From Quarter IPAs, Black IPAs, White IPAs to Cryo Hopped Double IPAs, some amazing US East Coast breweries have been creating a style of beer which has revolutionised the UK brewing industry.
Craft beers with flavour profiles more suited to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory than anything we'd have ordered from the old pubs of Glossop have arrived. Smoked Banana and Bacon Stouts, Milkshake Ice-Cream IPAs and Limoncello Sours, all proudly poured on draft, have created a very different drinking scene to the one we grew up with.
As amazing as they are, not surprisingly such exotic styles are not everyone’s cup of tea.
However of all the modern styles to push their way into the forefront of the craft beer industry the East Coast IPA or New England IPA is one that has had the ability to bring more regular lager drinkers into the craft beer fold. With more sweetness than your usual IPA's and completely unfiltered it looks more like something you'd pour from a carton and have at the breakfast table.
In the early days of traditional ale making, brewers would strive to create "bright" beers, filtering their brews though isinglass, made from fish. The equally delicious sounding bovine gelatin was also popular to get the crystal clear appearance that real ale drinkers were looking for. However with the emergence of better filter and fining techniques available, craft breweries opted to skip the process all together, which both enhanced the flavour and made the beers vegan-friendly.
John Kimmich of the Vermont based Alchemist Brewery experimented with unfiltered and unpasteurised IPA recipes. This gave a thicker IPA, with enzymes, microscopic compounds and cultures that brought extra flavour and aroma. It became known for its unusually murky appearance, almost like mango juice, and the overriding sense of fresh hops on the nose.
Additionally the sweeter profile of some of these beers means the ABV can also be higher than usual beers. This can range from 3% in Quarter IPAs up to to 13% for Quadruple IPAs.
Harvey Leonard’s
At Harvey Leonard's in Glossop we have a NEIPA permanently on draft - the amazing Green Mountain by Bakewell’s Thornbridge Brewery. This is a beautiful hazy Vermont style session IPA (4.3%), generously dry hopped with Galaxy, Mosaic, Citra and Amarillo varieties. The aromas hit you as soon as it comes out of the tap.
So next time you get served a cloudy beer don't assume its the end of the barrel and not fit for drinking, it could just sway you into a new style of beer where the focus is on great products, made by passionate people who care about what you drink.