NEIPA's and Hazy IPA's are undoubtedly one of the most popular styles of craft beer at the moment. Consumers are craving heavily hopped beers more than ever before, but don't necessarily want the assertive bitterness that is typically associated with loads of hops being thrown into a beer.
In this guide we'll go over all aspects of recipe creation to make your best NEIPA/Hazy IPA
NEIPA/Hazy IPA Style Overview
A New England IPA (NEIPA) or Hazy IPA is broadly defined as an American IPA with intense fruit flavours and aromas, a soft body and smooth mouthfeel. Appearance is often opaque with substantial haze. Less perceived bitterness than traditional IPA's, but always massively hop forward. A strong emphasis on late hopping - especially dry hopping with hops providing tropical fruit qualities lending to the 'juicy' character for which the style is known.
Vital Statistics
ABV: 6% - 9%
IBU: 25 - 60
SRM: 3 - 7
OG: 1.060 - 1.085
FG: 1.010 - 1.015
ABV: 6% - 9%
IBU: 25 - 60
SRM: 3 - 7
OG: 1.060 - 1.085
FG: 1.010 - 1.015
Malts/Grains
Pale/Pilsner Malt - 60-70% (base malt - 50/50 mix of pale/pilsner is common).
Munich - Up to 20% (optional - can be used to add some sweetness and depth of flavour).
Wheat - 5-15%
Oats - 5-18% - some recommend up to 20% or even 25-30%. If using 20% oats, drop the wheat to 10% or less
Crystal - 1-5% - optional - mainly used for adjusting colour and aiding in head retention.
Dextrin - 1-5% - optional but can help provide some more unfermentable sugars in the wort.
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| Lots of oats & wheat in the grist will lead to a thick, sticky mash |
Make sure you include rice hulls in your grain bill to help with sparging, as high levels of oats and wheat are known to create a thick, sticky mash that often gets stuck during sparging or mash recirculation.
Mash Temperature & Timing
You'll want to mash at 67-68°C to create a slightly less fermentable wort, to achieve a slightly higher finishing gravity, leaving a little more body and residual sweetness in the beer.
A highly attenuated, dry finish like you would get in other American IPA's is not desirable for this style
Single infusion mashes are generally used and are all that is required.
A mashout for 10 minutes at 75°C is a good idea to help promote full conversion of starches to sugars.
Water Chemistry
- Aim for a chloride to sulfate ratio of at least 2:1
- A good starting point is:
- 150-200ppm chloride
- 75-100 ppm sulfate
- <150ppm calcium
Hops
- Citra
- Amarillo
- Simcoe
- Mosaic
- Galaxy
- El Dorado
- Centennial
- Cascade
- Chinook
- Columbus
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| Mosaic hops are a popular choice for NEIPA's/Hazy IPA's |
- Citra + El Dorado + Mosaic
- Galaxy + Amarillo + Simcoe
- Falconers Flight + Moutueka + Citra
- Idaho 7 + Galaxy + Vic Secret
- Citra + Mosaic
- Azacca + Simcoe + Lemon Drop
- Vic Secret + Nelson Sauvin + Amarillo
- Citra + Simcoe + Mosaic
- Calypso + Azacca + Amarillo
- El Dorado + Citra + Galaxy
Bittering Hops
Bittering hops are rarely added as a 60 minute addition. The earliest they should be added is 10-15 minutes left in the boil. Often no hops are added to the boil and bittering is achieved by a large dose of whirlpool hops. Use brewing software to calculate this (Brewfather, BeerSmith etc).
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| Adding boil hops to a Hazy IPA |
30 minute boils are common as opposed to a typical 60 minute boil.
Whirlpool Hops
Whirlpool hops are added at 80-85°C and left for anywhere from 10-30 minutes before further chilling the wort. Aim for 3-4g/L for the whirlpool addition. You also have the option of multiple whirlpool additions to add complexity and extract different types of hop flavours.
Dry Hopping
In order to get that saturated hop flavour and aroma into your beer, you have to dry hop. However, the timing and scheduling of when this should happen is widely debated. Multiple dry hop additions are common.
Some recommend to dry hop to happen at high krausen or during active fermentation to achieve biotransformation of the hops. There's a counter-argument to this though that there's enough of this that happens with the hops that have been added at whirlpool, and that dry hopping early like this can lead to some of the hop aroma being blown out of the fermenter by the actively fermenting yeast (and associated carbon dioxide that is created).
The alternative to this is to dry hop after primary fermentation has completed. This will give increased hop flavour and aroma, but at the risk of needing to open your fermenter (which can lead to microbes or oxygen being introduced). You can use something like a hop bong to get around this though.
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| A hop bong is a great tool for oxygen-free dry hopping |
It's a good idea to soft crash your beer before dry hopping, and there is also a recommendation that dry hops shouldn't be in contact with the beer for more than 5 days. Though once again, there's always counter arguments such as Neil Fisher from WeldWerks Brewery in Colorado who states that their sweet spot for dry hopping is a contact time of 8-9 days.
Aim for 10-12g/L as a starting point - we've read people using as much as 37g/L. Dry hopping no doubt reaches a point where it becomes less effective/efficient, but the exact limit with what this is is still unknown.
Yeast
Liquid Yeast Examples
- London Ale III (Wyeast 1318)
- Dry English Ale (White Labs WLP007)
- Vermont/Conan
- Imperial A38
- Gigayeast GY054 Vermont IPA
Dry Yeast Examples
- Fermentis S-04
- Lallemand BRY-97
- Mangrove Jacks M36 Liberty
- Verdant IPA
- Lallemand Pomona
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| Pomona is a new yeast variety, ideal for creating Hazy IPAs |
Fermentation Temperature
Begin fermentation at the lower end of the yeasts recommended temperature range. After at least 5 days of fermentation, begin raising the temperature 1°C per day for 3 days (for a 3°C total increase in temperature).
Pressure Fermentation
Pressure fermentation is not recommended for this style of beer - at least not at the beginning of active fermentation. The pressure will suppress the colourful yeast flavours that are desirable in this style. If you do want to use pressure - begin applying it (or closing your spunding valve) after at least day 5 of active fermentation.
Cold Crashing
Cold crashing is generally a good idea, even with a hazy beer style like this. Dropping the temperature of your finished beer prior to packaging will help drop more yeast out of suspension, which can only be beneficial. The haze shouldn't be from the yeast, but rather from proteins (from wheat and oats) and hop oils within the beer.
Sample Recipe
Check out our favourite NEIPA all-grain recipe
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