IPA craze: When will it be over?!

I used to be a huge IPA fan, but I have gotten bored with them. I still like IPAs, but give me a sweet malty pale ale, lager, or ESB any day over an IPA. I don't think IPAs will fade in popularity anytime soon though.

 

Dark Horse did a few fruited IPAs, tap only, in the past including blueberry. Short's (Half Acre) releases one anually with guava. Citrus zest has been used in several. Expanding upon that, I have had a couple spiced IPAs. Kuhnhenn brewed a Ginger Cinnamon IPA, was fairly tasty.

It may be difficult to find, but an IPA brewed with Belma hops may be worth seeking out. The only single hopped option I have been exposed to was at Brewery Ferment in Traverse City, MI, tastes like strawberries and green melon, no need for fruit.

 

Yeah- in the 90s it seemed like every brewpub had one of all those styles I listed, as well as a SNPA clone on tap.

 

Appreciate it man, don't know why the idea has missed me. I'll be on the look out.

 

Can't wait for this craze to be over!

 

IPL is the new IPA

 

I agree with your original post. I love IPAs but it does get tiring when I walk into my local store and see a huge selection of IPAs and a scant selection of other styles. For instance my favorite store used to sell old chub by 12 now they don't because that section has hon to the wayside swallowed up by the 50 some IPAs they sell now.

 

When will the IPA craze be over? Not soon enough I say. Don't get me wrong, I drink them, there are some I actually like, but there is so much more to beer. There is a nice little beer shop close to my house that has 30 taps, on any given day, 17 of them are IPAs, the rest are pales and ambers, maybe one or two stouts or pils. Now, I can see having 6 or 8, just because of their general popularity, but when more than half your taps are IPAs, you need to diversify, because you are losing business, and not just mine.

 

Actually yeah, now that I think about it more:

Gose Will Take Over Next Summer

It's spending this summer winning over the brewers and advocates, next summer it'll move to the masses!

 

Never.

 

First, saying there is more to beer than hops (while talking about ipas) is like complaining about stouts by saying there is more to beer than malt. No shit, but they both focus on the far end of the spectrum of hops and malt respectively. Take it for what it is, and you say you like ipa's so I'm not going to question you, but I'd curious as to which ones you've had that are "medicinal".

Second, American breweries know where their bread is buttered and it seems there is a higher demand for ipas here than overseas. It'd be nice to see more breweries putting out "traditional styles" more commonly found in Europe, but at the same time its cool that the U.S. is making its own mark on the beer scene. We're a cultural that is certainly influenced by Europe, but we like to do things our way in the end. You also make the assumption that american brewers can make a Quad or Hefeweizen at the same level (while using primarily native ingredients) as belgian or german breweries that have been perfecting each style for over a 100 years.

Some breweries like stone and lagunitas have more hoppy options than not, but thats just there style and I don't think its reflective of the whole industry. Especially if your saying ipas outnumber others 2:1. Iv'e seen alot of breweries with 2 or 3 ipa options, but only one brown ale or kolsch option, which reflects current demand for ipas. However, It ain't nearly as lopsided as you think. And there's more creativity with ipas with a wide range of flavors, sometimes infringing on other styles (witbiers and stouts notably). How many kolschs does a brewery need? Or how many unique variations of a kolsch can a brewery create? Overall point here, this isn't a craze, this is american beer culture in its infancy.

 

I can say I enjoy every style of beer. I get cravings for everything. All I can say is this Double Trouble is hitting the spot right know.

 

Cheers to the OP, I think it's a good topic, and one worthy of discussion. You didn't do anything wrong by the way. For some reason if you even SUGGEST something negative about hops on this website, all the IPA lovers jump all over you and suggest, "Just drink something else."

Here's the problem, and I'll use one of the largest craft brewers as an example.

Sierra Nevada is so hop driven (and I don't blame them, it sells) that 3 out of their 4 seasonals are now IPAs.

Spring seasonal: Glissade (a maibock) was replaced by Ruthless Rye IPA
Summer seasonal: Summerfest (a Czech pilsner) (left untouched.....for now)
Fall seasonal: Tumbler (a brown ale) was replaced with Flipside Red IPA
Winter seasonal: Celebration Ale (IPA)

I LOVE Celebration, it's one of the IPAs I cut my teeth on. With that IPA, the Hemisphere beers, the Harvest Ale, the Estate Ale, and Torpedo...etc. it became excessive to have three out of four seasonals be IPAs. There's nothing "seasonal" about it. And I dug Glissade and Tumbler, in a sea of Sierra Nevada IPAs, these were great.

To the IPA lovers (and I'm one of them) out there who are fighting over which IPA they can consume that's been bottled within a month, I say, try to get a decent Helles less than six months old, then tell me to, "just drink something else."

 

AND THEY ALL TASTE THE SAME!

 

The "problem" is a logical fallacy. There are now over 3000 breweries in the USA alone. There is a looming if not present over saturation of craft beer generally. It can only overcome that by taking share from BMC and imports (Corona anyone?).

How do they do that? With a pilsner? A pale lager? That's where BMC dominates. With a Wit? Blue Moon and Shock Top dominate that. IPAs and big stouts are the things the big breweries can't do, at least so far (ignoring Goose Island's ownership). Craft beer is about exploration. Want a great Weiss beer...they've perfected those in Germany. Think there is much room to improve on the Begian Quads and Triples? Really? I mean, some do try, and make great beers. But here, in America, the IPA was perfected. The barrel aged Stout was perfected. The hoppy/IPA style lager is being perfected, and that is a hot new trend. On top of that is the crazy stuff from Dogfish and others, exploring every possibility.

I don't think IPAs will stop, it's effectively our national style at this point. But with 3000 breweries, the collective effort on otter styles is still staggering. I'd be surprised if there were that many breweries in the whole rest of the world.

 

The IPA craze is fueled primarily by, as others have already noted, the demand for hop-forward beers. On top of that, it is one of the cheapest and easiest beers to make, and the turnaround time is much quicker than, say, a lager or a barrel-aged beer. So, if you were a commercial brewer, would you rather have a product that only takes 2 weeks in your tanks and sells out in less than a month, or would you rather have one of your tanks tied up with a beer that takes a month (or longer) to ferment, and might not even sell before it spoils because of lesser demand? Also, there is seemingly a new hop varietal coming out every day, each with different properties (ie- more bitter, more aromatic, fruity, piney, etc), and they can widely differ depending on any other number of factors (length of boil, types of yeast, symbiotic properties when used in conjunction with other hops and/or non-traditional ingredients, water profile, etc.) -- the possibilities are endless, subsequently making the craze endless.

Just be thankful that the beers you don't enjoy end up paying for the beers you might enjoy but aren't quite as profitable. I, for one, hope the craze continues, because as I have gotten 10+ years under my belt, my focus is narrowing more and more towards the hop-centric beers and less so towards the malty barleywines and barrel-aged this-and-thats... but my tastes have changed before, and it's likely to happen again. Such is life, and such is beer.

 

Great...someone who has been here 2 years making someone new feel like an ass for posting a question in a forum for...questions.