First met with fruity juicy hops, then subtle sweetness, as it washes the vanilla hits and finishes with a light dank bitterness, lingers a little with the vanilla.
Mouthfeel
Has nice medium to heavy body, substantial & mouthfeel is very nice. Carbonation is a little high.
Notes
The enigma hops pop and they’re crazy fragrant & juicy. The lactose adds a little sweetness that’s accentuated by the vanilla bean. This beer is really nice. Juicy, smooth, and slight sweetness. Was best fresh, started to turn after 3 weeks, but very few bottles were left.
I’ve been interested in brewing a milkshake style IPA for some time, so I decided to give it a shot! The milkshake IPA style usually has fruity hops, milk sugar (lactose), fruit, and vanilla. This beer has been described as a sub-set of hazy NEIPAs, but it oftentimes has more mouthfeel & the hops have to mesh well with the fruit and/or vanilla.
It appears that Omnipollo were the first to put out these kind of beers when they came out with a “smoothie IPA” in 2014. In 2015, Jean Broillet IV of Tired Hands teamed up with Omnipollo to release the first “milkshake IPA”, which has turned into a growing series, including: Rose Panna Cotta Milkshake IPA, Bananas Foster Double Milkshake IPA, Raspberry Green Tea Milkshake IPA, and many more.
Jean Broillet IV didn’t only want to use lactose but, “[gobs of] oats, apple puree, vanilla, and fruit.” Brewing with oats increases viscosity due to the high content of beta-glucans, while the apple puree is used for pectins to create a luscious, thick mouthfeel. The beer is then conditioned on fruit & vanilla beans to round out the flavor profile. These are culinary focused beers and I’ve seen versions without fruit, without vanilla, and even without lactose. They’re more popular now and since they’re in such high demand and are damn tasty, I don’t see them going anywhere soon.
scraping split vanilla bean
For my iteration (milkshake style), I didn’t use any fruit or apple puree (next time). I fell in love with enigma hops last year when I had Other Half‘s All Enigma Everything and I’ve been hooked (kind of obsessed) since. I wanted to get all that enigma goodness, and I added a vanilla bean after primary fermentation to get some Nilla warmth that I think will pair well with the sweetness from the lactose, and the earthy fruitiness of enigma hops.
For my base I used 60% 2 row and went heavy with the oats at 40% (hell yea). 30% of those oats are Fawcett oat malt (which I’ve never used before). Oat malt is described as, “a unique malt that adds a distinct texture and smoothness to your brews similar to flaked oats.” I’d heard Tired Hands uses Fawcett oat malt in their beers so I was excited to give it a shot!
It appears that 
