NEIPA Comparisons

I agree

 

Evil twin can be a hit or miss... I've had some amazing neipa from them and my drain has had some bad ones... Westbrooks rinse and repeat cycles have all been amazing

 

Many breweries in many places are making great versions of this style of beer. It is not terribly difficult. You basically just need a few simple changes in recipe construction and which yeast strain you use. No beer calculus needed.

 

On the other hand I'm tiring of them, there's a dull sameness to them. It doesn't make them bad actually they're very good, just very predictable for the most part. I find the juicey part makes my palate a bit weary after a few, or for a few days in a row, but the better ones have a tad more bitter to them. The beers from Resident Culture are the best local examples that I can find. Mikkeller SD makes some great beers too, and they do show some variety.

 

That's the perfect description for me and I couldn't agree more. Predictable is perfect.

 

I feel the same (in Chicago). There are at least three breweries here (Forbidden Root, Corridor, Dry Hop, and some would argue at least six more: More, Mikerphone, Maplewood, Une Année, Hop Butcher, and Noon Whistle) that are putting out stuff in the same realm as Trillium, Tree House, Bissell Brothers, et al.

I assume this thread is going to be full of Tree House/Trillium homers, though, so don't be surprised if this ends up being controversial.

For the record, I think that Trillium is still the overall champion of the style, but I think there's a great producer in just about every major beer market at this point. Even Wisconsin, a state which has historically had next to no great IPAs of any leaning, has a few really good ones nowadays.

 

Unfortunately I have to agree with @nc41. I haven't yet tried Tree House or Trillium, but I am getting burned out on NEIPAs. Most of them taste about the same taste and they all start to run into each other. The biggest problem I find is that many of them have this chalky or even menthol/toothpaste-like aftertaste that I find incredibly off-putting. Cleanness is one the most admirable traits in beer to me, and many NEIPAs just do not seem well made.
But, having said that, IPAs are still my favorite style of beer and there are some really good NEIPAs. I love Otter Creek's recent hazy IPAs. Lord Hobo make quality NEIPAs. Everything I've had from Barrier and Mikkeller has been pretty good.
But if you're just searching for NEIPAs in general, the style has become pretty accessible. Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing, New Belgium Juicy Haze, and Samuel Adams New England IPA are available pretty much everywhere and they're all pretty decent for what they are. Plus I daresay every pocket of the country has a microbrewery heavily invested in making juicy, dry-hopped IPAs. It's an amazing time for beer.

 

Greetings from the geographical center of New England!

I don't see why it needs to be.

But unlike @HorseheadsHophead I do not find that most of them taste about the same. Obviously, there's a broad commonality within the style, and within any particular brewery's offerings there tends to be a sort of general similarity, but across the northeast there's a wide variation in expression and profile well beyond what you'd expect just from using different hop varieties. It's not all juice and 0 IBU's. Tree House beers (mostly) have a sort of peachy, bubblegum character, Trillium tends toward heavier, rounder, minimal bitterness IPA's but with huge variations in flavor profile from beer to beer, Hill Farmstead pale ales are exceptionally light and clean-drinking, even the doubles, with a unique mineral water tang, and Mast Landing, one of my very favorite, under-appreciated breweries, makes brightly carbonated, well bittered IPA's... etc. and on and on and on, because there are hundreds and hundreds of little breweries hidden in the second-growth forests behind hills down dirt roads or in abandoned mill buildings all the fuck over New England and I will not take my rest until I've visited them all.

So, yes, I suppose a lot of them are fairly shitty and a lot more taste pretty much the same but just as many are terrific and a few are pure gold and totally worth seeking out. Or, at least, that's been my life's work.

 

I agree 100%, the ones I tend to like all have a bitter backbone. I still prefer a west coast IPA over the NEIPA style. I just like the dryer IPAs with a bite versus the softer juicy IPAs

 

One of the best NEIPA’s IMO, comes from Raleigh. Brewery Bhavana - Grove. https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/48597/272304/

I agree with others, in that there are many very similar NEIPA’s, however, when I find a good one it still stands out from the crowd.

 

I think you hit it. Everyone is rushing to the door with their take, and some of them just are not very good. Trillium is outstanding by any measure, so the others seem to me to be an effort to copycat. What I was looking for yesterday was a simple fresh Hop Devil, and I couldn't find ever an old HD. The shelves are full of hazy beers at $6 a can that's not worth half that.

 

OP I am going to see you tomorrow in New Beer Sunday. I have Captain Lawrence Brewing's orbital tilt for this week. I am happy to be seeing them get more shelf space as a style so that I don';t have to go to New England or trade to get one. And I know why many people develop a soft spot for them because I think I might be one of them. I think that they can taste very much the same too and I bought the one I have simply to try the Vic Secret hops in it. Mine is a smash beer as well .

 

I am fortunate to live in northern Virginia where there are plenty of great offerings of this style. I agree that a lot of local breweries offer good NEIPAs, but there are different levels of the style to me.

I tend to gravitate to double IPAs as there is more bite to it while still accentuating the juiceiness of the style.

The regular rotations of tree house, trillium, Aslin, etc are all really good beers, but beers like Trillium Headroom, Spindletap Hazier, Aslin DDH neutrino (for example) are examples of a NEIPA that are a step above. Veil triple IPAs, OH brews, as well. And there are others.

As far as getting bored of the style, or not being able to drink them continuously, I always mix my beer styles up because there are a lot of great beers out there, and it helps with fatigue of drinking the same style. I would make the same claim if I tried to drink stouts all night.

My ideal beer night would be leading with a great gose or pils, follow it with a great NEIPA, then finish the night with a killer stout.

 

I think this just proves that a well made beer is just that. A style of beer can be good or bad, it's the individual offerings that make or break it. There's a ton of mediocre IPAs out there across many styles and most are not worth the effort. But then there's the other side of that coin when you find the magic in a can or bottle.

 

Pretty spot on. A NEIPA can be a treat. More than one and you get rapidly diminishing returns.

 

Here in Kalamazoo, one might think "Bell's should crush this." But no, they've not. M-43 by Old Nation is the Godfather of Haze in Michigan. Their subsequent hazy offerings (Boss, Stone, Cart,etc) have all been fantastic, too. Locally, Ann Arbor's HOMES and Kalamazoo's Wax Wings are the next best I can get here in Michigan. Of course Transient deserves mention, but in my opinion, HOMES and Wax Wings are preferable. There are many that make an attempt at this style, but few who excel. In other markets, my favorites have been Kane, Tired Hands, Zaftig, Bearded Iris, and Hoof Hearted. There's a lot of gems out there, but one must sift through all the breweries cashing in by putting "NEIPA" on a mild traditional American IPA.