IPA craze: When will it be over?!

Yep, the sour train has pulled out of the station and is likely never coming back. I think of all the Cantillon I could have bought up to about 4 years ago as the ones that got away.

 

Why don't you open your own brewery then? IPAs sell more than other styles so there will be a continuing focus on them until that is not the case. In fact I love that breweries continue making new awesome IPAs. Maybe your palate is not advanced enough to notice the differences between them, but that is just an assumption from you original post.

And before you say you can't open a brewery here's another idea: email these breweries that make so many IPAs and ask them to make more of your favorite style. Really you don't need to do that though because tons of breweries are coming out with tons of styles...at least around here. It sounds like you are just nit picking on the ones that focus on hoppier offerings which, might I add, many people enjoy greatly.

Peace.

 

drinkem while they're "fresh"

 

When will IPA craze be over? A better question....when will they discontinue Bud Light.

 

Nice! I would advise against drinking them all in one sitting, though.

 

It will end when you pass away.

 

I think what OP is saying, is that the "craze" is limiting style offerings, or keeping breweries from cranking out a new kick ass lager for example. And I agree. I also love quite a few IPAs, but I also love hard rock music. That doesn't mean that I only listen to Shinedown, or Avenged Sevenfold all day every day. I like me some big hair rock, classic rock, 80's music (grew up on that shit), blues, oldies, and Sinatra, rambling... I have been to many restaurants this summer where 8 of the 10 beers on tap were IPAs or PAs and the others are Fat Tire or equivalent. Stouts and porters are my favorite style, but I enjoy so many different kinds of beer that it would honestly bum me out if that is all I saw. Like @Hop-Droppen-Roll said, they are making what is selling, and you can't fault any good business for that. I just think that there is too much of everything in this country to pigeonhole yourself. Hell, I would have drain poured a Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Extra 5 years ago (maybe more recent) but I am thinking about starting a petition to have it brewed year round. We beer drinkers need to expand our horizons like we did when we jumped off the silver bulleit train. Insert hate mail here:

 

Great..someone who has been here less then a month bitching about a style 90% of the people on here enjoy...wtf did you think this was going to solve OP?

 

This made me laugh.

 

Not in SC, if there is more than one ipa option in a bar I go into, I am thrilled.

 

Just face it, IPA's are a permanent part of American beer culture.

 

I think it will happen when something new comes around...

Wheat?
Gose?
Session Beer of Different Styles?

I will wait and see

 

I love IPAs. I also love non-IPAs.

But this isn't really the type of question I worry about. For starters, because I can't really do anything to change it, but more importantly, because in spite of the fact that the style is popular right now, there's still a veritable shit-ton of other styles out there and in huge quantities. We live in a cornucopia of craft beer, so I don't know that it really matters that IPAs are popular, even to someone who likes a limited number of them.

Plus, what possible answers are available to answer the question, really? When will the IPA craze be over? The most accurate answer is probably "who knows?" (or maybe "never"), since the popularity of a beer style depends on a myriad of complex factors at play.

When you pose a question that seemingly has no answer, people are going to try and glean the underlying meaning of your question (unless you actually want a timeframe for when the "craze" will end, in which case @rollom has been kind enough to soothsay for you), which leads to responses that get at the implications of your question--that there are other styles available, that you must not like IPAs, that you think the offerings of other styles are suffering due to the large quantities of IPAs, etc. I don't think anyone (at least not most people) are really intending to attack you, OP.

 

I'll add this to the discussion: we have a local brewery here that makes FANTASTIC beers. All his beers acrozs multiple styles are really really good. However he made one beer when he first opened (an iipa) and thats the ONE beer people continually ask about. He's brewed it once since then and we sold out so fast it wasnt even 8 hours the keg was tapped. Now he is always changing things up, like going from a nut brown to a porter or a wheat beer to a true hefe. However, the one constant is people always still ask when he is bringing the iip back. He recently released an ipa made with huell melon and mandarina bavaria hops and it went very very fast. People just LOVE the ipa's. Even in an area where the best craft options are blue mountain, southern tier (nothing wrong with those at all, but we don't get stone, new belgium, bells, founders etc..) people go crazy for this iipa even tho the brewer has made other great beers. Long story short ipa's iipa's sell here. And if they sell here, they'll certainly sell elsewhere so until they stop selling, breweries will keep pumping them out. Are they all heady status? No but still good.

 

No one's putting words in your mouth as many people have already stated in this thread. So please stop your *sigh*ing.

You seem like a bright guy. So you already know that all brewers all have a specific capacity limited by several factors, space, time, money, and more. So, whether you realize it or not, "I'd just like to see that kind of focus on other beer styles," DOES imply you want to see less IPAs. Because in order to focus on other styles, there would have to be less focus on IPAs.

Too many people love IPAs. So, perhaps develop more of a hop based palate, because it's going to be a while before you see the cream ale craze take off. Lol.