Enough with the hops already!

I'm way over hops for quite some time. Way too many IPAs on the shelves and on taps.
To many new trendy breweries in my area make 90% of their beers IPAs - gets really boring. "NE" IPAs (and the attached hype) the worst offenders.

I crave and go out of my way to get good Kolsch, cream ales, brown ales, Helles.

 

The market dictates the trends.

If there wasn't a market for them they wouldn't be so prevalent.

 

Just picked up that innis and gunn to try tomorrow. Will see. For now i grabbed some barrel aged stouts, some porters, altbiers, chili beers and some wits to get me through lol.

 

Speaking of chili beers, that's a unique change of pace. I couldn't drink more than a couple in a sitting. The couple I can drink are usually awesome, like chocolate yeti, an evil twin stout (can't remember which one) with chili, Bible Belt and a few others. Those are beers I'd like to see more of. Seems like my store gets one of the above in stock for a week to a month then they're gone for a long while.

 

Mother of God...

 

I've had several, i see them come and go. luckily in my store, we are all fans of spice in general so the managers order chili beers when available.

Flying Dog Fever Dream
Terrapin Hi-10
DuClaw El Kabong
Habanero Sculpin
Clown Shoes Chocolate Sombrero
Ship Bottom Killer Bee Sting (local)

Ive liked them all so im on the lookout for more. 4/6 of those are pales/ipa but with the pepper heat, it hides the hops, which im breaking away from.

 

I think I am lucky in terms of this here discussion. It is unusual for me to drink so much of a single style that I get tired of it. I keep a pretty big variety of beers on hand, I don't tend to drink more than one a day, skip quite a few days, and I don't get burnt out. That is different than when I started exploring - then I had to try all the "hot" beers and fell into somewhat of a style rut, but I outgrew that phase and went back to variety as the spice of life approach. What I found though, after doing the "more is better" thing for a while is that I now better appreciate and understand the more subtle styles. I still like the big, bad beers but there's a lot of enjoyment in a nice glass of pilsner or kolsch-inspired beer.

That said, I do find many things within a style begin to taste the same especially with repeated exposure. It gets more difficult for me to pick out the nuances between beers when I have had several of the same style in a row, so I try to avoid that as best I can. Start drinking one style exclusively and the edges blur. I do enjoy the so-called NE IPAs, but I have not overloaded myself with every one I can get my hands on either. I also dig the pepper beers that just popped into the chat, but in total moderation - I make my own sauce from insanely hot peppers, but I don't put a straw in it and slurp it down when I use it either. No need for me to play quien es mas macho. I could see easily tiring of the hot pepper taste drinking a few in a row even a day apart.

Will quietly admit...I'm currently on a gose kick, but that is because it is so freakin' hot and humid here lately and I find them enjoyable, not much to think about refreshers. Last thing I want to think about in triple-digit "feels like" temperatures is a big Belgian or RIS.

The original impetus of the thread, I think, was are hops overused in general. At least that is how I interpreted it. I have to wonder - there's a lot of highly hopped beers using various techniques, and can those hops be hiding something like a "weak" base beer? I do wonder. When I have done brewery tastings with the variations side by each, I find the differences between beers within a style category can be pretty minimal. I recall "doing" Bissell Bros one day and thinking "these all taste the same" - I hadn't been on a IPA binge, so I wasn't burnt out or anything. The beers were just so massively hopped they all seemed to meld together when tasted side by side. But I also did a tasting of four single-hop beers and was very surprised at the differences. Neither was aggressively hopped - seemed to be in that "just right" Goldilocks spot to me - each delivered similar flavor profiles but in extremely different manners, one aggressively, one softly.

I think if you keep changing things up, you can avoid getting tired of any one thing in particular. Whether the brewers are overusing hops in everything - well, you can't blame them. They know the hype train as well as we do and are selling what is profitable.

 

Keep the Hops coming.

 

i'm feeling this again right now

i went to Bourbon (Buffalo Trace, Elijah Craig 12 and Knob Creek 9 100prf)
also i got a 4 pack of big cans Heineken
also working on some stouts


mainly i'll hit a light beer then a glass of bourbon. i miss my IPAs but i also don't appreciate them as much right now so it's somewhat a waste to drink them

 

I'm not real huge on IPA's and as a result, I get tired of them fairly quickly. As I big fan, I'd have to steer you toward an English Bitter or Mild. Not real hoppy by any means and more exciting than most Lagers (in my opinion)

 

Last time I checked, Trader Joe's still carried Spaten Optimator. I like it and intend to buy another soon.