Does anyone feel like stepping back from IPAs sometimes?

I cut back significantly on IPAs when I realized the freshness aspect was creating a pressure to always get to the IPA first. I'd be in the mood for a stout or a pils or what have you but when I'd open the fridge there would be an IPA sitting there pleading with me to not let it get a minute older. The result was if there was an IPA in the fridge I'd drink nothing else. I can step back an realize that's a little cuckoo, but it is what it is.

 

I've been drinking almost entirely styles that aren't stouts sours and IPAs for the last month. I got in a rut and I need to expand the styles I'm drinking. The reason I got into craft beer was a diversity of flavor and I don't want to just replace cheap fizzy lager with IPAs.

 

True Brew Magazine from their March / April issue had an interesting article called "Death of A Seasonal."

In the article, I found the following quote to instill in me the necessity to seek other beer styles than just IPA's:

"The next time you're at the bar and say, 'any IPA will do', keep in mind that you're contributing to the death of other styles."

Though IPA's represent a huge portion of craft beer, it's still a skewed view to think they are the only style. Despite where I currently live, I try as much as I can to seek other styles and realize the importance of this.

 

I frequently step back from IPAs. I like to switch it up with several other styles. There are a few breweries nearby where I am not to fond of their IPAs. They do much better with darker beers and some German and Belgian styles. It is a nice break.

 

I do this "thing" - don't really have a name for it - but I find that when I don't feel like drinking an IPA (or, for that matter, any other particular style of beer),
I choose a beer of a different style.

 

I have never gotten hung up of IPAs or any one style for that matter. The best thing about craft beer is the variety of styles IMHO.

 

A few years ago I decided that I was not going to pay over $1 a beer(12oz equivalent)

Sounds nuts but I'm doing it.

Prior to this I was buying and drinking IPA by the case. So many of them were " world class" "amazing" beers that I thought were just ok. I was hop fatigued and did not know it. Spending $50 plus on beers I could not fully taste all the tastes going on.

When I started my $1 a beer at first I went back to AAL and enjoyed the easy drinking and no thought put into drinking a beer. I still enjoy Hamms and High life and this helps keep me in the $1 a beer.

I have since found a spot that does great $18-30 case specials and most are not IPA but well respected craft brewers as well as national Brewers. When I do buy IPA I can once again appreciate the taste and enjoy the hops again. I also got the love again for pale ales.

This venture has also had me trying beers I never would have 3 years ago.

Guess what? There are so many good beers that have no hype and are as good or better than hyped beers.

I now search out pils, brown ales, lagers, wheat, and other styles I never bought regularly.

A real nice hoppy piney IPA is still one of my favorite beers but it taste so much better when I have one here and there rather than 3-4 in a row every day.

Enjoy

 

Just the opposite for me. I usually drink stouts, porters, Scottish ales and brown ales. On a really hot day or when out to eat I'll enjoy an IPA.

 

On occasion. For the last couple of months I've been on a kick of drinking beers revolving around 5% ABV. Occasionally higher, but mostly around there. Been fun, lagers, pilsners, pale ales, amber ales, etc. Had a couple of IPAs during it and they've been more flavorful, so kind of enjoying just keeping them for occasions instead of regularly having them.

 

I find myself trying to take advantage of all 112 styles listed on this site. If an opportunity presents itself to try a new style, or revisit a style I've only had one of, I'll take it. Variety - that's the beauty of beer.

That said, I often find myself gravitating towards IPAs when visiting new places. On my last work trip, I'd say less than half the beers I drank where IPAs, although about half of the beers I hauled home were IPAs. That's a shift away from IPAs for me when considering my previous ordering history.

 

I’ve been into craft beer for over 9 years now and I’m just now getting into ipas. In fact I’ve stepped away from every other style I used to love.

 

I don't usually drink'm at home, but I usually get them at the local breweries cuz they're usually the best thing they brew.

 

No stepping back. I’ve been a malt forward guy. So I will step forward (?) occasionally and hit some IPAs.

 

Definitely! I love IPA but palate fatigue is a real thing. As it so happens, I stayed away from IPAs the whole workweek. Instead, among the styles I drank: Witbier, Czech Pilsner, Irish Red Ale, Flanders Oud Bruin.
It’s Saturday night and after a 5 day hiatus (no mean feat for me when it comes to IPA withdrawal) I’m cracking open a good ole Bell’s Two Hearted Ale. It never tasted better!!

 

I drink a lot of IPAs, and really a lot of NEIPas. When I feel like I need a break, I just pour a nice sour, gose or stout and it resets my palate. It's important to switch it up a little and enjoy all styles. Otherwise things start to taste the same to me.

There's a ton of good beer out there so it's easy to keep things fresh.

 

Let me check...um...no.

However I've noticed I prefer IPAs with a nice malt backbone over the now popular everywhere hazy NEIPA style.

When I joined BA back in the day I listed "strong ale" as my favorite style. I realized recently it's still my favorite. Something like Nosferatu, Nugget Nectar, Red Chair, etc But unfortunately, it's hard to find beers like that these days. Seems everyone is on the juicy-hazy-all-hops-no-malt bandwagon.

Why do I suffer so?

 

Definitely need a break from constant IPA consumption every day. For me, I really don't like to drink IPAs 2 days in a row even. Maybe 3-4 times a week max.

 

So has my brother in law. After a decade of craft beer drinking and hating most all hoppy ales he sampled, like a light switch in 2017/2018, he now likes IPAs and has abandoned all the malty beer styles he used to only tolerate. Very weird.

 

I like a lot of different beer. I can't wait to get my mouth awash in Gruit. If I can ever find any around here. Other than that, I do like Bells 2 Hearted quite a bit. But really don't care for any other IPA. Just Bells and many other styles including AAL.

 

I honestly need to in order to enjoy them more. Pretty sure my palate is shot to hell. Unfortunately, I’d probably replace them with American barley wines or Cascadians, so what’s the use really.

 

Not really. it's so easy to just grab an ipa when i have no idea what i'm in the mood for. Always a welcome addition

 

For some of my friends IPA has become a default choice. I don't think it's their absolute favorite rather it's an easy thing to order and widely available.

 

When I'm in a new place I always try the IPA first. My thinking is if they can't make a good IPA they can't make anything else well.

 

I feel the same way about Lager.

 

Interesting opinion, and one I haven't heard before. I've heard several people say they order lagers to access a brewer's true capabilities (absolutely nothing to hide flaws behind), but not IPAs.

Personally, I see more of your point of view. I figure I either stand to try an extraordinary IPA or see that a brewer can't hide their flaws behind large, abundant hop notes. Sometimes a brewery hits somewhere between the two extremes, in which case they nailed mediocre, and I've still learned plenty about them still. Regardless, I find myself drawn towards IPAs when on the road, with an eager second thought to lagers, hefeweizens and kolsches.

 

I find myself agreeing with this ordering logic. Most of my favorite beers are not IPAs, and yet I frequently find myself ordering them. It's kinda like pizza - it can be absolutely world class, or it can be meh. Either way, I end up with pizza on my plate and I win.

 

In terms of palate exhaust, I’m more concerned with Rauchbiers than anything else.

 

All the time. I love all different kinds of IPAs but big hop flavor can become overwhelming at times.

It’s nice to break it up with a recalibration from a few stouts, wits, pilsners, and alike.

 

I mix it up all the time.

 

So do I, consistently. For me sticking to just one style would be like eating the same meal every day.

 

I started out not liking IPAs at all, then got into them and drank damn near nothing but them for a while, to now cutting way back on them. Besides the palate fatigue I found that IPAs can get my reflux going and I can get terrible hangover like symptoms when I have one too many (which really isn't that many when compared to other styles). I was also finding that I was sort of shunning the styles that I loved. Also, after a while I wasn't finding that much difference between many of them so it got kind of boring.

I still drink IPAs occasionally because I get in the mood and a maltier one e.g. Victory Hop Devil can be a thing of beauty. But overall I have been feeling better and enjoying so many more styles and revisiting styles that I loved since making a conscious effort to reduce my IPA consumption.

Ha ha I know what you mean. I don't drink much during the week so on the weekend if I opened the fridge and saw an IPA I would think that if I don't drink this today it will just get another week older

 

Like your taste in beer and authors (John Updike's Rabbit Run)! Cheers!

 

It's all good to me, but sometimes too many same style brews get boring.

Cheers!

 

I've never been one to drink any one style obsessively. I'll drink an IPA when I feel like one, but generally speaking, I am more charmed by a deft brewer's hand than a heavy one. That largely means out the window with bourbon barrels, anything above 8% ABV and anything else getting in the way of a beer's worth.

 

Love a good IPA but with so many breweries and so many styles I like to try as much as I can never know what your new favorite beer could be it is hard to avoid IPA's with that said though

 

I like IPAs but all iterations of the style are overrated and overdone, that being said I honestly don't drink them very often.

 

LOVE my (D)IPA's, but am looking to expand my palate. Like stouts and some sours but there's so much more to craft beer than them. Often find thinking I should try something different but then find myself reaching for a (D)IPA. Need to change that!

 

IPA has become my least drank style.

 

And another thing that I noticed.
These so called Session IPAs, where session means you want to drink a few of the same beer back to back to back. I can't ever drink a second one, even with some highly rated examples of the style. They all seem to have a wear and tear factor. If you catch my drift.

 

I have had this same mindset before honestly. I could have a few browns, stouts, wheats, etc in the fridge that have been there for weeks, but the minute I'd buy a sixer of Zombie Dust or Two Hearted I would feel I have to drink that before even considering the others.

I'm not as bad as I used to be with the IPA freshness craze, but it definitely does still linger in my mind if I make a beer trade and I get a NEIPA over a month old.