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The Hidden Secrets of the NEIPA


The New England IPA (NEIPA) or Hazy IPA is a unique beer style that continues to climb in popularity. More and more breweries are starting to emulate the phenomenon known as the “haze craze,” giving way to opaque, cloudy glasses with intense tropical fruit notes. In its GABF competition debut, the Hazy IPA style category featured the most entries out of any other style to date with 391 entries. Toppling its predecessor of the American Indian Pale Ale (IPA) with 311 entries that held the podium since 2002.

The Hazy IPA offers massive hop flavor, but with a smooth mouthfeel and bitterness; opening the door to both hop heads and people who don’t usually connect with bitter beers. One reason to help explain is looking at how hops are introduced. Hop additions are primarily added in the whirlpool and fermenter. Yes, you read that correctly. We said fermenter with little to no hops added to the kettle. Hop additions on the cold side takes advantage of the biotransformation that takes place when yeast converts oxygenated hop oils into fruity tasting esters, acetates, and other compounds.

Want to read more? Please click HERE!!!

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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.

Want to read more? Please click HERE!!!

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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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_____________________________Beer HERE

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Beer Profile: Staropolskie Chimielne Beer

Profiled by Ken Carman

Hint of chill haze, otherwise clarity good. Golden gold with yellow highlights. No head except rim of glass: small bubbles. Head fades fast: pure foam. Head fades fast, clings desperately to side of glass.

2.81 Untappd, 2.4 Rate Beer, 3.71 Beer Advocate.

This is called a Dortmunder. Not as grainy as the other, but hint more caramel. This is a little fruity: tad lemon and orange like. Finishes just a hint sweet. No hops sensed. Low side medium body.

Caramel in nose, less taste. Tad sweet, almost sugary: refined sugar. No hops in nose. Malt seems pils-like, mostly

High side low carbonation mouthfeel, tad slick… not much.

This is a Dortmunder but stay tuned for the next profile: they call that a Dortmunder too. By “they” I mean Beer Advocate. The brewery really doesn’t specify. I was expecting something unique to Poland, like a Gratzer However it is excellent and I would recommend it for those who love lagers. I would drink one and move on, but only because I’m an ale lover. I imagine a lager lover would love either of these polish brews. As I typed, “Stay tuned!”

4.0

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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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____________________________Beer HERE

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Deschutes “L’il Squeezy”: Hedonistic Goes Lite!

“Nugget, Citra, Azacca, El Dorado, Chinook…”

“2-Row, Munich, C15, Golden Naked Oats…”

“5% ABV…”

“40 IBU…”

“Juicy…!”

Mundane details. Every beer’s got ’em. Many go on for pages, like the fastener list for a space shuttle. But only ONE word matters, in choosing a beer, and it’s none of those. Quantity, in beer ingredients, does NOT = Quality, in any sense.

Want to read more? Please click… HERE!

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Brew Files – Episode 64 – Tasting IPA


The Brew is Out There!

One problem with us sitting here and giving our brewing advice – you never get to taste our beer! While we can’t ship everyone a beer, you can finally hear Denny’s feedback about Drew’s canned IPAs. We’re tasting Drew’s 45th Birthday IPA and Cape Point New South African Hazy IPA.

To listen to this podcast, please click… HERE!

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Bamberg’s Storied Rauchbier: A Brief History of Smoke BEER

Over twenty years had passed since I stopped off briefly in Bamberg en route between Prague and Heidelberg with an old friend on a crazy road trip in my grandma’s rickety Renault 5. On that sunny afternoon in the early nineties, we snapped the requisite photos of the Altes Rathaus straddling the River Regnitz before heading off for a Bamberger specialty that a fellow traveler in Prague had told us was absolutely de rigeur: Rauchbier. I still remember the light breeze that cooled that midsummer’s day as we sat down to a meal of Weisswurst and a taste of this fabled beer. For the life of me, I can’t remember where we ate, but I do remember that first perception-altering smell and sip of Rauchbier: this was possible in a beer?

Want to read more? Please click… HERE!

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A Beer Judge’s Diary: Return to Atlanta; Taste Test, Take 2B

It’s mystery beer time!

 I don’t think of myself as some guru or know-it-all answer
By Ken Carman
By Ken Carman
guy. A lot of my experience comes from making mistakes and running into dead ends. And I have made a LOT of mistakes. And as this edition of A Beer Judge’s Diary will show I have been greeted by some dead ends.
 I must admit I agree with Andrew Luberto’s comment in his excellent youtube interview that those who score very well to begin with may be missing something. Trial, error and trying again can make better judges, just like it makes better songwriters, better actors, better on air personalities and better almost anything in life. Those additions to “beer judge” are mine, not his, but strike me as truth. Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: Return to Atlanta; Taste Test, Take 2B”

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Join the beer business they said. It’ll be fun they said. – Part 1

In a few short day’s time we will joyously re-release one of our most sought after creations, The Original 006 Hazy Double IPA. This little beauty has gotten us some great press this last year, being named among both the top IPAs and beers period in the USA by Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine, Thillist, and Forbes to name a few. But, it will only be sold in-house through our Tasting Gallery. Why you may ask? Because the brewing industry is fucking crazy and it’s almost perfectly engineered to make earning a profit as elusive as a North Korean travel agent.

This beer has prompted lots of questions over the years. For example people ask us all the time, “Why don’t y’all make this beer year-round?” Now people will inevitably clamor, “Why are you assholes not sending this out to the market and keeping it only for yourselves! We want it in our stores! We want it in other states! Pitchforks and torches! Rabble Rabble!” The answers to both these questions might give you some visibility into how the brewing industry works, and especially the game-within-the-game – hop contracting.

Want to read more? Please click… HERE!