New England IPA's, or NEIPA's (because acronyms keep us all efficient!), is a newer beer style taking the market by delicious, hazy, tropically-hoppy storm! NEIPA's are opaque and cloudy... and our Fish Bone is our labour of love to the NEIPA world, combining brewing science and specific ingredients to create your quintessential go-to brew.
NEIPA's differ from IPA's in the sense that the "perceived bitterness" (what our tastebuds are telling our brain) is lower because the all-important haze itself. The haze is comprised of a couple things: it is protein from the beer and tannins from the hops... and believe you me, there is a TON of hops that go into our Fish Bone (give or take... 20 times more than a typical brew!)
Dry-hopping during the tail-end of fermentation is consistent with NEIPA's; we dry-hop after fermentation, which activates a biotransformation in the yeast. Without the yeast, the wort almost has notes of rose-water, but with with the yeast, tropical flavours are activated (this is where some of the tropically delish flavours come from!) This biotransformation is also very important to the stability of The Haze.
We purposefully add oats to our beer for protein, and that's also why the perceived bitterness is lower. It acts as an emulsifying agent for the hop oils, which offsets the bitterness and keeps these oils in solution. This leads us into our next point: sometimes you might notice "floaties" in your NEIPA. As the beer sits and rests, the dormant yeast and proteins can fall out of solution, sink to the bottom of your beer bottle, and then when you pick it up to take a sip, they can kick up float around again! If you notice in this article's cover photo, the glass of NEIPA is still hazy even with some of the haze separated out. Worry not - the beer still tastes and drinks the same, you just get a behind-the-scenes preview of the ingredients that go into your beer (how very "craft!").
Now it's time to put your knowledge to the test - grab a Fish Bone today and ride that haze-craze wave!