White IPAs, and my grouse about American styles of Everything

First, there was the Cascadian Dark Ale or Black IPA. Then the American Wheat. American-style sours. And I finally tried a White IPA - essentially a wheat beer that wants to be an IPA. And I am not impressed, not with this particular example anyway.


This particular beer was a big no-no for me. I just couldn't wrap my head around what it's supposed to be. A Belgian wit? It's too hoppy/citrusy for that. An IPA? It lacks the punch of bitterness, and the aromatics from the Belgian yeast totally clashes with the hops. Add a silky, moderately-full mouthfeel from the wheat to that equation, and you end up with a Franken-beer. It should have been called an over-hopped Belgian wit instead. Not a girl, not yet a woman.

Seriously people, there is no need to obsessionally name every damn hybrid you come up with and try to muscle/market your way into a "new style". If I brew an IPA using Nelson Sauvin hops, a double decoction method and a lager yeast, does it credit being called a New Zealand Marzen then?  Hybrids are just that - experimental styles, one-off brews, fads. This is particularly so if the hybridization doesn't add any "hybrid vigour" but instead creates an unruly chimaera. They should never claim to be a style on its own, much like how homebrewers do not claim to be some new species like Homo cervisiam just because we brew beer.

/Rant