So people actually like these.....?

You're a few years too late on this dead horse.

No idea whether Badger Hill can make a good one (that's who this is, right?), but some of these can be quite tasty, for what they are. Others, not so much.

Same with all other beer, quality matters, although the "new" approach and marketing will bring in a groundswell of new interest in the beginning.

 

BAD: I don't like this thing, it sucks.

GOOD: I don't like this thing, it's not for me.

As for a Malted Milk Hoppe Milkshake IPA, I'd try it, then decide if it's for me or not.

 

Paging @islay. Surprised he isn't here already.

For the record, I love the innovation, but I'm old, & I don't like weird stuff in my IPAs. Do whatever you want to my stouts, but keep the almonds & French toast & cereal & balls of cancer cells away from my IPAs/lawn.

If other people like it, more power to them!

 

Patience, he's probably only typed out about two pages for a response so far. I'm sure it's coming once the editors over at The Atlantic or Wall Street Journal or whoever proofreads his essays give the final approval to publish.

 

I hate to disappoint my fans, but I have at worst mixed feelings about milkshake IPAs. I think they achieve the goals of NEIPAs with more efficiency and honesty, using lactose to mimic residual maltose (often avoiding the problems associated with under-attenuation from which way too many NEIPAs suffer) and using fruit and often vanilla to replicate and supplement modern aromatic hops expressions. Sometimes, they even contain some of that welcome bitterness that NEIPAs unfortunately eschew, as Badger Hill claims in this case.

Don't get me wrong; they're not my bag at all, but I appreciate that, in their unmistakable wackiness, they expose the absurdity of the more highly regarded beers they mimic. Milkshake IPAs are the Steel Panther to NEIPAs' Mötley Crüe.

My problems with NEIPAs, pastry stouts, and fruited kettle sours don't involve their mere existence but rather that 1) they crowd out better beers at breweries, bars, and bottle shops and 2) the false perception of them as the pinnacle of brewing distorts the conversation around beer and discourages the styles' fans from graduating to superior fare. Milkshake IPAs aren't ubiquitous enough for the former to be a big issue (if anything, they take market share from other beers brewed with flavoring adjuncts as well as NEIPAs), and enough people mock them that the latter isn't a problem.

By the way, the word I've heard from industry contacts is that interest in milkshake IPAs is waning while fruited kettle sours continue to get more popular.

 

Do people really regard NEIPAs and pastry stouts as the “pinnacle of brewing”? I don’t believe I have ever heard anyone espouse such a viewpoint, but I admittedly don’t scour the forums like I used to. I think people (like me) just like how they taste.

The first beers I ever drank with any regularity (when I turned 21 two decades ago) were German hefeweizens and doppelbocks, followed by Belgians, stouts, and IPAs. If I like the NEIPA style better than any other iteration of top-tier IPAs I have encountered in my 20 years of beer drinking, does this suggest there is something fundamentally flawed with my palate? Have I actually regressed with old age, rather than graduating to superior fare?

I will have to seriously contemplate the deleterious effects of advanced age over this snifter of bourbon barrel aged stout with chocolate and coconut...

 

Yes.

Nah, don't think of it that way. You're just letting your inner-Millennial shine through!

 

I can’t believe no one has thought about the goal of breweries - selling more beer and making a living. The New Brewer magazine several months ago had an article on NE IPAs and how females liked them much more than males due to the lower bitterness. Milkshake IPAs are are sweet and low in bitterness. Brewers are trying to attract more female drinkers. Not every beer style is brewed primarily for the male BA drinkers on this site.

 

Thanks for sticking up for all your fellow ladies

 

Quote an assumption on your part to assert that these points have not been discussed before.

 

I don't like them. I think they look pretty gross. As long as there are other beers that I do like still being made, I really don't care though.

 

Every brewery is trying to jumpshark in this crowded market. Could be a bowl, a plate, a barrel aged milkshake IPA? I dunno, but they are just attempts at getting people talking about said brewery. I get it from a business standpoint, but there are better ways to get people talking about your brewery/brand/taproom ect.

 

More "efficient"? Yes, it is definitely easier and more reproducible to dose your beverage with fruit, spices, and sugar as if you were following a cocktail recipe. These are actual "flavorings" you often rant about.

Less "honest" to use raw agricultural product and brewing technique to achieve fruity flavor? That just doesn't make any sense.

http://www.lugwrenchbrewing.com/2010/04/fermentation-attenuation-ranges-by.html

 

A lot of people who drink those types of beverages like pretending they like beer more than they like what they are drinking.

 

Paleo eh? Serve them at Orange Theory. Perfect partnership.

 

I'd be happy to sit down over a beer and discuss.