Camp Tropical IPA have any fruit additions though? Can't remember for sure, but I thought the tropical notes were achieved by the hops...

 

nope, just hops.

 

That's what I thought, which is perhaps why I enjoyed it the most out of all these fruity/tropical/fruit-added IPAs. More times than not, for my palate, the addition of fruit comes across as artificial and heavy-handed - the one exception is probably Grapefruit Sculpin, which I do really enjoy.

 

Regular sculpin is easily better than grapefruit and pineapple. Tangerine Soul Style wasn't great either. That said I'm excited to try Enjoy By Tangerine, but I generally avoid them.

 

I think of them as gateway beers. New generations of drinkers might be more attracted to the perceived approachability, and also. The perceived novelty of something which brewers have done since they brewed is coming circle. That, and newer generations of hops practically scream play mix and match with most of the fruit varietals being used. The fact that hops close cousin marijuana is also doing many of these similar things with its diversifying product range outside of the regular green plant might have a thing or to do with this as well. If you discovered how a watermelon wrap worked wonderfully with x strain. You know the rest.
I wouldn't think of these as ways to cut corners either. Working with fruit, or juice has its own risks and its own price of admission.

 

regular sculpin > pineapple sculpin > grapefruit sculpin > habanero sculpin

 

Count me among those who think that these are IPAs for people who don't like IPAs. It's kinda like the new trend of the opaque IPAs, folks want to fit into the trend, but don't actually care for what the trendy thing is, so brewers have come up with a new thing, called it by the name of the old thing, and boom, profit. Adding juice is just an extension of that, in my eyes.

 

Yeah, some are adding fruit. Some are achieving the tropical juice taste just with hops. Either way, i think they are going after that market for juice bomb ipas that was created by the new england ipas. but instead of dry hopping the shit out of the beer or adding yeast or however they create that haze, they are just trying to make it taste like tropical fruit punch.

 

I am not a fan, but I think fruit is a way to ease people into hops. I think of when I started drinking IPA's years ago, and they were very bitter-forward. I did a lot of force-drinking to get my palate used to them. A juice-bomb IPA these days makes the IPA easier to grasp, especially to people who aren't used to the hop bitterness. Thinking back to when I was getting into IPAs, it would've been a much easier process if I had a sweet, tropical beer to reign me in, then gravitate towards the bitter as I grew to appreciate hop character. With the addition of actual fruit juice, this would be even easier to approach, as people know what to expect from the fruit, and they can decide if they like the complement of the hops.

 

I'm a sucker for a fruit beer every time. But they almost always disappoint in one of two ways. They either end up going the shandy route -- overpowering either with sweet/cloying/artificial, or they do the fruit the right way and it is such a subtle addition that it is way in the background.

I'm no brewer, but I imagine it is hard to pack a lot of fruit "flavor" into the beer without it overpowering in a bad way.

For the shandy-leaning ones, I think a better marketing angle would be to market them as such. Perrin does a "Grapefruit IPA" that is pretty much a shandy, all sweet fruit and not at all hop forward (did I mention 4.7% ABV). They had it on tap at a local B-dubs, and a lot of people would ask about it, then turn it down because it had "IPA" in the name. The true hop heads (like me) are disappointed because it isn't hoppy, and they aren't selling any to the poeple who get scared off by "IPA."