IPA Overload

What was originally labeled "Budweiser Light" was introduced in 1982 and Busch Light wouldn't hit the market until 1990. The total "light beer" share in 1978 was about 10% of the US beer market, which was pretty impressive growth in around a decade (depending if one starts it with Gablinger's & Meister Brau Lite in the late '60s or not), but over half of that (57%) was Miller Lite - the only "light" in the US Top Ten beer brands. AB's two light beers of the era, #2 Anheuser-Busch Natural Light and Michelob Light together accounted for about another 20%. Third biggest light - Schlitz Light.

Well, I never drank light beer so can't really comment on the flavor (other than being "light" obviously) but in the 1970s Budweiser was still around 15-17 IBUs (compared to today's ~7-8 - so half as much) and light beers have fewer calories not just because of the lower ABV but because they are brewed to have less unfermentable sugars - thus, weaker bodied due to the higher degree of attenuation. Lots of criticism by "regular" beer drinkers that light beers tasted "watery" - remember that alcohol content listing on US beer was prohibited at the time.

 

Larry, I can't recall if all of those beers were on tap but they were available in cans (four-pack/16 ounce cans) and the TDH and DDH versions costed BIG BUCKS. I personally would not have paid those priced to do a side-by-side-by-side. Heck, I even refused the pay the Brand X prices.

The craft beer scene has become crazy expensive and I am damn happy that I homebrew. I have an IPA in the primary now and a Belgian Dubbel and Bohemian Pilsner bottle conditioning right now.

Cheers to homebrew!!

 

"I found a place with dark beer (or Guinness or German beer) on tap" caused excitement back then.

 

I can't argue with you there and I do have plans to get back into the game. Harder with extra people in the house... But today I just finished rebuilding a circulating chiller rescued from the lab dumpster that will make a dandy controlled temperature device for a fermenter. This morning it only heated, but by this afternoon I got the chilling working down to 10 C and stable I can do a lot with this thing when the time comes.

I would not have bought those cans, either. The only thing that saves our wallet in our house us we usually drink about four beers a week, so coupled with the stockpile we don't buy too much beer. The new store we found allows mix your own packs from anything on the shelves, so we can scoop up three weeks worth of NBW posts in one stop. The increasing cost only adds to the disappointment when things all taste the same or a beer is of poor quality. The minor tinkering with a recipe and declaring a new beer of the week is pretty irritating.

 

During the AMA thread with Jamil Zainasheff he used the acronym SBDL. I replied to ask what it meant. He educated me that means Same Beer Different Label; what the beer industry does to keep tickers interested in buying their beers.

Cheers!

 

IPA has become synonymous with craft beer,

At the local grocery, which has a "craft beer" section, one has to look long and hard to find a pilsener/lager. And the other styles we used to take for granted--brown ale, porter, stout--have become even rarer.

I gather that most beer drinkers are perfectly happy with AALs if they want a pilsener type beer: they see no need for a craft pilsener. And the other "British" styles are passé. This says a lot about the taste of the buying public--ie, the "craft beer" or "micro brewing" vogue never really educated the public as to what beer in all its complexity is (and the value of that complexity). We're at the point now where a tasty beer is just a juicy IPA, nothing else. Mission failed.

 

I've got no problem with IPAs being everywhere and in various forms (hazy, juicy, milky, DIPA, TIPA, etc.). It's not my thing, but I get it. My problem is with the percentage of tap handles left for the types of brews the OP and I love (browns, porters, stouts, pils, helles, viennas). If you've got 20 tap handles there is no need for 18 of them to be IPAs, sours, and pastry stouts. Shit, cut that down to 75% (which would be 15 of the 20 handles for those of you bad at math) and I'm happy with it.

But this....

Taps 1-12 = All manner of IPAs
Taps 13-16 = Sours, fruited, kettled, or otherwise
Taps 17 +18 = Pastry stouts
Tap 19 = Cream Ale
Tap 20 = Irish stout on nitro

....has got to stop

 

You are such a stick in the mud. You really don't want orange juice maltish cooler to help in your daily progress? I may be old fashioned but I like a clean crisp, hoppy, malt oriented English style ale. Like Meantime IPA. I cannot argue with the market but I will anyway. If it ain't broke don't fix it with otherworldly concoctions fit for a science fiction movie scene. Just for the record.

 

Pogo knows the 'answer' to why there is an "IPA Overload".

 

Hop burnout is so real, I have stopped drinking IPA's almost completely (my screen name is rather ironic at this point lol). I'm just waiting for my taste buds to re-adjust back to craving the sweet bitter nectar of the Gods, but it's been like a year and the only IPA I truly enjoyed this year was Celebration. I might have to make a trip to Treehouse or the Alchemist to rediscover my passion if this goes on any longer.

 

I suspect a good number of AAL fans would be open to a craft Pilsner if the price was lower.

 

As someone who doesn't drink hop-bombs, but still loves a good IPA now and again, I think a year has recalibrated your palate -- and you will be greatly rewarded with that first old favorite.

 

We have come a long way since all handles were lagers.

 

I don't think anyone is suggesting a return to all lagers, just a turn from majority IPAs.

 

Yes, the balance should be established. Not all old is bad. There always was that subtlety of lagers, even if they were used mainly for imbibing. They were like ABBA, a hit machine, but background quality all the same.

 

You lost me at ABBA... no beer I'd (myself) compare to ABBA.

(maybe Heineken Light. )

 

Hey, Comrade has a nice sort of non-trad lager on right now, a collaboration with Cheluna called Czech Juan, you might give it a try if you find yourself in that ‘hood…has that great Czech lager yeast flavor, with a Mexican lager grain bill, with a little bite from some Szechuan peppers if I understood right. The latter gave me pause conceptually but from the sip I had from my wife’s glass it isn’t dominating or even all that obtrusive…

 

Only IPAs I seek out is stuff that pretty much blatantly advertise as either WCIPA or black IPA. Few exceptions: maybe its a beer I've always wanted to try and its hazy... but everything else right now is stout/porter/tripel/quad/brown/strong/bock-y/goldeny-Belgiany

 

I think that @Porter-stoutguy meant this:

 

That would obviously be a compliment. Unsure what he/they meant.