Innovation and changing tastes

Permit me to opine on the topic of IPAs. Needless to say but I can’t comment to exactly which IPAs you are drinking. I may very well be drinking IPAs that are different from the ones you are drinking but they all taste different to me. There are a lot of different aroma hops available to brew IPAs. Each of these hops has their own unique flavors/aromas and you can ‘shake things up’ through various hop combinations. For example, an IPA that is solely brewed with Centennial hops (e.g., Bell’s Two Hearted) tastes completely different from Ithaca Flower Power which is brewed with:

“Hops: Simcoe, Chinook, Citra, Ahtanum, Centennial
Dry-Hop: Simcoe, Amarillo, Centennial”

Clown Shoes recently came out with a new DIPA called Galactica which features a relatively new hop of Galaxy. I have not tried this beer yet but I look forward to tasting some Galaxy hops.

I personally look forward to drinking new, innovative IPAs using newer hops (like Mosaic) and differing combinations of hopping schedules using the large (and getting larger) varieties of aroma hops.

Cheers!

 

I'd say this is not unique to beer. I'm not well-versed enough in wine to draw any analogies there, but take cars or TVs as an example. Every manufacturer has a standard lineup of various "classes" of products (4-door sedans, 50-inch LED TVs, etc.) that compete directly with their competitors' similar class of products. There's not a tremendous amount of difference among all the products within each product class, as all companies are battling to produce and sell products that consumers want at a price point that's competitive enough to stay in business and maintain or build market share. Once in a while a manufacturer comes out with a true innovation that changes the game (hybrid technology, HD), but even that is only momentary until all the competitors catch up with similar products. It's innovation and evolution by degrees and increments.

What would be truly surprising is if every IPA (or porter, or stout) had a completely unique character. There are generally classified beer "styles" for good reason.

 

When I did a blind IPA tasting it was pretty easy to pick out the ones I drank a lot of, and also ones I'd had recently. But yes, there is a lot of basically undifferentiated mass in the middle. I think it's just a basic bell curve, with a few truly outstanding products, a lot of "just okay", and then some ungodly awful ones. Pretty much goes for any style.

 

I've always thought IPAs can get quite boring after a while. Spice them up a bit, add brett or something to make them sour. As the same with other styles that tend to run together after a while

 

In my experiences, being a huge IPA lover, your palette can get "tired." I have recently experienced this. Had a tasting over the weekend with a lot of IPA's from Chicago and VT. Great evening with a ton of flavor and bitterness and everyone was very satisfied. Next day I went to drink a local Pale Ale that was just freshly growlered. My god did it taste like shit and I've had this beer numerous times. I believe that with all of the different hops and flavors from the night before my palette was overloaded and needed a break. I didn't have a beer for the next 30 hours or so. Went to dinner with my wife last night and had a 90 minute. Was nervous to drink it after what happened the night before. I drank it anyway and it was still good but didn't taste like what I was used to with a normal 90 minute (one of my favorite beers).

So now I'm going to the Yankee game tonight and hoping this doesn't continue. I've had this happen to me one other time before and it was after a serious tasting event. So my point is, maybe your taste buds need a rest, or maybe I'm just overloading my own.

 

The same can be said of every style.

 

I agree, especially if you have a buzz going already.

 

This is probably more true for American IPAs than some of the other styles. There may be some fluctuation in perceived bitterness and hop flavor/aromas but ultimately you're aiming for the same, bitter, well-balanced, delicious goal.

You'll find less stylistic contraints in something like a Belgian Dark Strong where you can have 2 very different beers that are bound in similarity only by their color.

 

So I've heard. My buddy told me they have Goose Island but it's $9 a beer. Ridiculous!!!

 

I defnitely agree. And as to the galaxy Hops: I recently had Anchorage's Galaxy White IPA. Now just to clarify it is made with Brett but OMG those Galaxy Hops were the bomb. I am looking forward to drinking other beers that use Galaxy. IMO it takes hops in a new direction.

 

While I somewhat agree with what the OP is getting at, I wouldn't limit the phenomenon to IPAs, but would argue that this happens with almost every style of beer. What sets the "top" 25% (though, I'd go as far as to say the percentage is lower) apart is that some breweries make spectacular beer across their portfolio. I know we all have issues with the BJCP guidelines, but you see the same brewers in style examples (FW, Bell's, Stone, etc) repeatedly and it's no surprise that many of these breweries continue to expand.

Mainly, I'm just getting at the point that there is a lot of really solid and good beer out there, but the top 25% or less make truly spectacular beer consistently.

 

Ditto man.