IPA craze: When will it be over?!

The problem is that it is memory. Its like when I tasted my first Alaskan Amber. I thought it was so balanced and tasty. I loved it so much. Now when I have it I simply don't care for it. It doesn't even bring back those same memories even though it is the same exact beer.

Could be a similar case here.

 

That is true, but you are talking about ABV and IBUs in the normal range. In 1974 everything was fizzy yellow beer, not even sure I had had Guiness yet. When I had a ~7% ABV and ~60+ IBU beer, it was a shock to the senses.

Edit.
Last year i was in Bavaria for 3 weeks, trying as many German lagers as I could in Bavaria, very few Pilsners in that part. When I returned home, the nice IPA that I had been drinking a lot of before I left, was like running a course wood rasp over my tongue. That was not unlike the 1974 experience. Your tastes change, and you can acclimate to the environment.

 

You can see the hype in other countries now too. In Québec, Canada, there's a new brewery called Auval and they're basically making IPAs good enough to rival the ones from Vermont. They're really really good I've brought some back to France with me. But it was a nightmare to find. Because although they've only started, the hype is on and by the end of summer they simply don't have IPAs left, they're a small brewery. So when I got there, there was only one beer for sale, a saison. I had to browse multiple supermarkets to find the sought after IPAs, some well hidden in the back. I'm sure once France starts making great IPAs (I wouldn't hold my breath) it will be the same hype and the same difficulties to find them for sale.

But first I just wished we grew hops in Europe for IPAs. Importing American hops to make American style IPAs in Europe is just wrong. I'd rather buy American IPAs directly. Scandinavian IPAs are good, but they're the same price as imported American beers because they import the hops... So there really is a price issue in Europe. Good IPAs are 4.5 to 6 € for a 33 cl bottle, meaning 6/7 $, that's not right. Even Stone IPA, which has a brewery in Germany now, is at that price. What's the point of brewing it in Europe if you're gonna sell it at the same price ?

 

France already has a lot of tiny breweries making excellent beers.......And I'm happy they are not all IPAs, but pretty unique, mostly top fermented, styles..

I mean that is MY personal problem with the IPA hype.
That people from europe often ignore the amazing native stuff that has been made for ages right in front of their front door......in favor of US styled IPAs that all taste same-y, no matter if they come from the USA, the UK, germany, the netherlands..
please,please make it stop,
I don't dislike us style IPAs per se, but I surely dislike the globalization of craft beer "culture". And I hope it ends.Soon.

 

When will the hand wringing stop?

 

Who says I'm ignoring it Lurchus ? I already know about the Bières de Garde from up North, the good breweries in Brittany (doing some cool stuff with buckwheat grown there) or a couple nice microbreweries where I live in the Alps. I just said that France doesn't make good IPAs. It's not a wish that I have to be honest, I'm a bit tired of new breweries trying to copy what the Americans do in Europe, like thinking you have to have an IPA, a double IPA, a stout, a porter and that's it, you're set.

 

I had one or two reasonable IPAs from france...
But sorry , I think it came out wrong, I wasn't directly referring to you. When people from germany go to france, i hear so often "where can I get IPA there"-from people who ignore the native stuff completely. Same even goes for england or belgium.
I'm glad that you enjoy the genuine beer culture in your country, I fear many europeans these days do not, that was what my post was referring to.
I think it's ok when new breweries make an IPA and stout and such, as long as they do it well and find their market.. like, Crew Republic for instance is doing a really good job at it.
My personal problem lies more in the hype about european clones of american IPAs than the beers themselves...

 

"When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. Then the craze will cease, and not before." -Mirri Maz Duur

 

Not sure if you are trolling or if you really believe that the IPA craze is synonymous with craft beer as a whole.

But, personally, I think that's a false choice. It's not a matter of IPA vs Bud Light. It's IPA vs an entire universe of seemingly unending beer styles and flavor profiles. I mean, maybe from a consumer and trend perspective the IPA craze is driving craft beer and not the other way around (assuming that's what you're arguing), but I would disagree with that, myself.

I personally think the beer scene has room for plenty of style crazes and obsessions beyond the almost singular obsession with one style (IPA, and it's derivative forms). IPAs are great, but when I see 2/3 on the tap list and of the new stuff on the shelves is an IPA, it leaves me wanting more of the cream ales, the ESBs, the saisons, the sours, the OMG-what-is-that-I've-never-even-heard-of-that-is-it-even-beer beers?

Just saying, I think variety and diversity is the most compelling thing about craft beer. What sucks about macros isn't that they are bland or run by evil corporations, it's that they all taste pretty much the same and are more or less dominated by a single style: the American lager. If they were all making IPAs, even if they tasted good, it would be no less boring and bland to me.

 

Oh, and here's a good article as a follow up to the one I posted earlier:

https://thisiswhyimdrunk.wordpress....rs-list-loves-hops-clings-to-heritage-brands/

No matter how much I've learned to love and appreciate IPAs (I just had the pleasure of trying Pliny the Elder for the first time last week, finally, after years of searching), it just seems so wrong for a "best beers" list of 50 beers to be 2/3 IPA or DIPA. Throw in imperial stouts and you get nearly 75% of the list.

Now, If we were to include milk stouts and porters along with the imperial stouts, and if we were to include pale ales along with IPA and DIPA, that means that a good 85-90% of the "best beers" are either hoppy pale ales of some kind or "stouts" as a larger grouping. EVERYTHING ELSE is represented by a small sliver of the pie chart... everything from barley wine to hefeweizen to kolsch. The entire universe of beer is represented by just 2 galaxies?

So. Is this really a list of the best beers? Maybe.

Perhaps the brewers are just focusing their efforts on what people are into right now and therefore their best efforts tend to fall into these two basic trends: the IPA craze, and the stout mania. Profit potential determines business decisions, afterall.

Of course, it is also possible that maybe IPAs and stouts are just better beers. But, I find that difficult to accept. It's subjective, so at best we could say that these are the most popular, favorite beers, and people just tend to prefer them. Maybe it's not a trend, maybe it's something innate. I personally, don't think so, but it's one possible explanation.

Or, maybe, just maybe, the list is biased toward the hoppy and the dark, because that's where the industry is.The tend is shaping what gets brewed and how much effort goes into brewing what, but also in our perceptions of what "best" is. This happens in every market, but more importantly also in every artform. If rock is the big thing then the top 100 artists are going to focus on rock, and downplay or ignore entire genres like jazz or blues.

A decade or two ago, the challenge was opening people's minds to something other than a bland, but crisp and refreshing lager. The quest back in the last era was for the lightest, purest, beers possible. Now the trend is toward the boldest, bitterest, darkest beers possible with the highest ABV. Personally, I want the strangest most creative and most delicious beers possible and I don't have many limits or preconceptions about what that means or should be... other than with lots of options and ideas. So, I think the coming challenge will be to open people's minds whose minds have already been opened to embrace the hoppy and the strong, to the idea that beer is way more than just hops, hops, and more hops (or the biggest densest stout, aged in whatever barrels).

I love me some thai food, but thai food is so ubiquitous where I live now that it is starting to feel like what Chinese food was to me growing up. So, I started to crave Indian, and when Chicken Tikka and Chaat Masala was available at the grocery store's hot bar or in frozen meals, that's when I started to yearn for Moroccan food, Ethiopian food, or circle back to classical French. It's not just the cult of the new, it's craving diversity of experience. Here's hoping that every wave will eventually crest and break, making way for the next one to bring its own set of revelations (and eventually its own monopoly waiting to be broken up).

 

You need to branch out with your IPA purchases. There is a tremendous diversity in the tastes of IPAs from different hop varieties, different brewing techniques (e.g., the so called "NE" IPAs), etc.

Cheers!

 

Bet the OP didn't think we would still be talking about this thread 2 years later!!
I don't think the popularity of IPAs' is going anywhere but up....

 

Fair point. Although, I think I am branched out in so far as that there's nothing I wouldn't want to try at least once (I once read a review that had "cat pee" as a descriptor, and apparently that is a thing for simcoe or some other types of hops). It only made me curious to try it.

But, you're right there is lots of vertical diversity within styles. I drink and have tried lots and lots of IPAs at this point and they can be quite different, for sure. There are juicy, tropical fruit forward IPAs, & there are syrupy, piney IPAs, & citrus bombs, etc.

Hop varieties and their differences is something I've only very recently started paying attention to. I'm well versed in, say, the traits of centennials vs saaz vs amarillo or whatever.

For one, it's always been a bit intimidating and confusing what with the plethora of different hops out there. There are lots of resources online, of course, including the Hop Guide here at BA. Although, I will say the information on the BA Hop Guide doesn't have information that seems very useful to a hop-stupid guy like me... I want flavor and aroma notes that let me know what to look for when assessing a beer. I've found a few decent ones over the last few weeks, but does anyone have any favorite links to share?

Secondly, it seems like this information isn't even readily available all the time. Unless the brewery mentions on the bottle which hops were used, I'm not sure how I'd know. I wish it was a standard part of all BA profiles, for example, like which hops and malts, and yeasts were used. I'd love to seek out some single-hopped IPAs showcasing one hop in the way similar to what single origin coffees or unblended wines do.

In any case, I was more talking about horizontal diversity, across beers styles. For all the variety between various interpretations and incarnations of what an IPA is, there are still so many other vastly different beers: wheat beers, bocks, black lagers, smoked marzens, and on and on. And, of course, why limit additions to hops? Hops are just an herb anyway, and they originally only became a popular beer additive for preservation purposes. There's a long history of all manner of herbal, floral, fruit, spice, etc additions in beers, from birch and juniper, to herbs we wouldn't even recognize.

The possibilities of beer are almost limitless, and while there's plenty on the shelves to experiment with and experience right now, I wonder how much crazier things would and could be if so much emphasis wasn't devoted to a single style and single ingredient. When half or more of the taps are being taken up by IPAs, it ends up being to the exclusion of other things.

Cheers.

 

I partially agree with you (in terms of there being a co-dependent relationship between preferred styles and styles that breweries brew, but I think that the BA "top" beers list also just tells us that stouts (especially adjunct ones) and IPAs are what the most people prefer.

I like a lot of styles of beer, but my favorites, unsurprisingly, are stouts (RIS) and IPAs. I get a craving for a good lager, or a blonde ale, or whatever every once in a while, and there are other types of beers I really like (sours), but as far as I can tell, I'm always going to prefer stouts and IPAs in a vacuum. My girlfriend is the same way, as are most of the other beer geeks I know. Obviously I don't speak for everyone, but I'm not surprised that these sorts of results line up with what I think I'm tasting.

I think the thing about stouts and IPAs is that they're very accessible to everyone, or better said: They both have flavors that appeal to large groups of people. You get dark fruits and chocolate from stouts (and they go well with things like vanilla, cinnamon, etc.). You get a wide variety intense flavors from IPAs (dank hops, citrus, tropical fruits, etc.). The flavors really jump in a way that not every style can produce (brown ales, for example).

We both agree that everyone should at least try to expand their horizons, but just like there are plenty of people that never make it past cheese or pepperoni on their pizza, I think that for a lot of people, they're not going to want much more than hops or really viscous stout.

 

There is tons of information here: https://ychhops.com/varieties

Click away and learn about the tremendous diversity of hop varieties and their varying aroma/flavor profiles.

Cheers!

 

Great resource! Thanks, man!

 

Sean, you make some prescient observations and some good points. I agree with you on some points, and on others I am more skeptical.

I could believe that people have personal preferences that they will tend to zero in on. Some people are just looking for that big bold dry red wine and once they find a good cab sauv then their wine drinking life becomes a quest to search for some quintessential perfection of the platonic ideal of that preference, rather than to seek out the new, the unusual, or the unexpected, say an Austrian gruner or an unoaked chardonnay. In the same way, maybe a person is destined to like an IPA or a stout and it is natural for them to discover that fact as a natural discovery of something intrinsic about their own identity. That person may not be super interested in trying some esoteric, resurrected style.

But it's hard for me to believe that's all there is to it. People are easily steered and social influences, marketing, and all manner of suggestive influences tend to have an impact on what we think we like and how we evaluate and experience things. That's why trends change over time. But trends are 1/2 consumer choices and 1/2 the market determining what choices are available. It's a reciprocal relationship.

For example, I started out really not liking IPAs. I only began developing a taste for them about 2 or 3 years ago, once I got past the bitterness (and/or once the uber bitter IPAs gave way to the new wave of floral and fruity IPAs). But it was something I worked at, mostly because there were just so many IPAs around and so many people drinking them. I'm hardly a follower of trends, but I knew there was something there worth discovering and appreciating.

In fact, I think this is the norm. Everyone I know who likes IPAs now started out disliking them. My wife is a recent convert. Most of my friends, I've converted too. Stouts are similarly divisive to newbies. In my experience people new to craft beer do not start out liking IPAs, stouts, sours, or anything "funky" (like some saisons). Gateway beers tend to be mild, easy drinking beers like pilsners, ambers, and some american wheat beers. Even german hefes and Belgians are sometimes hard for newbs to "get" due to their yeasty qualities ("eww, this beer tastes like banana!" or "this Belgian beer has a weird bubble gum flavor"). If someone is new to ethnic food, you don't usually introduce them by giving them a plate of Pork Vindaloo at full spice level. You maybe get them to try the tandoori chicken, or maybe a korma with some roti. I think these beers are all acquired tastes for most people, which means it's a learned behavior. In the same way, I don't think people start out liking big tannic dry red wines... it depends on the person, but often a slightly sweeter, smoother wine is the way to go for getting one's mom to make the switch from the wine cooler to actual wine.

It's all subjective, of course. But that's the point. Subjectivity invites suggestive influences, conscious and subconscious. I think a good example of this is that for decades American beer was dominated by very light crisp lagers, and the demand was for lighter, more mild, easier drinking beers, not hoppier or darker beers. So, 20 or 30 years ago, if I were a craft beer proponent arguing we should have more IPAs around, the evidence you lay out would support the opposite argument: that the top beers are coors and bud because that's what people naturally prefer and tend to like. "Most people don't want a big, bitter, or fruity beer", you might say, "if more people liked that, the market would produce them". Of course now the market does, because demand is there. But with demand comes availability and promotion and socio-cultural trends that have a way of increasing demand, and so on in a cycle. That's what causes the "craze" factor, that mutually reinforcing feedback loop.

In another 20 years, maybe sours will be the big thing. Maybe most beers will be sour and IPAs will fall from grace. We can then discuss whether or not most people just tend to prefer those tart, refreshing aspects over the harsher bitterness of IPAs. Trends are fickle.

What I do think is true is that most people aren't very adventurous. The average person doesn't shop in the exotic foods section looking for something they've never seen before; they have a standard list of an astoundingly limited set of staple products they purchase over and over again. So, when they become craft beer converts, they are likely to tend to want to find one brand, or if not one brand then one style, that they can settle in on and becomes "their beer". So, if before they had a fridge full of coors light, then they graduated to Sam Adams, and then after trying and learning to like IPAs maybe now they have a fridge full of All Day IPA... perhaps they will seek variety by having a bunch of different IPAs from different places and breweries. But they probably around going to go have a fridge stocking a wide spectrum of styles, no matter what they prefer or think they prefer. You and I, the more adventurous, are true enthusiasts and we will always be in a minority there.

Just my take on that.

 

Still love IPA's but I mix in some pilsners and reds(Oktoberfest in season) to switch things up a bit.

 

Since i got my first IPA ages ago i am unable to drink anything else. I prefer to not drink if no IPA is available. It will just grow as more people get to know them, i tried to get my friends into IPAs but they still prefer Lagers, Belgian Ales, Weizen or something else. Some of them just don't like the price tag of IPAs that is considerably higher than other styles and keep drinking something else. But get all beer styles and American IPA is the newest of them, so there is a lot of room to grow, other top seller styles are ancient, thousands of years of market development.

IPA market share can only grow.

 

I think the reason IPAs and Stouts are so popular right now, is that they are so far on either side of the beer spectrum. You've got your hop overload with the IPAs and the malt heavy Stouts really differentiating themselves from the crappy hour beers most people are coming from when they first start getting into craft beers. You've got your bitter flavors and your roasted ones, along with different amounts of sweetness. Amber Ales, Porters, Kolschs, while many are fantastic beers, their flavor profiles can be a bit too close to what people are used to. When you first start enjoying craft beer you can miss a lot of the subtly these styles can offer, where as IPAs and Stouts spell out their different and new flavors to new drinkers. This can easily capture the imagination and preferences of someone who's only had Natty Light or PBR, offering something new and exciting.

As long as these styles stay so wildly far from the middle, they will stay popular, at least that's my outlook on the issue. New drinkers will explore and experiment, while more seasoned fans of the style will plunge themselves into the depths of the style, and help push it to new territory.