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.

Most would suspect that the haze comes from the yeast, but NEIPAs typically contain less than 1 million cells/ml. The haze actually comes from the use of high protein adjuncts, primarily in the grain bill of wheat or oats. This makes incredibly hazy beers with turbidity measurements ranging from 80 – 900 NTU!

Dr. John Paul Maye, Technical Director at Hopsteiner and passionate home brewer, helps explain in detail his latest research on this phenomenon found in the link to the podcast below. Dr. Maye has over 23 years of experience in the hops industry, dating back to 1993 after receiving his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Purdue University. Dr. Maye started his work as a hop chemist and has since developed many hop related products used both inside and outside the brewing industry and also holds many hop product patents. Dr. Maye is a recipient of the ASBC’s Eric Kneen Memorial Award for his work on preparing stable HPLC calibration standards for isomerized and reduced alpha acids and is also a founding member and the secretary of the International Hop Standards Committee.

Dr. Maye presented his research at the Brewing Summit and Technical Conference earlier this year in San Diego, CA. Dr. Maye was awarded best presentation from the technical committee as well as people’s choice.

In summary, Dr. Maye reveals the “Hidden Secrets of the NEIPA” and discusses results from the HPLC analysis of haze a dozen NEIPAs in comparison to West Coast IPAs. For a full audio podcast of the presentation, please select and download it here.

For more information, please visit our website at Hopsteiner.com or send us a message at info@hopsteiner.com.