Does anyone feel like stepping back from IPAs sometimes?

What's an IPA?





I joke but style burnout is a real thing. Palates do funny things sometimes, and one of those things is get bored with the stuff you love most.

It happened to me once with English pale ales, which really bummed me out for about two weeks, but I recovered.

 

I drink Helles, Pilsners, Stouts, Brown Ales, Saisons all the time but the gravity of IPAs is strong (figurative Newtonian gravity, not specific gravity). Love variety, but IPA is certainly what I drink the most of.

 

Yes. I really abhor “Fruited and or Hazy” (D)IPAs. Only because they’re predictable. So I gravitate toward Imperial American Adjunct Lagers, German Lagers and Belgian (Style) Ales. I do this to get an overall appreciation of all styles of beer..even the ones most on this site Grind their teeth at.

 

I find it difficult to get into IPAs currently. There are so many, perhaps too many to choose from, that I cannot distinguish one from the other. As such, I don't really buy IPAs, largely because I think there is a lot of "white noise" behind it all with too many names, too many brands, and as such I don't know what to choose or what distinguishes one IPA from another.

I really wish that less breweries focused on IPAs, particularly since it often comes at the expense of other styles. I find that to particularly be the case in my state.

 

I know what you're saying as well. I mostly drink IPA's but I also keep other styles on hand so I can change it up when I feel the urge to do so. I like a good pilsner or lager to change things up since most of them aren't hop forward and it makes for a nice break. It's not something I consciously think about, it's more like I don't feel like an IPA today so I'll have something else.

 

Yes, but my issues is I have been gravitating towards lower alcohol beers.
You cant find many good stouts, they are all imperial stouts. Porters are eeking towards 7 or 8%
scotch ales are high in alcohol.
Lagers - meh.
not a fan of low alcohol sours so those are out.
the NEIPAs or pale ales offer some beers at "kinda" lower alcohol levels.
I love meads but 13-14% - yikes
Seems like hoppy pales and IPAs are the best choices.

gotta mix it up once in a while though

 

I like to think I have a highly sophisticated beer-palate. In all the beer forums I follow, this one is my favorite because I feel most of ya'll match my self-proclaimed sophistication.

An example: I'd rather drink no beer, then shitty beer. On vacation, I stuck to water and icetea at the restaurants because the beer options were damn awful.

That said - to me, IPAs are the entry point to great craft. Sours and farmhouse ales are the true creme-de-la-creme. Exceptional stouts closely follow.

Do I get tired of IPAs - for sure. Ive been over the NEIPA thing for a while now. I want a brewery to crank out the next world-renowned West Coast IPA because I miss them. But any IPA is better then no IPA - so I guess in that sense Ill always drink them.

 

Palates are a funny thing.

I used to have 1-2 ipas a night. Over time , the apparent lingering bitterness got lost in the mix. I guess that's how we got to 100 ibu WC style ipas at the time. Now the extreme is residual sugars. I brought back a couple cases of MT beers from CA a couple months back and they coincided with a local brewery doing hazy brews. So for awhile, it was daily hazy brews. Sweetness definitely took over my senses

For the past few months, I've only been drinking on the weekends. Last week, my first beer in five days was an IPA that I love (have had cases of it over the years) but that lingering bitterness almost became astringent to the point of coating my tongue and just simply not liking it. It felt like I would have needed three to get my palate back in sync.

I've had instances where I just hate the initial taste of beer (any beer) after a break. I remember even beers like pilsner urquell were feeling like whole new flavor experiences. I get some spicy hop notes out of it along with the crackery malt base.

A lot of NE ipas have a ton of residual sugars in them. I liken the experience to not drinking sodas for awhile and then trying one. It'll taste overly sweet. Likewise if you have one or two a day, your mouth gets used to that sugar. Same with salt. First few times trying stuff without salt will leave with wondering wtf, but your body can adjust.
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Tldr. I think it's healthy to switch it up and take extended breaks. I'm currently in my light beer phase now with some pilsners, goses, and AALs. But I have found surprising your palate can be helpful too. I'll throw in a room temp FBS just to see (btw how cool is it to see may bottle dates on FBS).

I think a palate ramp up is and should be normal. But often times we drink the extremes right away. I think that's when you need to step away and rest your senses.

 

Without a doubt everyone goes down the slippery IPA slope. I remember early on a more seasoned beer drinking friend asked if I ever got tired of drinking IPAs. I can only imagine the disdained look on my face as a I responded, 'Yeah if I can't find one hoppier than the last one I had.'

I won't lie I struggle but I am proud to say that it has been two weeks since my last one. 'One day at a time,' I tell myself knowing I will go back hoping for another jaw-clenching, salivary gland squeezing release.

 

I literally took about a decade hiatus. From 2007-2009 I drank a ton of big, piney brews. After that I ignored IPAs until this year. I dont drink a lot of them, but I enjoy mixing one or two into a session nowadays. Still, my early craft beer binge seems to have shown me I much prefer less hop forward styles or more balanced beers.

 

This time of year, I cut back on IPAs, and drink more helles lagers, kolsch’s, radlers and hefeweizens, mostly on yard work/truck wash/hang out on the deck days

 

I used to drink IPAs like 85% of the time up until about 4 years ago when all breweries started making them all over the place. I'm very happy to be past that point where now I appreciate and love a kolsch, brown ale, pale ale, Helles, etc. Same goes for anything barrel aged, it's just too much. The only problem is when you get to the post-hops state, you realize how much ipas have become ubiquitous and consumers seemingly have less choice.

 

IPAs are my favorite style, but I'd say I drink more AALs and craft Pils. I've learned to conserve my taste buds, I refuse mediocre IPAs. I've lived thru extreme palate fatigue and have no desire to return. But.. A great IPA is a real treat. I'm maybe 5 weeks out from beach week, so I'm ultra conservative on the hops, and I'll hop out in July.

 

I probably don't drink nearly as much or as often as many others here, so I don't find palate fatigue a problem at all. I enjoy a variety of styles, but I'm always looking for good (and fresh) IPA's.

Until Maerzen season starts, that is.

 

And 16oz instead of 12oz is the normal serving size now.

 

I always grab some German beers to alternate with ipa's.and sometimes a stout or porter. This time of year the Kolsch beers appear too. So I can avoid burnout.

 

For the most part I've never found IPAs to be very enjoyable, so I've never reached the point where I needed to step back from them. They probably make up less than 10% of the beers I drink.

 

One thing I find curious about NEIPAS is that there is more or less a sameness to them. Now in and by itself that's not a bad thing because they are incredible pleasant to drink, but they tend to lack individual character for the most part. Not being a Brewer at all could it be that because they are all good beers and all very similar could this be the result of the low IBUs and the heavy leaning to the fruity side of life that this hides inherent flaws? Interinting to see what home brewers think. For the most part IPAs are all over some are good some are bad some are great, but I haven't had a bad NEIPA, some are a little better than others but for then most part they're all close to being equal.

 

NEVER

 

As far as IPAs are concerned, I stepped back for all time long ago.