Haze Craze

As I packaged a few beers to send to friends, I began to wonder, maybe the hazy IPA craze is over? It has been a few months since I put beer in the belly and concocted prose. After four solid years, I wondered if I had anything left to give but after dozens and dozens of New England style India Pale Ales, I had something - is this haze craze over?

Last year to the day, I talked about this new style of beer. Growing up in the Northeast, we did not have New England style IPAs. The difference was between East Coast IPAs and West Coast IPAs. Eastern IPA tended to have a sweeter, more floral presentation where the Western IPAs seemed to go for higher IBUs (International Bitterness Units). The higher the IBU the more bitter the beer was. All About Beer had a good write up regarding the new genre. This style goes back to John Kimmich, a Vermont brewer at Alchemist and Greg Noonan at Vermont Pub but this type of beer was secluded to the Green Mountain state. While living in Boston, the closest I got was the unfiltered hefeweizen from Harpoon, which isn't anything like today's offerings from the top right corner of the country.

Portland, Oregon - not Portland, Maine has had the best offerings of New England IPAs. 2017 belonged to Fort George, of Astoria, Oregon, Great Notion, of Portland and Reubens, of Seattle, WA when they brewed 3 Way IPA. My girlfriend and I were enjoying these on a regular basis, but one day at one of our favorite haunts, the bartender told us that this is only a seasonal release. At that point, we started buying 3 Way by the case. I felt like I had to share this goodness with my friends back home. In the summer of 2017, my girlfriend and I made the annual voyage home and a couple of breweries we visited were just getting launching into the haze craze. Nothing really added up to Great Notion. To this day, Great Notion remains the brewery of note for hazy IPAs.

Revision brewery out of Sparks, NV came out like a boner in sweatpants in the middle of 2017. I thought that I had every juicy offering that was put out there. Then, these guys show up. They've had more than a handful of brews, but the differences were becoming more and more subtle. The last great hazy IPA I had was from a local Portland brewer, Ruse. Papyrus, folks, is a great beer.

Ding, ding. I think that might be it. Everyone has had their say and I think it's safe to say we all had a good time. Like going on vacation, sometimes it's good to be home. Do you remember a time before kale? Avocados? Acai berries? We, as humans, are pretty easily swayed by advertising and the power of persuasion. A superfood is great, it seems like you're getting more bang for your buck. In reality, we're talking about an advertising campaign based off of study commissioned by an ad agency. At this point, I'm tapped out.

What's next? I don't know. There are things that I'm just not tuned into. Here in Portland, I'm surrounded by roughly a 100 breweries (drink responsibly) and to try them all is a Herculean feat.  De Gaarde is a local beer gaining national notoriety for their Belgian-style beers. Belgians are malty beers and I think a good hybrid is what the American palate is looking for. At the end of the day, I'm no kingmaker. The Kaiser Chiefs said it best, "We are the angry mob, we read the papers every day, we like what we like, we hate what we hate, but we're also easily swayed."