Paste 324 IPAs blind tasted

There's also a number of beers on here that are one-and-done exclusives, which really seem like they should be out of scope.

 

I agree. Lack of vetting is one of the problems with the Paste rankings.

 

Why should they be out of scope? Some people put the same hard hours into that wort. Plus, usually the one-offs can test the waters and see if it could make it as a recurring brew.

Honestly, a lot of us aren’t gonna be able to have a vast majority of these beers because they’re so localized.

But a successful and delicious beer is just that. A successful and delicious beer. That deserves credit. I do agree that it is even harder to create consistency in a truly great beer. But the tone of the list is dominated by fairly localized breweries, though. I think one-offs are fair.

 

Obviously, I disagree wholeheartedly.

An annualized list, that is basically every decent beer of a specific style that this magazine could get their hands on, should not include beers that will never, ever been seen again and, as of the time of this writing, are completely impossible to get fresh, let alone ever again.

There's no point in writing about a product on a competitive best of list like this that isn't even going to be published in time for anyone else to enjoy that product. The point of a list like this is to direct people to beers they should be drinking if they're able to and have access to them. This isn't a "best of all time" list where beers no longer in rotation or very rarely produced would be more fittingly welcome.

This list is superfluous and ridiculous.

 

You're absolutely right about the ipa landscape plateauing at some point. Unfortunately not everybody has figured out how to make a good ipa. Their long list has a wide variety of local and regional beers which means something on the list should be available to a good deal of us folks out there that appreciate good beer. Plus, people love to see their locals on a list like this. I got excited to see that my local even entered!

The only issue I see with the list, is that there is a sizable variance in the ipa category these days and the judges seemed to heavily favor the hazy, low ibu, hop bomb that we're calling the neipa. I guess that's not really an issue but if your someone looking to the list for a new beer suggestion and you're not into the neipa, then your shit out of luck.

Also, it seems just about everything is over the top now, beers have to be hoppier, people have to be louder or more obnoxious to try and get their point across to others, movies have to be more violent or vulgar, cars have to be faster etc... Extreme is what the people want so why not a gigantic list of IPAs to sort through?

 

How in god's name has this board not progressed past dumb comments like this?

The list, literally, says 'of the best,' and the explainer talks about how there are myriad beers they don't have access to and that weren't sent in so this list should not be viewed as a be-all-end all. It's a very simple concept.

 

Dope attempt to start an internet argument! Not gonna happen. Best of luck, it looks like you enjoy picking fights with lots of people on here and call others dumb, based on your posting history.

 

Exactly. At this point, there are myriad beers no better, but also not indistinguishably worse, than 99% of this list! The vastness of it kills its credibility and more importantly, its allure.

Leave god out of this, he has supreme court justices to influence.

 

You basically criticized a post that told us not to take this list seriously by explaining why we shouldn't take this list seriously.

 

No, that's not at all what I did.

The title of this tasting -- and any other Paste blind tasting -- is, if not truncated, "Here are the best x amount of beers that we were send in an order dictated by blind preference."

It is meant to make new beers and breweries known to people, not to serve as a be-all-end-all, Paste is very transparent with that.

 

Actually, it is meant to generate clicks!

 

Yes, you're right, and it shares that in common with any other article anyone has ever written on the internet.

 

Shoutout to Benchtop. Strong showing from an up and comer.

 

Thank you!!!

 

No problem! Hopefully critical acclaim like this keeps pouring in and you make that NEIPA or another similar variant more often! Cheers!

 

Hey, we have Always Ready available year round now. That is a major coup!!

Cheers!

 

That's perhaps the most frightening sentence I've ever read, haha

 

Here's a beer that'll finish high in a future Pale Ale list.

 

They really stacked the list with opaque IPAs. No English IPAs and very few classic style

 

The brewers decide what to send in.