Month: July 2019

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NE-IPA’s Quest for “Juicy” Has Led Us Toward Increasingly Undrinkable Beer, and “Hop Burn” is the Culprit


This spring, my fiance and I took a trip to Asheville, North Carolina, a beer destination we’ve visited numerous times in the past. Asheville is a beautiful little hub for beer, filled with breweries both large and small, all striving to find a niche for themselves in both the local craft beer community and the greater national beer scene. It’s an excellent place to take stock of national trends, and see how they’re playing out in the microcosm of one intensely beer-focused city. It’s also an excellent place to hike and eat doughnuts, but that’s beside the point.

Sitting on the riverside patio of a large regional brewery in the area (okay, it was New Belgium), on a very lovely day, in the middle of a very lovely vacation, my fiance took a sip of her hazy IPA, and her face scrunched into a disapproving pucker. Bear in mind, this is a woman who loves craft beer, and whose favorite style throughout her life has often been India pale ale. Nor is she opposed to hazy, NE-IPA, either. She wasn’t reacting with dissatisfaction because of an inherent opinion she had about the style—she ordered that hazy IPA fully expecting to enjoy it, as we have many others. But what she said next perfectly crystalized one of the biggest issues in modern craft beer.

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Beer Profile: Landlines’ Urban Artifact Banana, Raspberry and Orange Fruit Tart

This is so unique I’m not sure where to place it. Low carbonation, base ale is very basic, very pale ale malt-ish, and not much of it. Body is high side of light but the tart, the fruit, all make it seem more complex. The fruit dominates and I can taste all three. It’s neither dry nor sweet in the finish. No hops sensed in the nose: doesn’t need that.

It would be nice if we just had a hint more malt: hint Special B, Maris Otter… not much at all, just enough to hint at “beer.” Body might help too with a little a-amylase rest at 154-162. Try highest of those. And malto dextrin to add hint body, not taste.

Finishes sweet. As a fruit beer it can. There’s a lot of leeway here.
Head retention poor. Head color off white. Almost no head.

Carbonation is light: could use more. Medium body. You can almost feel the fruit sense on the palate. The slightest hint of high alpha hops might help: a pellet every 5 gallons maybe? Or hint more fermentation tabs and fermentables just to increase and NO MORE.

No clarity: very hazy. The quaff is orange in color. Almost no head: with all this fruit and acidity might be unavoidable. Surface tension may be an issue to, which again with all this may be unavoidable. I wouldn’t want to change pure liquid pleasure of this just for more head.

3.9BA
4 Untappd
3.4 RB

4.2

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Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”

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