I just read the latest post on This is Why I’m Drunk about New England IPAs. I have issues with this poll.
This is two questions. I like New England IPAs and I hate Turbid (milkshake) IPAs. Ghandi Bot, Double Sunshine, Edward and Sip of Sunshine are not IPAs that pour thick and are as dense as an egg white milkshake concoction with hops added. They are clean, juicy and cloudy (unfiltered) IPAs.
The only turbid IPA Hill Farmstead has ever brewed was Karma Emulsion which I think Jean from Tired Hands had more to do with that design than Shaun and despite being a HF fanboy, I rated that beer appropriately given how gross the mouthfeel was.
Bryan cites Beer Advocate’s IPA category and I just noticed, HF only has 1 beer in the top 25 so I guess it is truly a reality that the craft beer world of milkshake IPAs has left HF behind. That’s a shame.
I think bright, juicy IPAs with a seltzer water like carbonation and lingering bitterness of Simcoe, New Zealand Hops and Citra are here to stay. Unfiltered beers with a lot of complexity and care brewed on really clean equipment by brewers that care are not going anyway. The milkshake shit you guys call IPAs is a fad. Breweries like Hoof Hearted, Tree House and Night Shift are being propped up by these milk shake beers. Trillium is making clean beer for the most part. the rest of you guys just throw dozens of gallons of oats into your beer and call it an IPA.