Yes. That was the trick. When Trillium made Congress street they filtered it as usual. Wasn’t as good. They spent months on it and decided it was best when cloudy. Yet for beer competitions ”clarity” was a category so obviously those beers need not apply. As they exploded in popularity eventually a new category New England IPA was created so they could be awarded.
Early on, many breweries that didn’t know what they were doing faked it, making ”hazy” versions of regular IPAs. Those were awful. Eventually the knowledge spread and now you can find the style almost everywhere. The basics are a light malt, Pilsner or sometimes some oats, very few of the C hops (Cascade, Chinook, Centennial, Columbus) that are the basis of piney, bitter west coast IPAs. Citra is the C exception, and as the name implies the modern hops used impart more fruity, tropical flavors. Also, a low flocculating English Ale yeast. Then the brewing difference is very little hopping during the kettle boil (when all hopping occurred traditionally). Instead they hop late as it cools. Boiling hops extracts the bitterness. Late hopping requires more hops for flavor, but it’s far less bitter. That is part of why the beers are expensive.
I have found that most people that didn’t care for the big, massively hoppy and bitter west coast IPAs (Stone for example) prefer the NE IPA. Give one a shot. As for lagers, if you can get Jack’s Abby they do great stuff. I’m particularly partial to their House Lager, which they based on several German lagers they had on a trip. They were all beers that didn’t get bottled, just sold as the “house” beer at the brewery.
