The trend of murky beers

It all started with “Heady Topper” a decade ago, a hazy, murky IPA from the brewery “The Alchemist” in Stowe, Vermont, in the New England region of the US. The beer had not been filtered, against normal practice, in order to further preserve taste and flavours. Fast forward to 2017 and many consider The Alchemist are not hazy enough.

This year the consumers’ awareness of hazy ales have exploded, to the extent that certain breweries are now adding different ingredients (flour) just for the sake of thickening the beer and add to the murkiness. Consumers are being guided by how the beer looks. The phenomenon has been dubbed “The Haze Craze” and a wide variety of breweries are tempted to create so called “NEIPAs” (New Ingland IPA) or “Vermont-style IPA”, after the region in the US that first produced the forerunner 13 years ago.

Below you’ll find a set of articles discussing the new trend.

Read more:

• The Guardian: That looks off, mate: why craft beer lovers are falling for murky ales (June 2017)
• The Guardian: Unfiltered beer, cloudy pint (May 2014)
• NPR: The ‘Haze Craze’: Beer Lovers’ Newfound Obsession With Murky IPAs (Feb 2017)
• Blog: Craft Beer Joe: The Haze Craze: Why The New England IPA Is So Popular
• American Home Brewers Association: New England IPA: The Haze Craze
• Blog: The Crafty Pint: Looking for New England – The Craze Haze (April 2017)