Just because it's an IPA, doesn't make it "Craft"...or good

OP needs a beer

 

I've been bitching about this for a while. I'm glad to meet an ally who isn't impressed with superfluously hopped non-hoppy styles. It just strikes me as so unimaginative, seldom improving on the style. Lets just get over this "hop the shit out of everything!" trend and make beers that are a little more balanced.

 

Those darned Craftster hipster brewers are doin' it to my Pilseners, too! Consarn it~!

(Shakes cane, tells kids to get off of his lawn... )

 

I thought I was the whiniest of the whiners on BeerAdvocate.

No longer! Thanks JDW!

 

On a slightly sideways note (but within the spirit of lower than average quality IPAs out there...) I finished my dry hopped Bud Light experiment this past weekend. I won't go into detail on the tasting notes (in this thread at least) but I will say this - each bottle was dry hopped with one individual hop variant. Each bottle tasted like a lot like an IPA that you could imagine getting from a brewery that just hadn't nailed their skills yet, so to speak. No remnant of Bud Light taste, but instead, a thin hoppy for the sake of hoppy beer with no malt backbone whatsoever. Sound like I'm describing an underwhelming IPA that you have one or forty of?

While I did this on purpose to further understand what each hop imparts, it made me a little sad to think how little thought some many breweries put into their IPA recipes. Hop, hop and more hop but not too much thought in depth and character. While I will always love hoppy beers to a degree that could be on the verge of institutional, I can understand a little about the frustration that the OP has. Especially if he has been seeking shelter from the mediocre IPA storm, only to find everything else is hop nuts as well.

@JDW4195 , spend some time getting to know European beers. That should make you happier for a while, IMO

 

Here you are , 3.6% ABV and 26 IBU. It must be craft beer because it's handcrafted.

 

I think you have it mostly right. They are not doing it to be hip. They are doing it because they are losing sales by not having them in their portfolio. I am sure Jim did not say "Hey we need an IPA to be cool." I can certainly agree with you that their are too many IPA's that are just ok out there. What I do not agree with you is that they only exist so people can be hip. Hipster trends happen, but they do not lead to the best selling style in craft beer.

 

IPA's are the new AAL

 

Tongue in cheek, right?

 

Wait a minute you mean a decent beer can give you cotton mouth??

 

The main problem is that there are to many bad IPA's and a lot of mediocre to decent ones are being overhyped I feel the same way about Barrel Aged Beers. Stop trying to hide your shitty stout with Bourbon flavor and charging an arm and a leg for it. It's only good when you start with a world class stout like Founders.

 

I remember listening to some guy complaining about this exact same thing back in the mid-1990s. So I guess it has taken about 20 years for this trend to make it from coast to coast.

OP, as others have pointed out you have plenty of options available if you don't like hoppy beers. It's simple enough, just buy those instead.

 

Well, I will have to disagree with that. You can take a base beer that is brewed specifically to be barrel aged that would not necessarily be good on its on. Bourbon County stout is a good example of this.

 

Have you tried an IPA? They're pretty delicious...