Controversial Beer Opinions Thread

That’s a hot take in here!

How am I supposed to know who is a poser if not by which styles they enjoy?

“I miss the days when blah blah blah real beer.”
-OG who discovered craft beer in 2014

 

... but it does mean you have better taste in beer.

 

I’ll give this a try:

Hazy IPAs are great.

The arms race to see who hates them the most on this board for the last year or so seems like people jumping on another bandwagon just to hate on the previous bandwagon. Sure there are bad examples of the style, but that could be said about any style.

 

Beers should not taste like I'm chewing on my Christmas tree!

 

Is Sierra Nevada's a bad example? A lot of their beers I consider a good benchmark. Not a huge hop head by any means, but in comparison with many old school west coast IPA, found it... lacking

 

I think it's a decent beer, but not close to a representation of the style as it was conceived by the originators like Tree House, Trillium, Other Half, etc. Not that it's an inferior version of those, it's just not close to resembling them in almost any substantial way.

If that's the only New England style/"hazy" IPA you've had, I'd really recommend against making any wholesale judgement against the style.

 

Tree House, Trillium, and perhaps Other Half reasonably can be credited/blamed as the originators of the New England IPA (of the post-Vermont IPA variety), but they're nowhere close to the originators of the "Hazy IPA," which goes back as an intentional product to at least the early 1990s, decades before those breweries opened. Given that Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing isn't and doesn't attempt to be a New England IPA, however this site might mislabel it, they're not really meaningful comparisons. I.e., "New England IPA" and "Hazy IPA" are by no means synonymous. Most New England IPAs are hazy; most beers marketed as "Hazy IPAs," and most IPAs that are hazy to murky in appearance, are not New England IPAs.

As someone who thinks that most New England IPAs are abominations and beers for babies, I'll note that I find most non-New-England "Hazy IPAs" harmless if somewhat dumbed down by their New England IPA influences where present.

 

Yea TH/Trillium/OH weren't the first to do heavily dry-hopped IPA with low bitterness and murky appearances (which I agree, is opaque, not hazy), but those VT IPA breweries still had qualities reminiscent of traditional American IPA, whether it be the bitterness of Heady or the clarity/crispness of Sip of Sunshine, to the extent that you could give one to an IPA drinker in 2010 and they'd recognize it as an IPA, albeit an unconventional one.

But the plethora of NEIPA focused breweries popping up over the last 5 years are hewing much closer to OH/Tree House/etc. style, to the extent that I consider the VT guys more "proto" New England style. Though admittedly, it's hard to deny that most of the IPA Hill Farmstead falls squarely in the New England style camp.

 

All Christmas beers should be IPAs so they smell and taste like Christmas trees.

 

Anyone who makes an account just to trash a particular beer/brewery/style and then never comes back needs to find something better to do with their time

 

1.)Hopslam has a "fresh" half-life that is miniscule-y short. Within days it becomes well-nigh undrinkable.

2.)Sierra Nevada Celebration is noticeably less hoppy every year.

3.)A good thick stout is actually the best beer to drink while LARPing ... most would think it would be a pale ale or maybe a pilsener, but nope. It's a stout.

 

I agree. My Christmas tree is made out of plastic.

 

No. No. You gotta stay stay loose and light-NING BOLT! LIGHTNING BOLT! LIGHTNING BOLT!

 

I think Hazy Little Thing is a delicious brew, and I would categorize it as a NEIPA. It was my go-to beer all summer. Nice balance of juicy and bitter, refreshing, and tasty. Nothing offensive. I am onto heavier beers right now for the fall and winter, but look forward to enjoying HLT again in the Spring!

 

Agreed. Heady is not a New England IPA in my book, as it is categorized here on BA. I think it should be categorized like Sip of Sunshine - an Imperial American IPA.

 

Ummmm... Corona is better without the lime wedge?

 

A lime wedge is better without the Corona

 

I don't.... I can't, but... What

 

You got me! Yeah, just thinking that while pine is not generally a great flavor for beers, it's ironically perfect for a Christmas beer. You should play the match game!

 

It's not just pine, but rather a mix of rosemary, light spruce, and just a hint of cedar aromatics, boiled with Christmas tree twigs, just as with mulled juice with spices. But fermented with great grain(s). Maybe.