Northeast Pales/IPA/DIPA

I dont cold crash any of my beers. I wish I had the means. Really all I need is a johnson control and I am set. As far as brewing this NE IPA vs my west coast IPAs, the only difference was I dryhopped at one week with this beer. Usually I let my IPAs ferment for 2 weeks before dryhopping, and I used london3 instead of chico. The beer looked clear with no krausen before I dryhopped. I plan on doing another beer like this, and am going to use a clear fermenter and taking pics for documenting how the yeast works and reacts to dryhopping.

 

Really appreciate all you guys who are brewing these experiments. As a non-brewer who is doing his best to better understand beer, how styles/processes differ, etc., this stuff is super helpful. Cheers!

 

Good lord. Turbidity should be considered a flaw in ANY style that doesn't normally call for it (hefe, for example).

 

As you can read in this thread (and others on BA), some folks think otherwise.

I personally find murky hoppy beers to be unappealing but that is just me (and you?).

Cheers!

 

BJCP guidlines for American IPA:

"Appearance: Color ranges from medium gold to light reddish-amber. Should be clear, although unfiltered dryhopped versions may be a bit hazy. Medium-sized, white to offwhite head with good persistence."

Looks like the style guidelines are fine with some turbidity. Extreme haze could be considered a flaw, but I doubt any judge would doc significant points if you call out the use of wheat or other adjuncts, a massive dry hop, and/or a low floc'ing American/English yeast.

 

I use wheat malt with my IPAs usually, dry hop them at the end of fermentation and I use Conan for most of my IPAs. However, they usually end up very clear. I will get slight chill haze in the beginning, but then they clear up. For me it's a matter of acidity and calcium content. If I get my pH in the correct range, keep my Ca level closer to 100ppm and keep the beer cold, they clear up, no matter what yeast I use (even WLP 300).

 

What amount of hops do you use for dry hopping?

Some folks have the opinion that the murkiness is due to the amount of polyphenols that many ounces of hops bring during dry hopping (e.g., 5 ounces for dry hopping).

Cheers!

 

While I wouldn't scoff at a heavily-hopped beer displaying some haze, with the proper practices and procedures, it's very possible to clear up your hoppy beer. Where I work, we don't filter or use a centrifuge, but after many, many different changes in procedure, we got our IPAs dramatically cleared up and looking incredible with no extra volume loss, or loss in flavor or aroma. If I went into a bar and was poured a snifter of sludge like I saw earlier in this thread, I'd send it right back.

 

So? Good on ya boy. Many here would not.

 

I've also experienced this. Except with Wyeast London 3. London 3 and hoppy beers simply won't clear. Maybe some gelatin would help but I know that 3 weeks in a keg at 35F reduced the haze almost none.

 

I'm painfully aware. Problem is, the more craft breweries put out substandard beers like that, it hurts us all. Every craft brewery should strive to put out the absolute best beer possible, and that includes appearance. If your typical macro drinker gets handed a glass of sludge, it doesn't help convert him/her.

 

For the non-specialty type categories, all the judges should see are your beer bottle and entry number. But I suspect the subjective definition of "a bit hazy" may get tweaked in judges' minds based on what's happening commercially. Anyone entered a haze bomb recently?

 

If it is turbid from yeast, I mind the next day, my wife minds even more.

 

I don't think appearance should outweigh flavor and aroma. If changing the process to make the beer more clear strips any flavor or aroma out I would say that is a bad thing. Now if you can make the beer less turbid while retaining all the flavor and aroma then I would agree with you. I personally don't care if more macro beer drinkers drink more "craft" beer. I would care even less if to convert macro drinkers causes the beer I like to enjoy to be changed negatively. Besides if a macro drinker is handed a heavily hopped ipa they probably won't like it regardless of how it looks.

Last night I shared my hoppy hazzy beer at my homebrew club and one of the guys who is a certified bjcp judge kept telling me how to fix my haze problem and I kept saying it's not a problem. I like it that way, especially when they were saying "I could smell this all day long".


Lastly, if the yeast being used is causing the hazyness but produces great IPAs why change it?

 

“Now if you can make the beer less turbid while retaining all the flavor and aroma then I would agree with you.” Are you of the opinion that reducing the turbidity of the beer will in fact affect the flavor/aroma of the beer? If so, why?

“Lastly, if the yeast being used is causing the hazyness but produces great IPAs why change it?” I have not read anything in this thread (or other threads) that definitively states that murky hoppy beers are that way because of the yeast. In fact, the post by JC Tetreault that at Trillium Brewing they utilize a highly flocculent yeast indicates to me that yeast is not the cause of the murkiness of Trillium beer.

Cheers!

 

I'm with you GMAIPA, I don't buy craft beer to convert macro drinkers. My tastes/preferences do not have others in mind. My bosses went to Toppling Goliath on Tuesday because they were in town for work, and I told them they should stop by and grab us some beer which they obliged. I just looked at two of the IPAs through the bottle; Goldent Nugget (fantastic IPA) is clear and I could see my finger on the other side. The Pseudo Sue is hazy and I could not see my finger through the bottle. That is how I always want my Pseudo Sue, ALWAYS. TG's head brewer left late 2014 (? maybe early 2015?) and TG was putting out clear Pseudo Sue (Bombers from IA brewery and 12 oz from Brew Hub in FL), and while it was tasty it wasn't PSue that I wanted. Now the head brewer is back with TG and there is some technique that @TgBC implements that creates this hazy magical beer and now it is back.
And I'm not sure what the substandard beers @xpdrinker is discussing, because the hazy beers seem to be pleasing many many non-macro drinkers.
Drink for yourself and your own tastes, you'll enjoy it more!!
Cheers!

 

Do the beers from Trillium have enough time to settle? Honest question as it appears the beers JC creates are gone within days.

 

Anywhere from 3-5 ounces I think. Five would be on the high side

 

I do believe that beers from Trillium, Tree House, Hill Farmstead and Alchemist would be worse if they were allowed to clear before sale. As an example, I have had Green from Treehouse fresh and then a can from the same batch a few weeks later. The can consumed later was significantly more clear but the hop flavor seemed muted in comparison. Without a double blind experiment it would be very difficult to figure out how much is perception and how much is actual change in flavor.

I 'm sure many brewers would consider these beers rushed, but there is some magic to the fresh character they exhibit. It seems that these massive levels of dry hopping do make for a hazier beer on their own, but based on the level of opacity(is that a word?) I would certainly assume that there is also yeast in suspension.

 

Beats me. All that I know is that folks report (and provide photographs/video) of how murky various Trillium beers are. Maybe if consumers stored the bottles cold for a while (a few weeks) they would be less turbid? I am uncertain whether anybody would do this (for science)?

Cheers!