west coast should unfilter beers

The title is provacative-- like the "west coast" is some entity acting with a common mission.

With proper knowledge/experience and equipment, this "style" beer could be brewed anywhere in the country/world (and as @spark3148857 notes-has been done). I would add he original Nelson to that list.

Perhaps most choose NOT to.

 

Like most commercial things, the market (i.e. consumer) shall settle the issue.

 

A lot of these beers and DIPA's and IPA's Shelf life doesnt exist. Since a lot of them are brewery only and have no intention on sitting in distro or on a shelf for any time at all.

 

I'd be more interested in seeing filtered versions of Tree house/Trillium/etc. beers. Would be interesting to see the difference with a change to the hyped beers that are causing these discussions.

 

Do a side by side witht he filtered and unfiltered.

 

I would gather that the majority of IPAs that look filtered are actually fined or centrifuged. You don't need a filter for clear beer.

IOW, how much difference would some biofine make?

 

Absolutely. My friend who is an IPA savant, and makes regular runs to Vermont to load up on Heady, HF and others, took a recent trip to the Bay Area and stopped at both Cellarmaker and Fieldwork. He loved the IPAs from both of them and pronounced them very much in the "New England" style. Meanwhile, brewers in New England have made and continue to make "west coast" style IPAs. In fact, Sip of Sunshine is barely hazy at all, it's unfiltered but doesn't look like a Treehouse beer...none of the Lawson's beers do.

There is a difference I think, and while I am no brewer, I find that the most turbid IPAs tend to have less astringent bitterness, and the crystal clear IPAs, the most (on average). This guy is experimenting with it.

 

Hopefully the West Coast starts using some of the yeasts now popular in NE beers, and experiments with these harder to use and generally less flocculative yeasts that work so well in beers that are heavily dry hopped. Maybe then those folks out west of us would stop trading for all the good ones we have here, and they might be easier for us to get them. Right now the best ones are tough to get without some luck or waiting on a line.

And to the person who said that a clear beer (filtered/fined/centrifuged) done with the same ingredients as a turbid NE style beer will taste the same- You, sir, couldn't possibly be more wrong.

 

This was stated already in the beginning of this thread. Regardless centrifuged is a filtering system.

 

Technically, sure, but it's more coarse than even DE, so less 'good stuff' is being stripped out with the bad.

 

True, but seeing some of the hyped beers NE filtered/centrifuged/whathaveyou would be interesting to see just to address some of the hype. It'd also be funny to see how all the cultists/fanboys would react to it lol.

 

FYI, There was an interesting thread recently about hazy, unfiltered IPAs and their yeast, which several professional brewers (including Firestone Walker and Sierra Nevada) weighed in on and provided some great technical information. There are even photos of these beers through a microscope! Contain your excitement! So, it gets a little technical... But to anyone interested in or arguing about the flavor or quality control merits of filtered vs unfiltered IPAs in this thread, I highly recommend reading that discussion.



My opinion is that brewers should do what they want and consumers can buy what they want. If west coast customers want unfiltered IPAs, there's a really good chance that brewers will offer that... supply and demand and such...

 

I think the turbidity in some of these beers come from not only the yeast, but malts too, sometimes flaked grains. I also think if these renowned NE style IPA brewers were to filter their beers they wouldn't have half as good taste or mouthfeel. I'd rather have it taste and feel better and not look as good, than have it look clear and not have that satisfying juiciness. I do think it is more than just these techniques though, as some NE IPA's aren't as good as others. The best rated NE IPA brewers are just really good at making them that way. I do think there is no need to copy that style though, unless it is really well made. I find the non-NE style IPA's just as good with their own place. If every IPA was like a fruit juice blend they might get boring.

 

You can't unfilter something. You just leave a beer unfiltered.

 

I homebrew (and don't filter), and have never had a beer look like Trillium. Not sure what those guys are doing.

 

I see alot of talk about yeast. A lot of unfiltered beers have yeast sediment on the bottom of a can or bottle or may it be a bomber. Some beers like Long Trail IPA are unfiltered but dont have that "Hazy" "cloudy" "opaque" (figure i mention all them since people are splitting hairs here). Is it that they are actually getting more hop sediment not actually yeast sediment.

Recently i went to Relic Brewery i had there Equinox which is an APA. Was very cloudy and could really see through it. Talking to the brewer he said this beer normally doesnt look like this but it was so fresh that non of the Hop Sediment has had a chance to settle and that i would come back in a week or two after it sits basically in there vault/cooler it will clear up. As it did.

 

So this was the first pour out of a keg of Stone EB unfiltered earlier this year. Suspect had not settled completely as after a few more pours to other patrons, looked much less turbid.

As hazy on the first pour as any I have ever had.

LOVED IT.

 

I'ma just leave this right here: http://www.newschoolbeer.com/2016/03/new-englandvermont-style-ipa-is-not-a-thing.html