It isn’t like we couldn’t have seen this coming.
Brewers are an almost painfully creative lot. It’s like Murphy’s (Irish Stout?) Law: if it can be brewed, it will be brewed. That includes the likes of beer made with brains (thanks, Dock Street), scrapple (Dogfish Head), every food product one could name, and all manner of exotically sourced yeasts (beards and…elsewhere). So, it really comes as no surprise that we witnessed the advent of the “Milkshake IPA.” Heck, by the standards of “weird beers,” it’s not even that unusual.
What is somewhat unusual is just how popular these (and similar) beers have become. By seizing on the galloping popularity of IPA and adding ingredients and processes that enhance highly approachable (or, in the words of Jean Broillet of Tired Hands, “whimsical”) flavors and textures, a few breweries began a fad that evolved into a trend. Dozens of Milkshake IPAs are now available from domestic and international breweries. Even breweries that aren’t jumping in with both feet are pushing out hazy, cloudy IPAs and pitching them as fellow travelers to the Milkshake IPA, while older breweries brag that they’ve been making cloudy, thicker beers for years. And yet…