Hophead transition? How do you do it?

Haha. I was the same way at one point. Me being from the west coast where I'm surrounded by beers (especially IPAs) I naturally just needed a break at some point. Luckily there where tons of other great choices to pick from anywhere I went. Not sure if that's the same case in FL....but you guys do have Cigar City which is awesome from what I've had. You might want to read up on food pairings with different styles and give those combos a shot to see what you think at least for fun. Never know what you might find.

 

Why try and break it?
Embrace your Hopheadedness

 

Hey if you love your hops and always crave them, keep on buying them. But if you want to broaden your horizons, maybe force yourself to buy one non-IPA beer every time you go shopping. If your local shop allows singles bottle purchases of small bottles, this should be easy. I'd buy something very different from an IPA, like an RIS...not a pale ale or something too close to an IPA because then you may just wish it had more hops.

 

In short, you dont. You begin trading for all the other good IPAs across the country, and making 12 hour trips up up VT to get heady and HF. Nothing will ever be the same. I need to ween my way off of such good IPAs because I can't afford to trade for them all the time or make trips to VT. That being said I have a 5 day old case of heady I am digging into starting tonight. And the Le cumbre beers will be at my apt early next week.

I found the transition into RIS was easy. I have also always liked saisons, so I can drink a lot of belgians. But no other style compares to IPAs and it will always be my primary go to.

 

superstory dude.

 

You must unlearn what you have learned. Do or do not, there is no try.

 

Find other beer geeks you want to impress with your vast knowledge then embrace the intense pressure to drink increasingly harder-to-acquire beers. This will eventually lead you to the realm of small-batch sours. You'll start planning vacations around rubbing elbows with other sour aficionados and brewers so you can drop names like singles at a strip joint.

 

I have the same issue. Only I don't want to change. Love my hops.
That said, winter is the perfect time to focus on stouts and porters. Get some RISs and enjoy them for what they are. Sours are a great transition because you still get that tongue tingling pucker/bitterness that you love from IPAs. Trying something new is the best part of this hobby. Cheers!

 

It will pass, be patient and drink what you like until you get a craving for something different.

 

I was like that when I really got into ipa/dipa's for about 2 years. But, then I decided i really needed to expand my beer portfolio and try other styles again. Then BA beers starting getting big, and they became my new favorite styles, and I got into sours more as well. This to shall pass.

 

Go for hopped up versions of other beer styles. Gumballhead for example. Maybe ventrure into Black IPAs if you haven't already.

 

Just move to California. Here, you can get away with drinking nothing but IPAs (and other beers hopped like IPAs) and never run out of beers to drink. However, I love all my beers styles that I've investigated... for the most part. I like to purposely fall out of my comfort zone to see what I've been missing with other styles.

 

Don't take baby steps.

Buy a case of this and don't stop drinking it until you're cured...

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I'm a huge hop head and I've found the bright, acidic flavors of sours very appealling.

 

Why not dive into american barleywines?
Seems like a no brainer.

 

+1 to this...I used to be big into hoppy beers, now, I rarely go near the stuff. Your palate generally changes over time so do your thang...Lastly, if you are sick of the standard IPA's DIPA's etc...Even though there are 8 trillion of them in the overblown market for them, why not some American Barleywines or Imperial Stouts? Might be a great transition...

 

He already buys DIPA's and IIPA's. AKA: American Barleywine fetuses

 

I don't see the problem