80 East To Ariana

Brewer's notes:

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Hops. Hops, hops, hops, hops, and hops. Also, hops. And let's not forget hops. 

IPA and its many variations have been the most popular style(s) in the US for a couple decades now. Crisp but aggressive West Coast IPAs dominated for a while. English IPAs had a not-so-successful go at things. There was a short-lived machismo race to make the most bitter IPA ever for some reason. Most recently was the race to see who could cram the most hops into a beer, clarity be damned.  

Thankfully, cooler heads have prevailed and the New England IPA has earned its place in the pantheon of beer styles. The style calls for heavily mineralized water to create a chewy full body of beer on which just enough of a malt presence needs to be built to support a massive load of fruity juicy hops. The yeast shouldn't dry things out lest you lose that fruit juice flavor. In fact, early on in the Hazy craze, a friend of mine excitedly described a NEIPA as looking like, smelling like, and tasting "exactly like orange juice". My response at the time was "well, why don't you just drink orange juice?" I've since learned to respect and even enjoy the style. If anything, these beers allow you to understand and experience every single aspect of the hops used.  

80 East is a beast of Pilsner malt, flaked oats and wheat, and hops. A hose-clogging, upper-body-workout-just-to-get-them-into-the-fermenter amount of hops. The NEIPA darlings of Citra and Mosaic are here en force to support their beautiful friend Ariana. Ariana is a German hop so she brings a little herbal spice, but really pops with grapefruit and cantaloupe. It all comes together to form a fruit juice bomb that'll hurtle you to the east end of 80. And did I mention hops?