I'll take "Things that annoy" for $200

IMHO there are two different versions of "All _____ taste the same!"

There are those who haven't had the experience, i.e. craft beer virgins who think every IPA tastes the same. Then there are people who've had plenty, but palate-wise struggle to discern one from the other.

I'm in the latter category for two styles of beer: NE IPAs & sours. Most (not all) NE IPAs taste to me like IPAs that have had raw sugar stirred liberally into the glass & I'm not a fan. Sours (also largely, not all) generally just taste sour to me. Though there are definitely exceptions to both rules (Treehouse, early Blackstack, Trillium, Cantillon, Cascade, etc.).

 

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Miriam-Webster

For me drinking a variety of beers and discussing them is pleasurable and (usually ) relaxing.
Other than the beer professionals who post on BA I'd say that we do is a hobby

 

If alcohol is a hobby, is it a good hobby?

 

I guess it depends on why and how much you drink.
Consuming beer moderately because you enjoy the experience is a hobby.
Consuming beer to excess because you need the alcohol is an addiction.

 

The drinking aspect is merely one part of the larger activity / hobby that I call Beer Advocacy. I think for most of us the drinking part is less than 100% but more than 0% of our involvement. YMMV.

 

With respect to NEIPAS, this is what you get from chasing a fad or at least a newly found favorite. You get a sameness, low bitter, a bit sweet fruit, imo mostly astringent. I find most but not all to be irritating and uncomfortable to drink, they burn my throat, an acidic burn. Chase the money. In regard to sours I can’t comment, I’m not a sour head , but I do enjoy some Lambics.

 

I mostly agree. I think the early adopters were excellent, but so many "Me Also!" breweries piled in that have no idea how to make a good one. We have a local MN brewery (Blackstack) that started out making NE IPAs that I'd have put up against anything from Trillium or Treehouse, but they slowly started putting out an $18 4/pack per week that tasted sugary & exactly like last weeks release. That one was particularly puzzling & disappointing to me.

 

As a kid we called them "old man bars". Now that we are old men we call them "corner bars"

 

People that lobby for a new style by pointing out it has its own identifiable, recognizable characteristics that set it apart from the style in which it is listed, . Then, after it's made an "official" new style, they complain that beers made in the new style all taste too similar to each other, and that they don't taste enough like the style from which they were separated.

People that think there is an ice cream taste, a defining taste that is "the taste of ice cream", despite there being literally hundreds of ice cream flavors that people enjoy. These people can be heard saying things like, "I miss the days when ice cream tasted like ice cream", and "this ice cream is for people who don't like the taste of ice cream" Oh, and beer people who say the same kinds of things about beer are equally annoying.

 

Well, there should be a new style listing created if (ahem, when) a new style is developed, and, brewers use the name of an existing style to boost sales.

If I make a new ice cream with guava, mango, and passion fruit, it's OK if I call it strawberry, right?

 

This is the feeling I got from every Tired Hands Milkshake variation going back years. My friends would go nuts to get every new flavored release and they would often let me try some. Sure, these were not the same beer since they had different flavorings (strawberry, vanilla, green tea, etc) but often enough they actually tasted exactly the same and I could not tell you which version is which.

Unless my palate is so wrecked that can't tell apples from oranges, which is a possibility.

 

I can’t comment on their milkshake style IPAs, I don’t like lactose in my beers anyway, but of the few beers from them I’ve tried when I visit back home in Pa, to my palate there’s a sameness. Maybe it’s just my palate but I find a beer like Hop Hands to be more in line with session IPAs, stunningly bitter, super hazy , straw colored, I’ve had others whose names I cannot recall, but they don't lack for bitter either, so much so that the bitter provides a sameness. So much so I really have trouble drinking more than one. I guess I’m one who’s squarely into the Head Hunter, Pernicious, Two Hearted Ale, Stone IPA, Union Jack crowd as my kinda ipa.

 

Can I join your club, please?

Cheers!

 

You bet.

 

Never seen Jever in Eastern Tennessee. Wish I could find one to buy and try.

 

Until then, these forums and friendly threads must suffice as our virtual village pub. And your very idea is what I am doing right now, with some nice music on my HiFi system (until I get my upcoming 45 RPM based jukebox I am working on restoring) to put in the back den. Which will be renamed "Gimpy's Pub"

I am drinking a pint of Blackhorse Brewery's nice Greenways IPA (which is brewed in Alcoa, Tennessee (I was born in nearby Maryville, Tennessee). The beer is a benefit for their local greenways and trails. Being an avid adaptive cyclist, this I am passionate about. Their beers are of very nice quality, fresh, and local. I have Buddy Merrill's fine LP, "Electro-Sonic Guitars on my Realistic LAB 300 turntable, with Shure M 91ED cartridge, the Sansui 4000 receiver is driving my pair of the Advent Loudspeaker. The beer and music are superb. I am raising a glass with you in spirit!!!

 

A virtual glass raised in your honor, Sir.

 

Nice. I'm drinking Pliny and listening to the box set of Tom Petty's Wildflowers that just rolled in. I'm playing it on my 1981 Rega Planar 2 with a Nagaoka MP110 cartridge , my Yamaha CR1020 receiver, and a pair of RSL 3600 monitors.

 

Another beer loving audiophile. Love this. This is a third system, I have 2 more at the other home. One powered by McIntosh. One system is a 1966 Fisher Custom Electra Console with a Dual 1010 changer in Italian Provincial.

 

I'm also mrunning an adcom 5400 amp w/ a GFP555 preamp, an sae a7, and my newest, a Technics SU-VX10. which is honestly insanely nice. Just picked up an Akai AP-306 turntable this morning to restore. Looks like a solid table.