Hops - the beginner's taste?

I started out hating super hoppy beers, but that changed and now I enjoy them. I think it's just a matter of getting used to what you are drinking.

A few years ago, I hated all beer but now I can't get enough. Same idea about learning to like it.

 

I've noticed, through personal experience and the testimony of others, that once one develops a taste for hops it's pretty common to start craving more and more of that flavor. I've always considered bigger beers like stouts, barleywines, imperial ______, etc. to be my favorite styles, but once I started to appreciate hops I started enjoying them more and more as time went on. I recently moved from the U.S. to Canada to start a new job. I knew i would be going into a relatively restricted beer market so I wanted to take some U.S. brews with me. What did I bring with me, you ask? A mixed case of 2 IPAs, a hopped up imperial amber, and a milk stout only because I got a free 6er of it from a friend. Left to my own devices, that 4th 6 pack would have been another IPA. Granted this is anecdotal, but it goes to show that you're not the only one who craves more hops and from my experience it's a common occurrence among craft beer drinkers I've known.

 

Are you a current or old sticky-icky dank lover? I've (for the most part) put that behind me but the correlation between DIPAs and that other flower that looks like a hop bud is pretty close... might be the reason.

 

It's the natural progression of beer that many of us go through. Start hating hops, slowly move to liking hops, then move to loving hops and craving the hoppiest beers out there. That phase lasts a little while until you get hop overload and then move back to less hoppy beers and finally settling in to loving both hoppy and non hoppy beers.

 

I didn't like hops straight out the gate, but I quickly developed a taste for them and couldn't get enough. Nothing could sate it -- I wanted bigger and hoppier. I wanted the enamel peeled off my teeth. The tongue completely obliteraed.

Then suddenly...my palate had a backlash, and now I don't really care much for hopbombs. A nice IPA is plenty for me. I can't even remember the last DIPA I had.

My palate has undergone a strange change over the last 6 mos or so. I used to crave "imperial" beers, mainly drinking DIPAs and huge stouts. Now I mainly drink things like Rogue Hazelnut, Sweetwater IPA, Fuller's ESB, etc. I still drink the big stuff, but not nearly with the same frequency.

 

This describes my experience exactly.

This all comes down to palate maturity and development over time.

 

pieman,

In order to test your outer limits for hops may I suggest trying Fuller's 1845.

1845 has substantial body so don't worry about that part, but even when fresh 1845 probably has the toughest hops finish I've tatsted...it's a bit on the nasty side, all this coming from a BA who likes pilsners like Javer and Radeberger.

 

Hello. There was a thread some weeks back where a guy was saying that Dogfish didn't make any hoppy beers. The long and the short of it was that to him 'hoppy' meant very bitter or floral. To my mind, hop flavors can come in basically four different 'flavors': Floral, bitter, citrusy and piney/resiny. This can be in the aroma or the actual taste. To my mind (and palate) anyway, those are the ways that hops can show up in a beer.

Some people don't consider Dogish 60 or 90 a hoppy beer, specially when you compare it to something like Avery Maharaja or Stone Ruination. But all those beers are hoppy, they just exhibit a different type of hoppiness. Let me put it to you this way, Avery Mephistopheles has over 100 IBU's and I doubt anyone has ever listed that beer as a hop bomb or hoppy.

 

OP, I was definitely in your shoes a few years ago when I first started enjoying craft beer. Anything hoppy was great with me. Now though, while hoppy beers are still my favorite, I look for more balanced flavor hops. Something like Green Flash's Palate Wrecker would have greatly appealed to me a few years ago. Now I just feel it's overly bitter without much flavor.

 

I got into craft about 4 years ago and when I started out, I could not stand hoppy beers. Even SN Pale ale was too hoppy for my liking. I just kept trying different things until I found what I did&didn't like. I like some hoppy beers so long as they are balanced and have that floral/grapefruit/mango flavor thing going on. First time I had Pliny the Elder, I loved it! I like just about everything out there in terms of beer styles save for sours - I've tried many and its just not for me. Just get out there and try as many as you can, you'd be surprised at what you develop an appreciation for.

 

I hated hops when I first started drinking craft. They made me burp and were just so very unpleasantly bitter I could hardly force them down. I remember drain pouring my first Hop Devil, and I thought DFH 60 Minute tasted like dish soap. From my experience, most newbies/non-craft drinkers are more amenable towards sweeter beers like amber ales and brown ales.

 

I think there is definitely some truth to this tendency you're seeing. Most people get interested in craft beer because they want bolder flavors than they get from BMC, so it’s probably natural that they are drawn to the biggest, boldest beers. Higher gravity beers with lots of hops and/or roasted malt tend to make the biggest impression, and thus we find ourselves awash in 100+IBU DPAs and barrel-aged 12%+ ABV stouts.
Nothing wrong with that, unless maybe you happen to like helles, ESB’s, or brown porters, or maibocks, or whatever, and wish there was a little bit more going on in those areas. Hard to complain, given that we have so many choices these days, but I would have to admit there I times I feel a little disappointed the reviews here, where people are responding to dortmunders or kolsches as if they were supposed to taste like DPAs. (“It didn’t blow me away…”) And of the course the market is responding just as you’d expect: It’s easier and more profitable for brewers to put out another “blow me away” hop bomb than it is to try to nail down some of these more subtle styles.
It's hard to say whether your tastes will change over time or how the market as a whole will change. If I had to guess, I would suggest that you'll probably start to tire of DIPAs at some point and start to appreciate some other flavors more. I know that for me, I start feel like "you've had one 100+IBU hop bomb, you've had 'em all."

 

I really like this post. It's kind of hilarious to me (or is it sad?) To read the review of say...a Belgian Strong Dark Ale and the reviewer says "not as hoppy as I'd like", you just wanna knock some of these people over the head and be like did you read the description of this beer, its not.a DIPA. I just feel like brewers aren't trying to expand the 'craft' of the craft beer market. Every brewery has about 18 different IPA's (or some variant) in their lineup and there are little to no forays into the more subtler styles which you mention.

 

The first Supplication and Consecration I had were hard for me to palate. I never expected beer to be acidic and tart. I used to brew kombucha and drank so much of it and was used to the vinegar and funk from the wild yeast. But those flavors in a beer kinda took a while to understand. It's funny I almost want to brew a batch of kombucha and play around with recipe to make it taste like a low alcohol lambic now.

 

Well from what you say here i don't think its LTS since that usually goes away in a week or two. So I guess you've just totten much more passionate about hop bitterness.

 

Once a hophead, always a hophead. Embrace your inner hophead and never look back or make excuses.

 

1. I agree with the hoppy stuff. Especially if you can find the citrusy/creamy/hoppy. Thats sweet spot for IPA's and DIPAs for me. The super bitter Milwaukees best face isnt for me.

2. I am suprised as shit by this. I thought you were born a ticker. Or were you super into Cheese before and gained 50 pounds and moved onto beer?

Cheers!

 

My wife is like that. She got started on craft loving hops and has never looked back. Her favotire beer went from Stella to DFH 90 min in no time. Of course now she wants nothing but IPA's. I have introduced her to other styles, but she's never a fan. Always wants the hop bombs.

 

To be 100% honest, before I ticked craft beer I ticked craft soda.