Enough with the hops already!

Yeah, it good to point out that you can still get great lower gravity non-hoppy beers in the import section- stouts/porters, Belgian pales, hefeweizens, schwartzbiers, plus all of those pale lagers, naturally...

If I drink too much of anything I will get burned out after a bit, so I definitely try to mix things up on a regular basis. That seems to be the best approach, although harder to do with Oktoberfest season approaching .

 

I'm a hard core hops guy, but I definately drink far less hoppy stuff than any other style. I refuse to drink what I consider to be mediocre IPAs , I'm not spending my palate or money on them. Prevention is the best medicine for me at least.

 

I don't see myself ever getting burned out on hops, but there are times when I want something...completely different!
So Berliner Weisse, Gose, and Stouts/Porters are what I reach for when that feeling arises. Lately I've been really digging what is coming out with the Berliner and Gose styles and what is being added to them to change up the style.

 

Westbrook Key Lime Gose is around, I think they're in Ga, not sure if Fl gets distro, but it gets up to NY somehow.

 

Yeah, I haven't seen, and I don't think they do, distro to Florida. And that is DEFINITELY one I want to try, it sounds tasty!

 

I think it's sad how this happens to people. See, I never have this problem because I'm constantly trying beers of all styles; IPA's, IIPA's, APA's, Stouts, porters, Lagers, Pilsners, wheat ales, Abbey and Trappist ales, Scottish ales, fruited ales, lambics, Gose's, and sours of all shapes and sizes! The only drawback to this is that there's usually a higher chance that I'll happen to try something that I do not like at all. But other than that, it's cool because I have yet to get tired of a single style. And that goes especially for Hops.

 

I love hops, can't get enough, and also all the rest of the styles, love em all. Luckily there is such a great assortment of beers I think I could get half the styles on BA's style list, maybe more, any day of the week without trying very hard. So I don't have to get tired of any style including hoppy beers I drink hoppy beers when I'm in the mood, and enjoy Helles Lager, Vienna Lager, Pilseners, gose, Berliner Weisse, an incredible selection of fruited and non fruited "sours", porters stouts, strong ales of incredible variety, barrrel aged beers of incredible variety, English ales of incredible variety, and loads of experimental styles from all over the world, etc., etc..

I can understand that this thread is about getting tired of hops. Well, not trying to be snarky, but, if you're tired of hops may I suggest trying a different, less hoppy beer style?

 

I didn't know hop burnout was a thing until my Vt trip, and I learned that one in spades. Could be a good bit of BAs don't know this till it hits and hits hard. There has to be a first time for anyone. Now I rotate faithfully, and avoid shitty mediocre hoppy stuff.

 

Man, that's crazy. I'm all about hops. But it sounds like some of you are just ready for the fall/winter when drinking a badass Porter or stout is all the craze. It's funny that it's trendy to hate IPAs now. I was more tired of bourbon barreled everything myself.

But every beer has its place. Tired of hops- buy some saison, farmhouse ales, stouts, etc. Hot outside? Drink a damn lager. There are so many choices. It cracks me up like IPAs are being forced on you.

 

I think there could be 'anything burnout' if you do too much of it. Maybe in our favorite styles that burnout will take longer to manifest, but it probably will. I know for sure that by the time February rolls around I usually don't want any more BBA beers until the next November. Other than that, though, keep things balanced and your mood should be a good guide to follow.

 

I'm the same way too but the hoppy beers rose to the forefront for me because there were so many to try.

It's a fair point but for many of us if you wanted to try something new that meant trying a new IPA. Up until recently there weren't a lot of new beers popping up that weren't IPAs or a hoppy version of something.

But for some time they kind of were being forced. It was not uncommon for me to walk into a place with 20 taps and 18 were IPAs or something very hoppy and the other 2 beers were either something I have had a million times or just wasn't into. The tide is definitely shifting, though.

I think hop burnout seems to be so pronounced because it is kind of extreme. Getting burned out on a smoother, mellower style would definitely take longer (if at all). Your palate may become bored, sure, but I don't think it would burnout per se.

 

I would wager that isn't even close to true in Pa., and it certainly isn't true in New York, and I also know for a fact it isn't true in much/most of the country unless you go back in time. There has never, make that NEVER been a time in this country where that is less true than now. If you can't find more, much, much more than hoppy beer than you, sir, are not looking.. If the problem is that you don't like any of the many other styles available, the problem isn't their availability, it is your lack of desire for them.

 

Yeah, there's definitely a physical aspect as well as a mental one, and the more intense the flavors the more likely it will lean heavily physical. But the mental side can be just as powerful.

 

Saisons (All)
Belgian Pale Ales (Alesmith Lil Devil)
Belgian IPA's (Marshall Time Machine, Clown Shoes American Monastic)
All of the above are more yeast driven, even the Pales and IPA's don't have the hop bitterness that tends to wear me out. And I can never turn down a Unibroue when I see it on a taplist

 

Wouldn't that be a 180?

#pedantic

 

That;'s why I had used past tense in my statement and let's go back in time to say from '11-'14 and tell me there wasn't like a 5 to 1 ratio on IPAs and hoppy [insert style here] vs. any other style of beer when it comes to the new releases. There was a time when it seemed like everything was IPA/DIPA and I can remember going to various beer tastings and easily 70% of the offerings were IPA/hoppy whatever.

Hence why I said "up until recently" and breweries releasing new stuff that isn't an IPA is a fairly new phenomenon on this end of the hops obsession. Take SN for example, over the years how many new IPAs did they release? Then one day things like the Vienna Lager and Nooner Pilsner popped up (and we could argue that Nooner falls into the hoppy camp). Laguinitas, same thing. Stone, same. If you weren't an "Eer ma gersh, HOPS!" type of a person there was a time when finding something new to try was a little depressing.

 

So your main complaint is things used to suck?

There have always been plentiful options and I will bet that while you say that all the new releases for a while seemed to be catering to the preponderance of folks who like hoppy styles, that you didn't try more than 1/3 (and probably less than that) of the non hoppy beers that were available to you.

What it really sounds like to me is you have some problem with there being so many folks who love hoppy beers that has nothing to do with you being unable to get any of any other kind. If I'm wrong I'm wrong, I'll apologize and step out, but you live in Pa. ferrpitysake, a state that is long known for its brewers making great non hoppy beers of wonderful variety, I wish I had Straub and Yards on shelf here, and glad to get Weyerbacher and Victory.

 

I added my $0.02 to a thread about hoppy beers and commented directly to a quote and yes, if I wanted to try NEW beers, even here in PA, for quite some time that meant IPA/hoppy. That has always been a complaint of mine and thankfully things are adjusting.

And you'd be incorrect. I went out of my way to try new things that popped up that weren't hoppy beers and continued to buy some of my old favorites. But the problem there was that they began collecting dust on the shelves and weren't as fresh as the new, shiny IPA that just hit the shelves so I wold reach for that instead. My love for hops grew and for a time that was pretty much all I would drink. Of course no one put a gun to my head and my dollars spoke freely just like everyone else's but to say that I had equal choices, at least in my area, for a rather large chunk of time would be incorrect.

You're wrong on this count and it must not be overlooked that I too enjoy hoppy beers. I couldn't care less what others enjoy and clearly the market has spoken and there wouldn't be so many hoppy beers if there wasn't a demand. My beef is that the pendulum swung a little too far and I could argue that it got to a point where the market was forcing things a bit; of course the new IPA was the it thing because that was all there was to offer. I feel one needs to look no further than SN Vienna Lager and SN Oktoberfest to see proof of this, give people a different choice and they will flock to it in droves. And NOT because it is the it new thing but because it was what they had wanted all along and it just wasn't available.

 

Not bad. A bit bland, but maybe that's what you need?

 

I can't wait for the enough with the Gose already...enough with the Berliner Weissbier already.. these two styles are all over the place now and you could hardly find one a few years ago. Nice thing about beer is, when a style goes vogue, the breweries are glad to oblige.