I dont understand: distaste for hops

I would offer that most DIPA/TIPA are in the category of high bitterness/a bit in your face--certainly with exceptions (find PtE to be on the more subtle side of that category--why I like it so).

Some (just some) of the beers with more subtlety (and not necessarily always less alcohol)--good Pilsners, Octoberfests, some of the lower alcohol wet hops, maibocks and even (despite what may seem contrary) a Belgian quad. Despite being such a "big" beer--they are typically not in your face and have layer on layer of complexity.

Not readily available everywhere--cask ales offer the greatest amount of nuance and complexity in a remarkably low alcohol package. As @marquis said so eloquently once (and I am paraphrasing)--all the instruments of the orchestra were there--in sync, in tune but just not so loud.

 

I, personally, find it very irritating when I go into a craft beer bar and fully 2/3 of their taps are some type of IPA or over hopped beer. I get that they're popular, but is it really necessary to have, in the case of places with 100 or so taps, 60+ hop forward beers on? There are so many other great styles. It's the same with bottle shops. You walk down the isle and it's IPA, IPA, IPA, IIPA, Stout, IPA, IPA, IPL, oh look a Monks Café is their sole sour offering... It just gets tiresome trying to find something that doesn't have the shit hopped out of it. They will have every obscure IPA from some no one brewer but maybe 2 sours and scotch ale, 4-5 stouts and a pilsner(that's probably dry hopped or something stupid).

 

I love IPAs, but I don't always want BOLD FLAVORS in my beer because BOLD as a descriptor has become the new X-TREME, by which we're TURNING THE HOPS UP TO ELEVEN for a TASTE EXPLOSION.

(By the same token, I love various kinds of hot sauce but I don't use them with every meal.)

 

I think that because the market as stated by someone else is flooded with an over abundance of IPA'S and various styles within that category of beer , people tend to stray away from them ,or that they feel maybe style is say over worked. Every brewery has an IPA. and....not all of them are good! Just because a beer boast 13.8 gigawatts of IBUS and double Lindsay dry hopped , does not mean it's good. I can only think of a couple of the IPA'S or now APA's I have tried that actually had for the first time this year that were exceptionally good. At the same time I have shelled out x amount of dollars for ones to be honest I just thought were mediocre at best. So for me it is this.

 

Wrong question. Its the dislike of unbalanced messy beers. with 1 dimension to them. I love many "bitter" beers. I frankly enjoy balanced more. I also like and understand "sours". and I love porters. Its allot harder to make a 4-5% balanced really flavorful "craft" than a hop bomb anyday....

Allot of it has to do with where you start, and of course your TASTE..
When all you could get was AAL in 1964, and you hated them (I did). It was not until I had cask beer in the UK did I "like" beer. Then I discovered Belgium and frankly I was blown away. But still I loved dark German lagers...there is no 1 answer.

I found I prefered ales, dark ones mainly in the 5 to 6% range. balanced. all my beer visions go off that center.

 

This is interesting, but I'm not sure that I agree. I think if you went to a bottle shop and randomly picked out an IPA now it would be better than if you tried the same experiment 10 years ago.

Maybe it's a product of living in Vermont but I'd happily play Russian Roulette with today's inventory instead of playing it safe with the original IPAs that Long Trail, Otter Creek, Magic Hat (local) or whatever was on the shelves from CA or the PacNW before this sensation really got started.

That said I totally agree that the style receives a ton of attention and I actively seek out bars and shops that showcase a variety of styles.

 

My first love is a well crafted IPA/ Dipa, but it's a style I don't really drink all that much. Why? Because I'm really picky and I'd rather drink an AAL than a middling IPA. But if there's a great IPA around it will get a lot of attention. As mentioned everyone puts out an IPA and most IMO aren't all that good. Goose Island IPA is a prime example, it's far from really bad, but it's really not all that either, it's so middling it's forgettable and I'd stay away from it. I'd rather have a Bud honestly.

 

The past month ive tried about 20 different ipas and sub styles like belgian ipa, session, rye etc and im just getting really into ipas after being a stout guy, i got burnt out and went opposite to pilsners. Finding that some are hopped up i got used to the idea and went from there. I dont get bored of ipas i just get bummed when i get some that are way to sweet or mediocre. On a quest to find something similar to 077xx because although in NJ, carton is harder to get than youd think. But i doubt ill find that replacement. 077XX is that good. But it keeps me going on ipas

 

I disagree. I think American taste in IPA has refined to the point where brewers have a better handle on what we like in an IPA, how to brew it, and hop growers have planted more acres of the hops that provide it. On top of that there is an amazing abundance of different takes on the style. We are, all of us, living in the place and time of the best American IPA's ever made. I can go today and easily acquire world class examples of every style of American IPA there is.

 

All that is well and good, but just because they (think) they know what we like doesn't mean they all hit the bull's eye.

To that, how can they really know what we all like -- look at this thread, not everyone likes the same flavors, levels of bitterness, strength...

And some of the worst, and some of the most in-between. Seriously.

 

I think IPA fans misunderstand Goose Island's IPA -- it's more English in style than American, so it shouldn't be expected to have palate searing bitterness or mind bending alcohol. But to choose between Goose IPA and Bud? The IPA is in my hand without a thought.

 

There doesn't need to be a next big thing. I want all styles appreciated equally. That's my nirvana. Being a beer advocate doesn't mean we need to be clamoring for something to be huge and hyped and focusing on a couple styles only. Branch out a little. Munich Helles taste great.

 

Well, when folks line up at Other Half, Tree House, Trillium, Fiddlehead, etc., etc. for American IPA styles it is a pretty good hint those are styles we like.

When others don't sell it is a sign we don't like it.

Sure that is oversimplification, but it is part and parcel of the equally simple truth that it is easier to get better IPA in almost every part of the country than it ever has been, and there are enough different takes on it to satisfy every IPA lover and keep us all from getting bored with the similar offerings you speak about. Fifteen years ago is not such a long time back, but the difference between then and now for IPA in this country is staggering.

 

Well, this should be telling in many ways, I've heard of one of those breweries. Admittedly, I don't hunt down IPAs, but I'm familiar with many -- love Bell's, Hop Asylum (probably in the recognizable league as some in your list) and even Half Acre at times, but there are just too many to keep track.

That's certainly not in question, but really -- how many IPA lovers are actually out there? I'm seeing IPAs line up on the shelves and sit. As I said before, it's overkill and I think the minority of good beer drinkers are starting to become overwhelmed.

Especially the quantity!

 

hops me likely but there are an overwhelming number of choices for hoppy ipa's and some pretty subpar offerings out there
i had a new belgium ranger last night that was super mehtastic

 

Thanks for pointing out the folly of some of this thread. The beer supply will, over time, reflect what people want. Beers that don't sell won't be ordered by retailers from distributors and then by distributors from brewers. Brewers will stop making them, or shift quantity as needed.

I'll add a note on bitterness. The real breakthrough with IPAs lately has been the ability of brewers like Alchemist, HF, Lawsons, Trillium etc. to create "mind bendingly" hoppy beers that really aren't bitter at all. I've had any number of German or Czech pilsners that are more bitter than some super hopped DIPAs. Yes I've had IPAs from Green Flash and Evil Twin that I drain poured due to extreme bitterness. But HF Abner? No more bitter than a dopplebock, and gorgeous as a result.

 

Well, my distaste for hoppy beer - especially when that beer is listed as a style which does not bring hoppiness to mind - is very simple: I can't taste hops as anything but a wall of incredibly awful flavor, like I'd imagine a mouthful of actual perfume or floor cleaner might taste. It's a physical issue, which I've tried to get past for years, and if anything, those attempts have made it worse. I'm not the only one with this issue, but my guess is that most people with it never stumble across non-bitter beers and don't get into craft beer.

This issue lends itself to there being virtually no difference between hop-forward beers, for me. SN Pale Ale may as well be Arctic Panzer Wolf, or Two Hearted, or Celebration. Even Habanero Sculpin invokes only the wall of hop response, and I can't even tell that there is any heat or spice anywhere in that beer, until after I swallow or spit it out and the hops dissipate. Plenty of beers which are not IPAs also invoke the hop response from me, like Founders Porter, or any Sierra Nevada beer I've had aside from Tumbler and Narwhal - Kellerweis, Vienna, Oktoberfest, all just a single note of horrible, rancid flavor. Even Boulevard 80 Acre, at a whopping 20 IBU, invokes that response.

That being said, there's more than one 70+ IBU stout that I enjoy, and some beers that seem hop-forward are delicious for me, such as Mahr's Ungespundet and some pilsners. Whether that's due to certain hop varietals (higher beta content versus higher alpha content), the ratio of original/final gravity to total amount of hop presence, or something else, I couldn't say. I just know I don't appreciate running across things like a gose with noticeable hops in it, or pale wheat ales with the word "hefeweizen" on them.

Most people who loved IPAs from the first one they tried, I imagine are on the opposite end of whatever tasting spectrum my sensitivity is on. Other people, who've had to get used to IPAs but could eventually drink them, I imagine fall somewhere in between the two ends. People who state that lagers are bland and have no flavor, I also imagine are on the opposite end of the taste spectrum from me.

I've had a pet hypothesis that as hoppy beer has become the face of craft beer to people who aren't into it, that has in turn influenced the type of person who gets into craft, forming a cycle where most newcomers to the craft market are from the segment of the population that enjoys hops, driving up primarily demand for hops. Seeing comments about how some IPAs aren't perceived as bitter at all these days, or comments dismissing subtle beer styles as boring, or examples of beers within less hoppy styles which are so hop-forward I cannot drink them being rated among the top beers of that style help fuel that hypothesis for me, along with seeing more breweries appear that do only hoppy beers, and existing breweries starting to drop less hoppy beers to churn out more IPAs.

Ah well.

 

If there IS a distaste for hoppy beers among the craft-drinking community (and I'm not sure there is, given the flood of IPAs these days), it is, perhaps, an aversion to the overly one-dimensional hop bombs out there. Though I'm a fan of hops, I don't think beer should be all about one particular ingredient, whether it's malt, yeast, or hops.

Like others who have posted in this thread, I'm concerned about the OVER popularity of any given style. What I loved about craft beer when I got into it was the variety. Fortunately, that still holds, but when one style becomes so predominant over all others, and when bigger outfits are buying up smaller breweries left and right, I wonder if dumbed-down IPA might become the new equivalent of the ubiquitous fizzy yellow lager.

 

Hops can be extremely overpowering and dominant. They make the beer have so much flavor that it becomes a chore to get through the whole glass. People who are not used to the flavor find it quite difficult to process. And everyone tastes things a little differently so it's not hard to see why people have different opinions on things. Sometimes I think that we are in a hops arms race to see who can cram the most hops into their beer. It's kind of turned me off to IPAs a little to be honest. I enjoy 400 lb Monkey from Left Hand, which is an English style IPA, I've heard other people say they think it's terrible, I think it's delicious.

 

Why does there need to be a "next big thing"?