DO NOT ADJUST your monitor. Those beers currently trending on Instagram look cloudy because they’re supposed to.
Known as hazy or New England IPAs, these brews offer drinkers turned off by the bitterness of other IPAs a smoother, fruitier alternative, thanks, in part, to the unfiltered yeasts that make them murky.
Centuries ago, beer was cloudy as a matter of course. Industrial brewing introduced centrifuges, filters and even enzymes to break up haze-causing proteins. In fetishizing clarity, however, we lost taste. Flavor returned with a vengeance toward the end of the 20th century, notably in the bitter, hoppy West Coast IPAs that stormed onto the U.S. craft scene. But the beers remained clear, and dry, clean American yeasts let the taste of the hops shine alone.
Almost 15 years ago, the Alchemist, a small Vermont brewery, pioneered the hazy IPA style with the release of Heady Topper. Made with a fruity British yeast strain called Conan and a blend of sweetly floral hops, the well balanced beer developed a cult following. The style, so different from those brash West Coast brews, came to be known as New England IPA. Drinkers didn’t seem to mind the haze; indeed, it became a selling point.
Now, brewers are playing around with European yeasts, full of fruity esters and other flavor compounds, and leaving them suspended in the beer. They’re also using hops varieties from Australia and New Zealand, redolent of tropical fruit. Brewers can add more of these less-aggressive hops, teasing out complexity beyond the bitterness. Often, hops are added after the beer is boiled but before it ferments, to preserve volatile aromatics, and this “dry hopping” process leaves behind particles to further cloud the brew.
Hazy IPAs range in character from the mandarin-orange sweetness of Other Half Brewing Co.’s Citra + Azacca to the almost savory, papaya-like fruitiness of WeldWerks Brewing’s Juicy Bits. Rogue Ales’ sour spin on the style, Combat Wombat, has the chewy tang of orange gummy bears. Even San Diego-based Stone Brewing, known for its unabashedly bitter West Coast IPAs, has taken on the style with the fruit-forward Fear.Movie.Lions.
Dialing back bitterness to make way for juicy fruit flavors, these beers share a distinctly refreshing quality that makes for an ideal summer pour.
1. Hopworks Urban Brewery Ferocious Citrus IPA (6.2% ABV) Brewed with red wheat and a touch of grapefruit juice, this beer is bright as sugar-dusted lemon slices.
2. Rhinegeist Feeling Good (8.5% ABV) A collaboration with Boston’s Castle Island Brewing Co., this brew, subtle at first, surprises with a rush of eucalyptus and Juicy Fruit-like flavor.
3. Samuel Adams New England IPA (6.8% ABV) Zippier than most hazy IPAs, this one’s like pineapple juice garnished with a tangerine slice thanks to Galaxy hops, a citrusy Aussie variety.
4. Shipyard Brewing Company Finder (7.0% ABV) Creamy and mellow with juicy Mosaic hops, this beer tastes like peach and grapefruit sorbet topped with blueberries.
5. Other Half Brewing Co. Citra + Idaho 7 (8.5% ABV) Piney Citra and tropical Idaho 7 hops make this a sweet-sour mango smoothie with a tannic edge.
6. Stone Brewing Fear.Movie.Lions (8.5% ABV) A strawberry Margarita with a spicy tequila kick, this refreshing hazy brew jangles with bitter lime zest and jalapeño heat.