Has Brut IPA already died...

I think local breweries have settled in to their niches and rotations that work for their level of skills and market share, and I think it is similar to what you have described as your local availability of styles. All that would make it perfect for me are some good English styles done here, especially cask ale styles served properly, and maybe a world class imperial stout or two.

 

I posted this in another thread a while back: "Based on the admittedly few (Brut IPA's) I've had, I love the unbridled hoppiness, the effervescence, the unobtrusive malt presence, the high ABV, and the exquisitely dry finish." IMO a well-made brut IPA is a real tribute to the brewer's craft. I hope the style is here to stay.

 

Unfortunately English styles are not very popular in my area either. Yards produces some very good English beers (e.g., Brawler) but their one time flagship beer of ESA is no longer a packaged beer and lately I have only been able to find this beer at the Yards tasting room. Another local, small brewery that regularly produces English beers is Forest & Main but generally speaking folks get excited about their Belgian beers (Saisons) and hoppy beers. They have three tasty sounding English beers on cask right now:

http://www.forestandmain.com/61-n-main-st

Tomorrow I will be bottling my annual batch of an English Bitter Ale. The manager of a local Retail Beer Distributor loves this beer and every year I give him a 6-pack and every time when I hand it to him he says: "One of the local breweries should brew this beer". I reply: "English Ales are not too popular with craft beer drinkers so...but since you are in the beer industry why don't you reach out to some local brewery and have them brew it?"

Cheers!

 

But it's the first to market based off of what though, some website articles? It's not like these things were blowing up on the local scenes, some self decided 'taste makers' claimed that they were going to be popular. It doesn't even feel like consumers tried it and moved on, they just completely ignored it, and the beer market is set up these days to actually make it kind of easy to figure out what's going to be popular or not.

As for why those beers aren't around, it is a supply issue to me as if these local scene brewers decided to make them and market them somewhat well the style might have survived better. Carton makes one, people buy it so the demand is there, but then no one else in NJ really tries to make one. As craft gets much more localized the abilities and preferences of the local brewers is going to drive a lot of what's available.

As to why those two specific beers aren't around, it's hard to keep a style alive in this market even if the version you make is good. For a style to survive and flourish a lot of people have to be making decent versions of it, or else the demand collapses through virtue of there being a shitty supply because craft consumers are not loyal and they jump from brand to brand on a weekly basis.

 

Yup, what @champ103 said.

Imagine if Tree House or Trillium waited for New England IPAs to be popular?

There's something to be said for being first, and I think every brewery is trying to catch lightening in a bottle like these guys did.

I think the other part of this, is that I don't think anyone really knows what the style is. I've seen and tasted so many different versions of a Brut IPA.

Some of them even simply tasting (and looking) like poorly made New England IPAs.

I recall the original versions I saw looking clear, while I've seen many that are indistinguishable from New England IPAs.

 

I'm referencing the Sierra Nevada's and New Belgium's of the scene, not the small guys who have the ability to move on a dime with trends. The big guys can't really afford to go nationwide with something based off of a few guys' opinions in a magazine no one reads.

Look at NEIPA, it grew from the local to the regional to the national over the course of what, seven or eight years? Brut went from a few local guys here or there to nationwide in less than a year. Maybe the national brands took too long to jump on NEIPA, but I'm pretty sure that back in 2010 it would have been a lot to ask a national brewer to gamble a lot of production capacity on a style that hadn't really taken off yet. This just feels like an over-correction to missing out on the NEIPA trend from these bigger brewers.

 

I had a couple of those and they were disappointing beers for my palate.

My guess is that a number of breweries tried to produce Brut IPAs but were not successful in their brewing attempts.

The one brewery that did a great job in producing a Brut IPA IMO is Ommegang. I wish I could name a second brewery but I can't.

I thought the Sierra Nevada Brut IPA was disappointing within the context of IPA. It was sorta a nice Pilsner-type beer though.

Cheers!

 

It’s not sweet enough and tastes too much like beer to catch on. I was listening to a milk the funk podcast and the guy from omega yeast said he’s convinced that most people want beer that tastes like alcoholic coke.

 

It definitely isn't. Dead and gone.

 

Passing fad.

Just like session IPAs and IPLs.

So far the only one's that stuck were plain ol' American IPAs (define that however you want), West Coast IPAs...and now just the New England IPA stands alone as widely popular.

Ahh ok, yes I agree.

I thought you were talking about breweries in general.

 

What!?!

Founders All Day IPA is selling like 'gangbusters'!!

Cheers!

 

My thoughts too. I’m actually seeing more and more breweries around here coming out with sub-5% IPAs, whether they call them session or not.

 

Sounds like a good idea to me.

Maybe you could 'patent' this idea?

Cheers!

 

I've had a few in the style and enjoyed them. Basically I found them to be a drier take on IPA, which can be a refreshing change once in a while (thank G-d I'm not lactose intolerant).

That said, beer styles generally tend to be a bit seasonal, among the breweries regardless of size; I suspect many are simply gearing up for their more Spring/Summer friendly styles and the Brut IPAs will come back in the Fall.

 

Interesting takes, I had one from New Belgium, it tasted like hopped champagne. I think that is where the style derives itself from. I was caught between a twelve pack of Brut IPA and the Weihstephaner Oktoberfest collaboration both by Sierra Nevada. Both of them intrigued me but the Oktoberfest won seeing as it is in my top 5 of beer styles, like the NEIPA hype I did not want to get behind this one either.

Judging by the New Belgium version I am sure SN just does it better as they usually do. I will be picking one up if I ever see it again, kind of a nice calmer IPA style with a more subdued hop profile and a could be introduction into beer for a wine or champagne drinker too!

 

It does have a different flavor profile, doesn't it?

 

SO TRUE!!!!!!!!!! SO TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!

The kool aid guy should be on every label now saying how juicy it is or how fruity each style is. OH YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I think so. I think they have been trying to go for something like a brut champagne in look and texture. The flavor profile is clearly different, but those I've had have been very dry.