If you thought that the branding for the recent release of Braxton’s Cherry Turnover Berliner at Labs looked a little different, you were right. We got the final word today that things are being spruced up a little bit in the release department at Braxton’s “innovation facility”. I wanted to take a peek at the four sides of it that we currently know about (They’ve hinted that there will be a fifth category that they’ll let us know about later this week, too).

New England IPAs

We’re about to see the first couple of these released on DATE with BEERS – and I think you get the idea of what this category means by now. New England IPAs are the other side of the hops that many of us fell in love with as craft beer drinkers. They’re hazy instead of bright and clear. Fruity instead of bitter, and they’re sort of all the rage right now. Braxton has been working hard to perfect this style, and even if a lot of people who have tasted their new Tropic Flare say that they’ve nailed it, they aren’t planning on resting in the NE IPA innovation department!

Dessert Berliner Weisses

That cherry turnover beer I just got done talking about falls into this category. Tart, and fruity – I almost think that this is the other side of the soft and fruity NE IPA trend… and a worthy trend in it’s own right. We’ve got some killer fruited sours happening in Cincinnati right now, and of course Braxton is digging in deep to see what they can do to find your next favorite one.

Pastry Stouts

A style that if you ask the right person in today’s beer circles you’re likely to be told isn’t even a real style. Pastry stouts are just as the name implies. They are big stouts that either use ingredients that you’d find in a pastry, or use flavors that mimic them. Big… heavy and sweet is what you need to know about this style to understand it. Cakes, cinnamon rolls… you get the idea here, right? Big. Pastry.

Milkshake IPAs

A category that sits very close to the NE IPAs that everyone seems to have gone crazy for lately, Milkshake IPAs typically will add fruit into the mix, and lactose to give the beer more of a milkshake-like character. Sometimes you’ll find things like chocolate thrown into the mix. It’s a beer, designed to mimic a milkshake. Get it?

As for that fifth category – I’ll update this post with some details when I get them, but for now I’m curious to hear everyone’s guesses!