IPA sub-categories...

IPAs fall into two categories: good IPAs and bad IPAs.

 

Right... Because Flower Power and Hop Devil are so East Coast... never mind...

Yet another reason people should not invent beer ontology beyond what's already there...

 

There are already too many subcategories. Bars & stores will usually provide you info about a flavour profile if you ask or you can check BA on your cell phone. We need less and not more categories of beer.

 

The only thing that I would change about beer catergories is force brewers to classify their beers by a standard definition.

 

i think sub categories are completely unnecessary, if you say to someone 'im drinking a stout' you can simply describe how it is. nothing more nothing less.

 

Let's see...an Oatmeal Stout, Dry Stout, Sweet Stout, Foreign Export Stout, American Stout, Russian Imperial Stout...looks like I just described using existing sub-catagories.

IPAs might use a couple more sub-catagories just based on their continued popularity...not that anybody really ever NEEDS more. Beer reactionaries wouldn't like it.

I'd put English IPAs into Bitters (English Pales) and ALL others into American Pale Ale...they'd all be sub-catagories if I were doing the taxonomy (IMHO).

 

There are too many categories already. You either have to have a very few, loose, ones or one category for practically every beer. Styles should be like lampposts , good for illumination but not intended to be leant on.
Certainly bitters, pale Ales, English IPAs belong together, they were all alternative names for the same thing anyway.These were all names, nothing else as were Foreign Export Stout , milk stout, luncheon ale, light dinner ale, we are in danger of building skyscraper blocks upon foundations of sand.

 

Let's see, also Chocolate Stout, Coffee Stout, Oyster Stout, Milk Stout, Cream Stout... And these are actually older than all but Oatmeal categories. Now, do we really want to keep subdividing? There's nothing wrong with subcategories, we just don't need to keep creating them. What's an "American Stout"? Just a coinage to distinguish a couple of flavor profiles from the rest of the market? Wouldn't it make more sense to create a profile matrix than a one-beer category?

"English IPA" makes about as much sense to me as "Money ATM".

 

We should come up with some kind of rating system that will help people determine which is which.

 

I thought they already did this with stouts.

 

Whoa! I agree with most of the statement, but Milk Stout is a reference to technique, so in no way similar to "luncheon ale" or "foreign export stout". That's why I said the "matrix" (process/execution X style) is more important than a taxonomy (infinite subcategorization). Oatmeal Stout and Milk Stout are process X style names. Coffee stout and Oyster stout are execution X style names (happen to be traditional flavor profiles as well, although now "coffee" can also refer to process). I don't now what "Foreign Export Stout" is. It means nothing to me.

 

Like the current one? Because I have to go 3600 IPAs (out of 3891) down the list to find one that is rated below a 3 (or average).

 

Don't forget Tropical Stouts : )

 

People rate IPAs way too highly.

 

Seriously? No.

 

two categories should do the trick:
Good
Bad

 

It's my understanding that Cascadian Dark Ale is seperate from Black IPA/ABA. A local brewer once gave me a breakdown that I can't recall. He may have been just f***ing with me, though

 

I just had a wheat IPA at Blue Lobster in Hampton, NH. fantastic beer.

 

Not to mention the fact that a Belgian IPA is sort of a hybrid style--like a hoppy Tripel.