diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 56a69080..86d74dd6 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -670,7 +670,9 @@ development:
     port: 3035
 ```
 
-If you have `hmr` turned to true, then the `stylesheet_pack_tag` generates no output, as you will want to configure your styles to be inlined in your JavaScript for hot reloading. During production and testing, the `stylesheet_pack_tag` will create the appropriate HTML tags.
+If you have `hmr` turned to true and `inline_styles` is not false, then the `stylesheet_pack_tag` generates no output, as you will want to configure your styles to be inlined in your JavaScript for hot reloading. During production and testing, the `stylesheet_pack_tag` will create the appropriate HTML tags.
+
+If you want to have HMR and separate link tags, set `hmr: true` and `inline_styles: false`. This will cause styles to be extracted and reloaded with the `mini-css-extract-plugin` loader. Note that in this scenario, you do not need to include style-loader in your project dependencies.
 
 ### Additional paths
 
diff --git a/lib/webpacker/dev_server.rb b/lib/webpacker/dev_server.rb
index d9dae344..2482cd47 100644
--- a/lib/webpacker/dev_server.rb
+++ b/lib/webpacker/dev_server.rb
@@ -55,6 +55,15 @@ def hmr?
     fetch(:hmr)
   end
 
+  def inline_css?
+    case fetch(:inline_css)
+    when false, "false"
+      false
+    else
+      true
+    end
+  end
+
   def env_prefix
     config.dev_server.fetch(:env_prefix, DEFAULT_ENV_PREFIX)
   end
diff --git a/lib/webpacker/instance.rb b/lib/webpacker/instance.rb
index 9d42e687..39ef6d05 100644
--- a/lib/webpacker/instance.rb
+++ b/lib/webpacker/instance.rb
@@ -36,6 +36,6 @@ def commands
   end
 
   def inlining_css?
-    dev_server.hmr? && dev_server.running?
+    dev_server.inline_css? && dev_server.hmr? && dev_server.running?
   end
 end
diff --git a/package/inliningCss.js b/package/inliningCss.js
index e1036653..7084d5e8 100644
--- a/package/inliningCss.js
+++ b/package/inliningCss.js
@@ -2,6 +2,6 @@ const { runningWebpackDevServer } = require('./env')
 const devServer = require('./dev_server')
 
 // This logic is tied to lib/webpacker/instance.rb
-const inliningCss = runningWebpackDevServer && devServer.hmr
+const inliningCss = runningWebpackDevServer && devServer.hmr && devServer.inlineCss !== false
 
 module.exports = inliningCss
diff --git a/test/webpacker_test.rb b/test/webpacker_test.rb
index 082eb1b9..a20a95bc 100644
--- a/test/webpacker_test.rb
+++ b/test/webpacker_test.rb
@@ -23,11 +23,26 @@ def dev_server.pretty?; false; end
     def dev_server.https?; true; end
     def dev_server.hmr?; true; end
     def dev_server.running?; true; end
+    def dev_server.inline_css?; true; end
     Webpacker.instance.stub(:dev_server, dev_server) do
       assert Webpacker.inlining_css?
     end
   end
 
+  def test_explicit_no_inline_css_with_hmr
+    dev_server = Webpacker::DevServer.new({})
+    def dev_server.host; "localhost"; end
+    def dev_server.port; "3035"; end
+    def dev_server.pretty?; false; end
+    def dev_server.https?; true; end
+    def dev_server.hmr?; true; end
+    def dev_server.running?; true; end
+    def dev_server.inline_css?; false; end
+    Webpacker.instance.stub(:dev_server, dev_server) do
+      assert !Webpacker.inlining_css?
+    end
+  end
+
   def test_app_autoload_paths_cleanup
     assert_empty $test_app_autoload_paths_in_initializer
   end