You may think of IPA-lovers as mostly white, male hipsters who are only interested in obsessing over things that are niche or undiscovered. And while that stereotype may be partially true, one brewery is challenging it by releasing a new IPA that features an extremely trendy ingredient: oat milk.
Dogfish Head Brewery recently announced a new Hazy IPA that it's calling Hazy-O! (Yes, the exclamation point is part of the name.) In addition to being brewed with different types of oats — malted, rolled, and naked oats — the drink features oat milk, a beverage most of us are used to drinking in the morning with coffee. But according to the brand's official announcement, the use of oat milk amplifies the beer's haze and adds to its silky soft, creamy mouthfeel. This makes for "a beer that is incredibly juicy and hop-forward while being smooth and super-sessionable!" Hazy-O! has a 7.1% ABV, so unlike that oat milk latte from Dunkin' that you're so attached to, this can give you a nice buzz.
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The folks over at Dogfish Head tapped Elmhurst, a leader in the oat milk game, to help create Hazy-O!, and Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione told Food & Wine that it chose to work with the plant-based milk company because of its special extraction process, which creates very pure oat milk without added gums or emulsifiers. This isn't the first time Elmhurst has partnered with other companies to lend its oat milk to other formats. It also works with Perry's to make oat milk ice cream
It may come as a surprise, but Calagione does acknowledge just how hot oat milk is right now. "Oat milk is definitely having a zeitgeist moment right now in the culinary world," he again told Food & Wine. "Sales of hard seltzers — the fastest-growing alcohol sector — are up low triple digits, year-to-date. Sales of oat milk are up almost 1,000% this year. I read somewhere that the growth percentage of oat milk even eclipses that of hand sanitizer this year."
Before its nationwide launch next year, Hazy-O! will be available for a limited time starting at 11 a.m. tomorrow, October 2. The company will be selling it on draft at the Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats and Tasting Room & Kitchen in Milton, Delaware, and in four-packs of 16-ounce cans from its Rehoboth location. Even if the hipsters don't take to it, those of us who are already devoted fans of oat milk can unwind with it at the end of a tough day. Finally, both our mornings and our nights can be filled with oat milk.