What Is a Hazy IPA?

Many people think of an IPA as an aggressively bitter beer. A hazy IPA is much less bitter, and this post explains why.

Why a hazy IPA is less bitter

The style comes from New England, in the United States, where brewers in the 2010s started to make IPAs that were about hop flavour rather than hop bitterness. Hops that are added late in the boil, or after it in a step that brewers call dry hopping, add almost no bitterness. Instead, they add aroma and flavour, such as mango, passion fruit, citrus and pine.

Where the haze comes from

The haze is not dirt, and it is not yeast floating around. It comes from proteins in the oats and wheat, which bind with compounds from the hops called polyphenols and stay suspended in the beer. The same oats and wheat give the beer a soft, full body, so it drinks more like juice than like a bitter classic IPA. That is why people call the style a juice bomb.

How SOMA makes its hazy IPA

SOMA IPA is our version, and it is the hardest of our five beers to brew. Alcohol carries flavour, so a non-alcoholic beer without enough body can taste thin and watery. The oats, wheat and protein that make the haze also give the beer its body, and that body is what lets a non-alcoholic IPA still feel like a real IPA in your mouth.

We brew it with Citra and Mosaic hops, two varieties known for their tropical fruit flavours. Citra adds grapefruit and lime, and Mosaic adds mango and blueberry. Our yeast is unusual too. It is maltose-negative, so it cannot eat the main sugar in the wort, the sweet liquid that becomes beer, and the alcohol stays under 0.5% ABV on its own. This matters a great deal for a hazy IPA. Nothing is done to the beer afterwards to lower the alcohol, so the delicate hop aromas that define the style stay in it. We finish with a second dry hop, so the aroma you smell when you open the can is the aroma that went into it.

What SOMA IPA tastes like

SOMA IPA pours a hazy gold with a dense white head. It smells of ripe fruit and finishes soft, with very little bitterness. A 500ml can has an indicative 92 calories and is under 0.5% ABV.

If you have a friend who loves craft beer and says that non-alcoholic beer cannot be good, let them taste the IPA and decide for themselves.