Opinion: The IPA Paradox

I couldn't agree more. Brewers will do what they need to do to be profitable or they won't be brewing anymore. If people primarily buy IPAs and, as a result, other styles begin to fade away, it's the fault of the consumers not the brewers.

In my opinion there are just too many damn IPAs on to the shelves, so I rarely try new ones - I just buy what I've liked in the past. Too many choices (overchoice) can actually be a bad thing. Imagine if you went to the store and there were 250 different varieties of toilet paper or laundry detergent or milk. The sheer number of choices would be overwhelming to the point that it would make it difficult to choose at all. When you finally make a choice, you'd mostly be just guessing unless you spent an inordinate amount of time researching all of your options.

 

"In a counter-intuitive sense," Tonks writes, "the massive array of choices we have in front of us now is actually causing a consolidation of style diversity."

That above description is not consistent with the beer scene in my area. I have more choices of beers like Helles, Pilsner, etc. in my area (both locally brewed and non-locally brewed) then I have the ability to drink them all. Yes, Juicy/Hazy IPAs are very much available as well (both on shelves and at the local breweries) but if I decided to never drink a Juicy/Hazy IPA again (or ‘general’ IPA for that matter) I still have more choice of beer styles and brands than I could even hope to try.

There is a small, local brewery near me of Tired Hands that is renowned for their Juicy/Hazy beers but they periodically (and fairly regularly) also produce (and can) their beer styles of Helles, Pilsner, Altbier, Schwartzbier,… Needless to say the haze bros are not purchasing these beers in great quantity or paying $20+ for a 4-pack but these beers are available for purchase by Tired Hands consumers.

I personally have no purview into the beer scene of Minnesota but the verbiage I quoted above does not apply to my area (SEPA).

Cheers!

 

I'm with Cheap Hysterics, it's on the consumers, and the consumers have proven themselves to want plenty of IPA branded beers. At the same time I can relate to JackHorzempa's point of view, of these being the best of times. The way I see it it only makes sense for there to be a common thread holding together the most popular craft beer styles, the IPA moniker, while the rest of the styles become a niche within a niche. At the same time I can also sympathize with Jack's perspective of these being the best of times as far as variety goes, but that variety wont be expressed by hundreds of brands, it will be more concentrated, and I personally don't mind that. Just as I think the current proliferation of IPAs is a bit redundant and over the top, I would think that the opposite situation, of having a proliferation of variants of every style, or even just the styles I prefer, to be redundant and over the top. I can accept that the most popular style has the most options, for a while, until it inevitably narrows down to a more managable and profitable number of options.

Would it be reasonable for me to expect there to be 50 different pilsner brands on the shelves akin to the 50 or so different IPA variants which are on the shelves where live? In an entirely self centered universe, sure, but in reality I couldn't make use of such variety in any way for it to make commercial sense. And what we're dealing with is ultimately a business which is in pursuit of a profit. So instead I get excited reading about future releases which cater to my preferences, currently I'm looking forward to Urban Chestnut Kellerbier getting a placement at the monopoly this June, and some of those beers manage to live up to my expectations and enter my rotation, others are a one time thing. But there's variety to be had and the old stand-bys still deliver what I want.

 

Having a turnaround of 10 - 14 days versus 1 - 4 months is not counter intuitive where the matter of cashflow is concerned.

 

I am also experiencing a widening of the style options open to me over the course of the last decade. While IPAs have been the dominant style most of that time the only real change I have seen the NEIPA craze introduce is the frequency of new recipes (or at least new branding) from a single brewer. It seems like 8 years ago most breweries had a core group of brands with a couple seasonal or specialty releases a year, now it seems like there are many breweries that barely seem to have a core group of brands and instead put out a constant rotation of various takes on the most popular styles. There definitely seems to bve room in most markets for 1 or 2 brands of quality made versions of every style.

 

I like variety and want as much as possible. So it is incumbent upon me to ensure that I purchase a variety of beers even though I prefer some over others. Otherwise, when I decide I feel like a bock, it might not be available. As for a particular brewery specializing . . . well . . . they have the right to do that. I would hate to see one go out of business just because they stuck with something that their market did not want.

 

The only variable I will throw into the mix here, and for me it's a big one, is the sheer variety within the IPA moniker. For the most part 20 Helles Lagers will be similar enough but 20 IPAs, not at all. I'm a huge Lager fan but still get down with the hops and recently I had a NEIPA, then on another day a Union Jack, then on another day a Flower Power. All of these IPAs were different enough to keep it interesting. Would I pick up a new Helles if I saw one? Absolutely. Would it be different enough to sway me from my regular? Probably not. But with me and IPAs it is the total opposite and my favorite gets bumped constantly and can shift depending on my mood.

But don't get me wrong, it would be very nice to see a few more Vienna Lagers and some other styles and for most new beers to not be another IPA.

What I am happy to see going by the wayside is the, "Hey let's hop up every damn style!" trend. No, I don't want my Helles to taste like an IPA[L].

 

Fairly obvious around here that IPA ruling the roost and dominating the shelves. It has clearly reduced options at local bottle shops.

Sure some variety is made locally but usually on tap as an option and not a staple except for the local OMB. They are am exception as an all lager/baltic porter brewer of intensely traditional German beer.

 

The brewery that produces Texas' most respected IPA (Lone Pint's Yellow Rose) began bottling its brown ale recently. I'd call that a big point for variety.

It also helps in these parts that Live Oak is so popular. Their hefeweizen and pilsener are as well known as almost any other beer in the state, so that's more points for variety. Then there's Jester King, and fortunately some of our better big breweries like Real Ale, Rahr & Son's and St. Arnold (among many others) make loads of good beer that isn't IPA.

With that said, there's never a shortage of beers from the American pale ale family on our shelves. But I don't think we suffer for it.

 

Variety is great but stores, beertenders, and those who are selling the stuff can do better about offering easier access to these beers to new consumers. I make sure in my store to break up as many new beers as I can into singles so that customers can try a can or bottle from a pack and see where they are with it, instead of forcing them to commit to a sixer or 4 pack and deal with loving it or hating it for $12-$19. I also make sure to sample as much as I can to know whats on my shelves. With so many options, we should be guides to ask the right questions and help our customers narrow the options down to make it easier to purchase and feel confident about that purchase. Too many beertenders and employees of stores are tasked with helping those with more refined palates find a beer when the only beer they've had is Stone IPA. But thats just my 2 cents.

 

After nearly "swearing off" of IPA's for several years because of the "IBU Olympics" that dominated the style for awhile, I've spent the last year or so trying to sample a variety of brews from multiple brewers, but also have tried to sample multiple brews from the same brewers as well. It is starting to feel like there is a proliferation of only subtly different brews within the same brewery. For example, I've yet to have a "crappy" Stone or Odell or Bell IPA/DIPA/?IPA, but the "new" brews that each of these brewers trot out start feeling a bit monotonous after awhile.

 

I've been avoiding IPAs (except for Brut), for the same reasons. There are so many other styles, and dark ale season is not over yet,

 

I enjoy a wide variety of styles, I have actually yet to come across a style that I don't like. But ipa's are the modern day adjunct lager for beer enthusiasts and that's that. I mean ipa's are in abundance because that's what "we" drink after a hard days work. It's what we want when we want to take a load off, relax, socialize, etc.
Same can be said for those who enjoy Bud, Miller, Coors, Corona, etc ... Those are in abundance as well.

 

No argument here. I'm still a bigger fan of stouts and all things Belgian, although a good balanced pale ale (as opposed to a hoppy IPA) is tasty.

 

So Fair State is just following the trend? Nothing wrong with that...they're just taking their beer in the direction of the almighty dollar. Consolidating styles within the brewery is ultimately good for their bottom line. It's a plus that it's highly lauded.

 

Call me crazy but I’ve had a few and it’s late and I should be asleep, but here I go...

The first two beers I really enjoyed were Henry Wienhard’s Porter and Blue Boar Pale Ale. That was 20+ years ago. Currently the majority of beers I purchase, consume and enjoy are imperial IPA’s and barrel aged stouts.

Maybe some people are hype chasing media machines or maybe the human palate is predisposed at birth and this was the logical evolution of my path.

 

That is an excellent point. It seems that when brewers brew lagers they are more concerned with style guidelines than they are when brewing IPAs.

 

I appreciate stores that offer tastings. A taste is all I need to decide if I want to buy.

 

Living in SE PA I'm going to chime in and try to add to and reinforce points I think were also being made at least in part by @JackHorzempa and @ESHBG in their posts.

Yes there has been an big increase in the percentage of IPAs available compared to the percentage of something like a German Pils. Similarly a few years back there was a fairly large percentage increase in the number of Cider's available.

But neither of those percentage increases has led to homogenization unless I'm in ticking mode. I make it a habit to try to review somewhere between 1 and 3 new beers a week. The wide variety of new IPAs in their various sub styles do increase the search time for finding something new that isn't an IPA of one of the multiple IPA sub-styles. Even then none of the three beers I expect to review this weekend is any kind of an IPA. (Indeed one of them is a new German style Pils which I picked up at a local grocery store.)

On the other hand, if I'm in the mood for a German style Pils simply for drinking, not for ticking, there are, and have been for years, at least 5 locally brewed high quality Pils beers to pick from and finding a fresh six pack of one of them is fairly easy.

So for me the bottom line is that yes there has been an increase in the number/percentage of beers labled IPA but that percentage increase hasn't created lack of diversity except when I'm in ticking mode.