Has Brut IPA already died...

I just thought the style was "OK" but I would hate to see it go away like Black/White IPAs. Variety is good.

 

I've never really liked them, so I'm okay with this. Most remind me of IPL, which I also don't care for.
Feels like EVERYONE hopped on this bandwagon and fast. Both hazy and bright focused breweries seem to make them in equal amounts. My grocery store shelves are stocked with dozens of examples from all of the big names, but I don't really see anyone buying any of them.

 

While I have never had this style, the question made me think of one style I did enjoy: Black IPA. Whatever happened to it?

 

I was a big fan of the style. There's still some out there, but getting harder to locate.

 

I loved the one from Firestone Walker..... ahhhhhh!

 

It was a style that got massively hyped up by the beer media despite there being not much of a market for it, causing breweries to overestimate what the actual market for it was and they all jumped on a bandwagon that didn't exist.

With no actual market for the beer the flare up of offerings we saw came and quickly went away as they didn't sell.

Long story short, wait for something to actually sell before jumping in yourself and making it on a commercial scale.

 

I think a lot of breweries realized they waited to long to jump in with the juicy NEIPA's and when they heard about this even newer style they wanted to be first in on it, in whatever location they happened to be in. Then it didn't hit as hard as the NEIPA trend, and of course they made a correction and we are starting to see less of them now. Maybe if some hip brewery were making these early on and people had to wait in line for them, they would still be going strong. Though since it seems a lot of places started making this right away the hype didn't have time to simmer and bubble for a while (this is just my conjecture and opinion, nothing else). Personally, I liked the handful that I have had both locally (Holler, Great Heights, Saint Arnold) and from the larger regional breweries (Sierra Nevada, Omegang). I'll continue to drink these when I see them, if they are fresh that is.

 

They didn't sell as most just weren't good and tasted like cardboard that was somehow both burnt and soggy. A few were good but it's a lot harder to make a good black IPA than it is to make a hazy juice bomb so as the local hazeboi breweries started gaining market share the style died off since it probably takes more than three years of brewing experience to make a good black IPA.

Was more of a supply side issue than a demand issue imo.

 

Dave, are any of the breweries in your area producing a year-round Brut IPA?

Cheers!

 

I’ve had 9 and really enjoy the style. As with anything, there is a range of quality, some much better than others. I suspect it’s a tricky style for the brewer.

They are still all over the place in LA.

 

I mean, this website made it a distinct beer style and Sierra freakin' Nevada made a nationally distributed version! It was crowned as the Next Big Thing before it even got to be A Thing.

Am I remembering correctly that some of the early attention-getting versions of this "style" were bottle conditioned to a high level of carbonation with brett? That sort of IPA-champagne concept actually does seem pretty cool to me, but that's also clearly a fringy, experimental thing that your tiny local fancy-pants artisanal brewery puts out a few hundred bottles at a time. That so many people who should know better saw it as the exact opposite of that is genuinely mystifying to me.

I don't know. Maybe the real brut IPAs are the friends we made along the way.

 

No, just in rotations and as seasonal releases. This is fine with me, so long as they continue.

 

Is this a sign they are not 'fully committed' to this beer style or is producing beers on a rotating basis (e.g., the Tired Hands business model) just how they do things?

Cheers!

 

I hope so. Terrible beer style. Never had one worth trying a second time.

 

Same. I think a lot of people saw it as a similar fad. I really liked them and I still do.
Thing is, when those died it feels like they took their cousin "American Stout" with them. Hoppy dark beers are nearly on life support. We need a trendy brewery to go all-in and make them cool again.

 

We have two year round offerings. Seems like a difficult style based on the misses. What sudwerk is doing with ipl right now might well displace all the light ipa styles though

 

I somewhat agree with your take but your last line is a bit like a chicken an egg situation. In this case, brewers took the opposite approach of the above because they wanted to be first to market. If the consumer attitude was "I'll try it to see what it is and then probably move on," then those brewers might have made the right choice even if it's purely a short-term one.

Also regarding your last line in this post, that thinking doesn't explain why Wookey Jack and Sublimely Self-Righteous aren't in stores these days.

 

Black IPAs are doubly inaccessible, with typically aggressive, piney, bitter hops and substantial, dark and/or roasted malt flavor. They're the opposite of what the newer craft beer drinkers who have flooded the scene in the last half decade or so are craving (sweet and familiar flavors with minimal challenging bitterness).

If you haven't noticed, the entire industry has drastically shifted to accommodate the massive collective sweet tooth of newer craft beer drinkers. The wacky neon labels of IPA cans scream about how "juicy" the beer is, and stout labels now feature long lists of pandering flavoring adjuncts that sound more like ice cream toppings (chocolate, vanilla, peanut butter, coconut, cherry, etc.).

 

No, that's pretty much the pattern around here for all but the best sellers, so just how they do things.

 

I have noticed lately (over the past year or so) that more and more of the small, local breweries here are doing the 'one off' and 'rotating' thing (but not to the extreme extent of Tired Hands*). I suppose by keeping things 'fresh' this keeps the haze bros and tickers happy?

Cheers

*For the past 5 weeks or so Tired Hands has been providing weekly releases of Peach Milkshake IPA (I acquired one yesterday). I think this is an interesting switch for them. I wonder what the Haze Bros are thinking about this continuity of brewing?