Sheppard's Brew

New Englanders’ favorite style has become America’s most popular style. The once maligned beer style has now been accepted. Breweries are no longer criticizing a perceived lack of professionalism through appearance but rather pursuing this style to make the best possible beer. Even breweries that aren’t known for IPAs are starting to make some great ones. To be fair, the IPA is in many cases the meal ticket. It pays the bills. It is king.

Now, New England IPAs are popping up everywhere. Breweries that weren’t producing NEIPAs are now producing NEIPAs. With all of that comes a natural concern from an initial advocate for that style. If it’s popping up everywhere, are they up to par? Yes, there are plenty of bad NEIPAs in my own backyard, but are the good ones being represented poorly in other places?

The answer is yes and no. Like home, it’s all about the brewery. Some do it well, some do it poorly. My biggest worry is the same thing that they were criticized about when first making these beers is what these outsider breweries were going for most. While I don’t agree with Garrett Oliver that New England IPAs are just a trend, I do agree that Instagram has played a huge part in their proliferation. Instagram is purely visual. This beer is purely not.

While it’s clear the style isn’t going away, I’d say before we embrace it, we need to hold them to a standard. New England IPAs are aromatic, flavorful, and soft. Haze isn’t a key component to that. Forget the H-Word. Those are the values we should hold dear.

Before I go negative, I’ll say that I’ve had some good New England IPAs elsewhere. When I’ve visited DC, I’ve been able to go to Aslin Beer Company in Herndon, Virginia. Their non-lactose ridden, non-fruit IPAs have been on par with the style. Likewise, The Veil IPAs I’ve had on draft have been phenomenal. Both of those breweries get my stamp of approval for the style.

Meanwhile, there are some that just need to learn. Side Project’s Shared Proof of Concept batch 1 was unconscionably bad. It was marketed as a NEIPA but had a brutal west coast hop bill. As I said at the time, I hope that that well regarded brewery would make adjustments to make liquid that better represented the style, but it has rubbed me the wrong way that NEIPA has become a marketing term. I don’t even want to mention the Nashville brewery’s NEIPAs that lacked expressive yeast or hops that popped, but was the H-word. It was miserable and disappointing.

The Boston Herald recently published an article with their 10 best IPAs in New England. The list is very main stream. Many of these IPAs have decent availability with the exception of Congress St, Julius, and Heady Topper. Sip of Sunshine drops are common enough in MA that I can’t include it with those three. Anyway, I wanted to post my own list as a response to this.

I wanted to outline some qualifications first. We’re not doing one offs here. Not that I’d include any one offs, but I’m not riding the hype train of exclusivity and rarity like some people are. I’m also only picking one IPA per brewery. This also enables me to give nods to more breweries than just two or three. Hill Farmstead and Trillium would dominate this list otherwise. Lastly, this is going to encompass the entire IPA genre; doubles count as well.

1 - Hill Farmstead Society & Solitude #4

I could probably have picked any number of Shaun Hill’s IPAs to take the top spot. I love the Society & Solitude series. Double Citra is soft and luscious tropical fruit. Double Galaxy is a citrus bomb. Society & Solitude #4 is the best of those last two in one beer. It’s described as Double Galaxy meets Double Citra and if you’ve had the individual beers, you’ll understand that.

I must note that S&S #4 has the unfair advantage of being my first Hill IPA. I had waited a couple days to finally crack that growler and it was just intoxicating. The mango and pithy orange were flavors in beer that I had never experienced before.

You have to go to the brewery to get it for takeaway. It is occasionally available on draft at Armsby Abbey.

2 - Trillium Congress Street

Texture is the name of the game here. I love texture in my food. I love a good crunch and some softness as well. My ideal food is spicy fried chicken because it combines these two things perfectly. Congress Street’s textures and flavor make it the beer equivalent on fried chicken to me. It doesn’t even have fried chicken in it!

Congress Street is a magical blend of perfectly measured citrus, chalk minerality, and soft mouthfeel. It is my favorite IPA from Massachusetts for this reason. Trillium’s retail has been mostly brewery only, but you can find their beer on tap on many local watering holes.

3 - Tree House Julius

Honestly, it’s taken me a while for this beer to grow on me. Honestly, it’s really all of the Tree House beers that have had to grow on me. I love the mouthfeel of their beers, but the hops have really not popped for me for the most part. The last few cans of Julius have really turned me on and specifically the most recent can of Julius: WOW. Talk about a passion fruit delight with a little bit of that Treehouse bubblegummy yeast character.

They just opened their new brewery in Charlton. Get your Dr. J there, if they have it.

4 - Bissell Brothers Reciprocal

Texture is the name of the game again here. Bissell has a lot of minerality in many of their beers, may be that’s the water treatment. Reciprocal is pithy, gelatinous, orangey, grapefruity goodness. There’s not much more that needs to be said. This is a brewery only beer.

5 - Exhibit A The Cat’s Meow

A relative newcomer, but certainly a beer of right meow. Exhibit A is putting together IPAs that they enjoy drinking, featuring that hazy aromatic and fruity New England IPA style while not shying away from bitterness. The overall effect is a balanced, more complex and full flavored IPA. The Cat’s Meow features Citra, Mosaic, and El Dorado, all newer high alpha hops that provide a bursting bouquet of tropical fruit. Available at most places that carry Exhibit A in Massachusetts.

6 -The Alchemist Focal Banger

While Heady Topper has long been considered one of the gold standards for IPAs, Heady’s little brother, Focal Banger, get the nod for me to represent The Alchemist. There are two major reasons for this. First, Heady Topper is an ode to Simcoe, a hop that I am not the most fond of. Second, Focal has those new highly fruity fangled hops, including Citra and Mosaic. It has the typical aggressive Alchemist hop profile though. Brewery Only.

7 - Lawson’s Sip of Sunshine

Sean Lawson designed this beer for the Two Roads system to resemble his stunning IPA, Double Sunshine. To be fair, I would have included Double Sunshine if it were more readily available, but it’s not even available readily in Vermont. That will change with the new brewery, but for the time being, Sip gets the nod here.

Sip of Sunshine might be taken for granted given that it’s been around for a while and while it has that fruity character, it’s a well rounded IPA. It’s not trying to be a juice bomb. It’s not overly hazy. It is just a great IPA. The beauty is that it is now being produced frequently and we’re seeing plenty of drops that it is not too hard to get. The only negative right now is that some bottle shops are treating it like it’s the rarest beer in the world. It’s not, but that does not make it a great beer.

8 - Fiddlehead Mastermind

This is another pick based on preference. A lot of people love Second Fiddle, which is rated higher than Mastermind on Beer Advocate. However, I prefer the citrusy, orange soda like Mastermind. I also love the can art on Mastermind.

9 - Maine Beer Company Another One

There’s been a lot said about Maine Beer Company in terms of pricing and format; at the same time, it’s undeniable that their hoppy beers are still amongst the best. MBC continues to churn out clean and classically bitter IPAs. Another One is my personal favorite. It’s dry, bitter, clean, and refreshing. Sometimes that’s all you need.

So I just declared on Untappd that Jack’s Abby House Lager would be amongst my top most important beers in the New England beer scene, if not the top. I thought I’d elaborate on that plus name some other beers that I think are worthy of that distinction. Obviously, I also work for Jack’s Abby, so I want to hash out any claims of bias. 

Where were we?

Jack’s Abby House Lager.

There are very few beers that have appeal to both the masses and to the beer inclined. Jack’s Abby House Lager is super approachable, but good enough where the beer aficionados can say “hey, that’s an awesome beer.” For the “masses,” it tastes better than your run of the mill macro and is made with ingredients that aren’t going to give you a vicious hangover. For the beer geeks, it’s a lager that you don’t have to think about too much, it’s crisp, and it still tastes really good. Now that it’s distributed in every state, the spectrum of House Lager is wider than any other beer in New England, though Sam Adams Boston Lager, Allagash White, and Harpoon IPA might have broader exposure. House Lager has to be up there for most important beer in the New England scene. 

Of the three oldtimer beers that I compared House Lager to, only Allagash White really deserves to still be on this list. Boston Lager isn’t produced within the Massachusetts anymore, and Harpoon IPA is an old timer in a young gun’s style. Allagash White is still the best American made witbier. It’s perfect for a Summer day. It’s true to style. Yeah, it’s an old beer, but it’s still as sexy as ever. Allagash White has to be on this list.

In the modern age of craft beer, the IPA has pronounced itself king (I didn’t even know craft beer was a monarchy). The New England scene is known for its IPAs. First, people argued for a Vermont style IPA, and currently, we have people arguing for a New England IPA. With that said, I do think that a couple deserve mention on this list.

First, I want to talk about the elder statesmen of the New England IPA scene: The Alchemist’s Heady Topper. I know that Heady Topper may not be consider a NEIPA now, but it is the epitome of what NEIPAs have strived to be from the get go. It’s been the gold standard of what an IPA should be and every new brewer has targeted Heady Topper as the beer they want to equal or surpass. My first Heady was a transcendent experience for me. It was a long time before Heady was eclipsed for me. While it’s not as sexy as your Hill Farmstead, your Tree House, or your Trillium, for me, it’s still the IPA that put New England on the map. It’s still great and still relevant.

Tree House has a beer called Julius. It’s pretty well regarded. While I prefer Trillium to Tree House, Tree House’s flagship deserves to be on the list. One of my main “beefs” that’s not really a beef with Tree House is that it attracts a lot of people that don’t know anything about craft beer. They drink Tree House and very little else. They’re oblivious to the rest of the world. They only go to Tree House. That’s fine and good, but it’s also why I’m including Julius. Julius is the epitome of what Tree House makes, a soft, bubblegummy, low on bitterness IPA that appeals to beer geeks as much as it does to Bud Light drinkers. “It doesn’t taste like beer” but at the same time it does and is so much better than what you regularly have. Julius is there.

I should round out this list with a fifth. I really want to pick a Trillium beer, but I don’t think any are that important. I love Fort Point Pale Ale, but the OG, which is one of my favorite beers, doesn’t sell well. I’d also say that picking it would be very Boston centric and picking the Fort Point series to include all of the varieties would be a cop out. I’ll give it a honorable mention because it’s one of my favorites.

Rounding out my top five, and this may come as a surprise to you, is Notch Session Pils. Why? Bear with me now. Another lager? Lager are great, you need to appreciate them. Notch Session Pils is brewed out at Two Roads, in Stamford, CT (happy nutmeggers, I mentioned y’all). Like House Lager, it’s readily available. Let’s also credit Notch for doing what Jack’s Abby is doing with our lower alcohol beers, appealing to the masses. Notch makes great, low abv, sessionable beers. No beer epitomizes that as much as the beer they produce in one of the most popular styles.

I spent last weekend in DC, visiting Hannah. I’ve spent the last week digesting and thinking more about it. Obviously, I’ll get into the beer in a second. I first want to touch on how weird DC is.

DC is weird because there is a weird interspersing of socioeconomic groups. Beyond the areas by the mall, when you move into the more residential areas, block by block, you don’t know what part is nice and what part is sketchy. It’s not defined like in some cities where you can avoid it. I don’t live in DC, but I didn’t really get a read on whether I would enjoy living there beyond being with Hannah. I actually like the honest confrontation with different peoples, but safety is always a lingering concern no matter where you are. It’s definitely more of a concern when you live there. It’s strange to me that the capital of the wealthiest country in the world has this.

The first brewery I went to is in the transitional Navy Yard neighborhood. There’s a lot of redevelopment of ex-Government/military buildings in that area. The Nationals Stadium is over there as well. The brewery that I visited, Bluejacket, is an a building that was home to The Boilermaker Shops, part of the Navy Yards Ship and Munition Manufacturing Complex. Their space is absolutely incredible.

A lot of breweries will look like breweries. When people talk about touring breweries, I’ll say that all breweries are pretty much the same. There might be some differences in the taproom design, but for the most part, it’s an area for customers and an area for the brewing. Brewery spaces tend to have more in common than not.

Bluejacket definitely felt different because of its space. The restaurant is in the ground floor and the brewing equipment is up above on the mezzanine. There are huge windows and vaulted ceilings that provide tremendous sunlight. I’d say the one drawback of the space is that it’s a little too clean and corporate looking. If I ever start a brewery, I’d want it to be in the Arsenal complex in Watertown because of that building space. I feel like visiting Bluejacket gave me a glimpse of what that would look like if that dream ever happens.

Bluejacket’s beer was good. There were many many hoppy beers on draft. It was a little bit of an overload from the standpoint of deciding what to have. I actually started with the farmhouse/saisons and the stout. The stout was particularly good in that it had all the Mexican hot chocolate character, but it wasn’t too big. A lot of these beers tend to try to knock you on your ass and I feel Bluejacket created a very quaffable version that won’t do that. My favorite hoppy beer was the single hop citra (Lost Weekend). I liked that there was plenty of hop variety so you could pick based on the hops you liked. There were also four cask options which I’ll definitely have to check out next time.

While Bluejacket may have inspired this portion or rant, I want to say that this is a practice by many brewers; brewers use way too much hops in individual beers. Bluejacket lists the amount of hops they use on some beers. I like this actually. However, I feel that brewers in general are using way too much. Brewers need to find better ways to innovate and become more efficient in their use of hops. There are plenty of brewers that are putting a heap full of hops in the dry hop or whatever and it’s not all good. The goal should be to reach the desired flavor threshold with the least amount of hops possible. Putting more hops shouldn’t be a marketing thing. Furthermore, the beer should be able to stay stable. Too many brewers are putting too much hops in their beer with diminishing returns. We can make the same or better beer with fewer resources.

The other brewery I was able to go to was Right Proper Brewing’s Shay Brewpub & Kitchen. It was a more homely environment. There were a bunch of Christmas themed parties going on at neighboring bars, and I feel like Right Proper got a lot of overflow business on Saturday night. We couldn’t get a table right away and eventually snuck our way into bar seats thanks to a friendly couple.

I really enjoyed three of the four beers available. Ships Passing was a tart funky pineapple-y saison that I reluctantly let Hannah take. The other beer we got to start was a “Juicy Pale Ale” called Humulus Lycanthropus. Honestly, it seemed more like an English Pale Ale, which I would have loved to have on cask, but wasn’t what I was looking for or imagining a juicy pale ale to be. They had a peach mead barrel aged tripel called Gnosis that was sweet, grassy, lactic, and delicious, and a grisette that was grassy and refreshing. Again, I’d revisit RIght Proper as it had the homely inviting vibe.

We did have some time to visit a couple beer forward bars and restaurants. After Bluejacket, I jetted over to the much heralded Churchkey. Churchkey has a very extensive list of local and national beer with a huge book of bottles. I probably could have had a few pints here if we didn’t have dinner plans (or I had get drunk plans). I had the Union Double Duckpin. I had had it before at ACBF and it had been one of my favorite beers at the festival. I found it a little underwhelming, very biscuit, not as fruity and tropical as I remembered it. It had much more of the Midwest IPA character than the Northeast. Churchkey’s tots were good though.

We went to dinner at The Partisan. They have a pretty nice charcuterie and cheese selection. We got two meats and a cheese with some bread that included an Italian pancake like flatbread that was very tasty. I got the Lizard of Koz as my beverage. This Founders stout was good, but as it warmed, the astringency of the berries and alcohol came out more and more and made it more difficult to drink. I should also add that the menu at The Partisan was very meat heavy and while we had a nice time there, I’m not sure we would go there again for more than a drink due to its very focused menu. We had a good time.