Want to try a brut IPA? Head to craft breweries in Green Bay

Brut IPA, whose most notable quality to date is its dryness, has a long way to go to catch the trendy hazy/juicy (aka New England style) IPAs being guzzled as fast as they're brewed.

Though to be fair, the first brut IPA was reportedly brewed a little more than a year ago.

Wisconsin beer geeks, in refreshing change of pace, don't have to wait half a decade before tilting a pint of a locally brewed version of this latest IPA.

Brut IPAs are now, or soon will be, flowing around Green Bay with breweries having them on tap or carbonating or in recipe development.

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Dry probably doesn't mean what you think

Dry is a characteristic used to describe wine but hasn't been used as beer description for nearly 30 years when one large domestic brewery's commercial encouraged us not to "ask why" but instead try Bud Dry. Budweiser was hardly the only brewery bottling dry beer in the early '90s.

As a refresher course, you should know that dry doesn't mean, well, dry. That dry feeling on your tongue when drinking certain wines comes from the tannin level. 

Think of dry as more like unsweet. Sweetness or dryness is determined by the amount of sugars in the final product.

The higher percentage of sugars consumed by yeast during fermentation, the drier the wine or beer. I'm not going to get into the full science geekery of it, but yeast consumes only short sugar chains. Long sugar chains are left behind. Unconsumed sugars, among other things, create that thick feeling you may have on your tongue after a few full-bodied lagers or stouts or other similar style beers.

Mouthfeel is the brut IPA unifying characteristic

Unless you're really paying attention to the mouthfeel, and depending on the brewer's bittering hop level and dry hop choice, you may just think a brut IPA is a thinner hazy or juicy or even West Coast IPA.

What might be described as thin or even watery, is due to this beer being as light as or lighter than water. 

Furthermore, once a brut IPA leaves your mouth, it leaves little evidence it was ever there. Bitterness will likely be the most noticeable aftereffect. 

The subtle difference could have this style disappearing as fast as the dry versions of big brewery domestic lagers.

Noble Roots Brewing co-owner and head brewer Alex Falish says he is pleased with early feedback on their brut IPA.

Noble Roots first in Green Bay with brut IPA on tap

Noble Roots' brut IPA is part of the brewery's garage series, half-barrel experimental batches. It features a citrus, piney, pineapple aroma and flavor delivered with a slight hop bitterness that lingers. 

RELATED: Brewers from Noble Roots Brewing and Ahnapee Brewery talk beer on Taproom Live

Falish predicts the beer, released on Aug. 30, won't last much longer than a second weekend in the brewery's taproom, the only place you can sip it.

"IPA drinkers really like it and it wasn’t too bitter for non-IPA drinkers," Falish said. "Overall, a very positive response."

Ahnapee's Our Island IPA has zero IBUs

You read that right. Ahnapee Brewery owner Nick Calaway brewed his brut IPA without hops in the boil, opting to double dry hop instead with Simcoe and Ekuanot.

Using the same amount of hops as he does for other IPAs brewed at Ahnapee, Calaway has created an IPA that delivers all the floral and fruit aroma and flavor you could want from an IPA. However, you will be waiting for that bitterness punch that never comes. It's a delightful change of pace if you don't like the bitter hit from an IPA.

Lighter than water and finishing cleaner than any beer has a right to, be warned, the 7% ABV will sneak up on you. Our Island IPA lives up to Calaway's description as being the beer you would want if stranded on a deserted island.

A limited release, Our Island IPA will make its way to select taps throughout the brewery's northeastern Wisconsin distribution range in the next week or so.

Calaway will wait to see how Island IPA sells before brewing another batch but says he could see this style at least being popular as a summer seasonal.

Badger State Brewing has plans for a brut IPA

Yeasts eating up all the fermentable sugar in a beer intrigued Badger State Brewing's president Andrew Fabry enough to get the brewery working on a recipe.

Like Noble Roots and Ahnapee, Badger State Brewing will go small to test the brut IPA waters with the first batch brewed on its pilot system and poured exclusively in its taproom. 

They plan to tweak a familiar IPA recipe and brewing process for their brut IPA with the goal to make it as dry as possible.