Have IPAs wrecked my palette?

Those aren't the only two choices, you know .

 

https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/the-lupulin-shift.328686/

Some don't believe in this threshold shift, but I do. In reality you have grown accustomed to pine and hops, bitterness, etc.

You will be alright if you take a break and enjoy some stouts, porters, etc. It's about balance, and IPAs are also my favorite. But there are a lot of great beers out there.

Even worse is when you drink a ton of the top 250 and have a hard time drinking regular beers.

Cheers

 

Are you experiencing this with the same piney IPAs you regularly drink or is it more of an IPA shift away from those types of hop profiles in newer IPAs?

 

Oh man... I hear ya! I can't even touch the bottle of a "regular" beer anymore. (well, if that's all there is... let's not get carried away here)

But I prefer to look at it in another light... That I actually have become, "enlightened." I gotta have the flavor... I gotta taste the hops, man. I AM a hop head! No question.

And I have the t-shirt to prove it.

 

Yeah.

You have trashed your taste buds.

That is why they just add MORE HOPS!

We are at what now 5X and 6X Extreme IPAs with 200+ IBUs ?

 

No doubt . But just loading up on another style doesn't really solve anything. Your tastebuds will become desensitized to the same thing over and over again, so give them a healthy mix of flavors and it'll be better in the long run.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking. Piney IPAs are some of my favorite, but it's getting harder and harder to find something that was so common like that 5-8 years ago.

To the OP: It's also possible you've trashed your palate. Switch to stouts, porters and lagers (actual lagers, not IPLs) for a while. Then revisit a shelf IPA like Torpedo, it's got some fruit notes, but it still comes through really piney for me. Also, Celebration is nice and piney with zero tropicalia that I can detect.

 

Yeah. Mix it up!

 

I think @TongoRad isn't suggesting that you abandon IPAs entirely, just mix in and have other style beers more often so your taste buds get a break from the punishing effects of too much hops.

Think of it this way, grab hold of a hard cover book with one hand and then hold it out at arm's length and at shoulder height with your palm turned upwards for as long as you possibly can. Then when it falls out of your hand immediately grab another hard cover book with the same hand and repeat. Repeat again. Repeat again., etc. Notice that the more you repeat the more tired your muscles will get and the shorter time it will take for the book to fall. (And I don't think there's a magic pill that will keep you at full strength for the later repetitions. )

That exercise is similar to what you are doing to your taste buds if you drink lots of IPAs and only lots and lots of IPAs.

But in the long run the choice is yours. You can continue to drink only IPAs, lots of IPAs, and continue to miss out on some of those flavors you mention in your OP that you used to enjoy or you can mix it up with some other styles and recapture at least some of those flavors. Which ever choice floats your boat.

 

Oh, definitely- not suggesting he abandon IPAs at all; it's just a way to enjoy them fully going forward. By all means keep them as part of your regular rotation.

 

Pine is the one flavor I have become desensitized to through tasting. I also used to taste pine, christmans tree pine. Now I taste wood, twigs, spice - but me actually thinking "pine" is more rare. I think what you are experiencing is the suggestibility of the hop itself which can remind you of many things while it is actually none of those things. Look for IPAs that are more delicate and well defined. You will find them.

 

Your palate has just become extremely used to IPAs. I know the feeling. I've drunk IPAs more than any other beer style for over two years. You not only become completely tolerant of extreme levels of bitterness, but your palate becomes more sensitive of subtle levels of differences beneath what was once monotone levels of bitterness. For example, I personally have grown very picky about malt in recent months. I've grown so that I dislike too much crystal malt in my IPAs. It's just too damn sweet. I prefer my IPAs crisp and light with something like pilsner malt or just pale 2-row, and I look for oats and/or wheat in particular to ramp up that juicy mouthfeel. Having said that, I still love the death out of a Two Hearted Ale once in a while...

 

Well of course. If you pour any type of beer on the board you use to mix your paints, it's going to muddle them and render them useless