There is a style guide for every beer type, and you have to meet it to compete in beer competitions and do well. Until the hazy IPA craze, pretty much every beer was supposed to be clear except for a Hefeweizen.
Pro brewers crash cool and/or filter the final product to get a consistent product. You don’t want active yeast making it into the package and creating little bombs. Consumers also expected a clear drink.
Home brewers have always had a more flexible scale in the clarity of beer, leaving traditionally clear styles hazy has been the mark of a home made (and therefore better) beer to a lot of home brewers. The hazy IPAs have flipped this logic on its head. These styles can be brewed with oats, lactose, all kinds of adjuncts that would never clear and add to “mouth feel” for this style of beer. This change in the industry seems to have left some room for the pro brewers that are local sized (like a brewpub + some distribution in the region) to leave their beers hazy for many styles. It does save a step, and running a small brewery is done on razor thin margins.
So, long way to say, yes hazy beer can have more complex flavor, it’s probably the mark of something produced on a less industrial scale, and to many that would be better. Large commercial beer really shoots for the middle, and if your tastes are more complex it won’t do it for you.
I only clear the German traditional styles I brew. Kölsch, Helles, etc. The rest is hazy if it wants to be.
Pro brewers crash cool and/or filter the final product to get a consistent product. You don’t want active yeast making it into the package and creating little bombs. Consumers also expected a clear drink.
Home brewers have always had a more flexible scale in the clarity of beer, leaving traditionally clear styles hazy has been the mark of a home made (and therefore better) beer to a lot of home brewers. The hazy IPAs have flipped this logic on its head. These styles can be brewed with oats, lactose, all kinds of adjuncts that would never clear and add to “mouth feel” for this style of beer. This change in the industry seems to have left some room for the pro brewers that are local sized (like a brewpub + some distribution in the region) to leave their beers hazy for many styles. It does save a step, and running a small brewery is done on razor thin margins.
So, long way to say, yes hazy beer can have more complex flavor, it’s probably the mark of something produced on a less industrial scale, and to many that would be better. Large commercial beer really shoots for the middle, and if your tastes are more complex it won’t do it for you.
I only clear the German traditional styles I brew. Kölsch, Helles, etc. The rest is hazy if it wants to be.