IPAs too different

Discussion in 'Beer Talk' started by HighlandtownBMore, Jul 28, 2017.

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  1. Squire

    Squire Grand Pooh-Bah (4,385) Jul 16, 2015 Mississippi
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Re-reading the OP I caught the "malty" notes and yes, that says old IPA suffering from hop fade.
     
  2. mkh012

    mkh012 Pooh-Bah (1,787) May 7, 2015 Colorado
    Pooh-Bah

    Don't give up on New England (D)IPAs. Slurm Lord doesn't seem to be a particularly great one with a 3.85 Avg.
     
    Lahey likes this.
  3. BrewsOverHoes

    BrewsOverHoes Grand Pooh-Bah (3,509) Nov 17, 2013 Georgia
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Send the rest my way. And some M43 :grin:

    I'm with you though, not just in the IPA realm, I try and grab singles before I commit to a whole sixer of something. Too much good beer out there to take chances on a $12-15 sixer, without having any inclination.
     
    VABA likes this.
  4. Immortale25

    Immortale25 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,775) May 13, 2011 North Carolina
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    I see where the OP is coming from but, to me, this is just another example of how the beer world is increasingly becoming more like the wine world where the consumer must educate themselves in order to make the right buying decisions. The amount of diversity within styles and the prevalence of experimentation has made it so that, no matter what the official style the beer is labeled as, what's in the glass can be quite far from what's expected of that style. Just like a Cab from one winery made from grapes from a certain vineyard from a certain region can taste wildly different from another Cab from a different winery made from grapes from a different vineyard from a different region. It's still a Cab. Do we need more subgenres within the IPA style? No. Breweries just need to be sure to provide the consumer with information about the beer on the label (i.e. what hop varietals were used, whether dry-hopping was involved, if it's unfiltered or filtered, tasting notes) and the consumer needs to know enough about beer to read the label and understand what kind of flavor profile to expect. The craft beer world is developing to the point where the learning curve is getting steeper and steeper.
     
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  5. JrGtr

    JrGtr Pooh-Bah (1,775) Apr 13, 2006 Massachusetts
    Pooh-Bah

    Don't forget the "east Coast ipa - more balanced than west coast, still clear, but more of a malt backbone than the west coast, which is more hop driven.
    Plus the others, "black IPA"
    fruited IPA,
    Imperial
    and so on.
    There's not so many sub-catagories of IPAs it's hard to see where the line is at the light side between IPA and Pale Ale (Some labeled as one could easily be the other) and at the high end either hoppy stout or barleywine.

    As someone else mentioned, OP, do you still have the bottles? Can you tell us what IPA it was and if there is a bottled on date or code on the bottle? IT does sound like you had one that was on the older side, where the hops may have faded away - they can do so, general rule of thumb is somewhere around 3 months old, but some can last longer or shorter, depending on a lot of things.
     
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  6. HighlandtownBMore

    HighlandtownBMore Initiate (0) Jul 26, 2017 Maryland

    It was canned on 6/23 so I don't think it was age. It has an almost roasty like maltiness to it. Hopped with centennial and cascade and you get none of the familiar flavors from them. This brewery makes really good beers so I don't think it's execution I think this is what it is supposed to taste like. I find that some IPAs have this big maltiness some taste like orange candy and some are crisp dry and piney. I just find that there's a big gap when you buy a can or bottle of a standard IPA and it can be annoying because there's no indicator of what you are getting. It doesn't indicate West coast East coast etc just IPA and both breweries are in the same state so location doesn't help either.
     
  7. nc41

    nc41 Initiate (0) Sep 25, 2008 North Carolina
    Trader

    Because they use flaked oats to enhance mouthfeel is that enough for a sub category? It's still a grain.
     
  8. MNAle

    MNAle Initiate (0) Sep 6, 2011 Minnesota

    Let me ask a clarifying question: Should NE IPA be a separate style? :sunglasses:
     
  9. HighlandtownBMore

    HighlandtownBMore Initiate (0) Jul 26, 2017 Maryland

    Without question it needs to be its own style. It taste nothing like a more traditional IPA. For instance some beers are extremely categorized. There's not a TON of difference between a marzen or vienna lager but there is some difference and so it is 2 styles . Where a West Coast IPA and a NE IPA taste so far apart that how could someone make a case for them to lumped into the same category?
     
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  10. HighlandtownBMore

    HighlandtownBMore Initiate (0) Jul 26, 2017 Maryland

    Helles, Pilsner, Marzen, Maibock. All their own category but buy 4 different IPAs and they can be just as different as those 4 beers are from one another.
     
    Squire likes this.
  11. HeilanCoo

    HeilanCoo Initiate (0) Sep 11, 2014 North Carolina

    Perhaps the problem is that breweries are calling everything they make an IPA. As you have pointed out, it makes the use of 'style' terminology completely useless. More categorization would further muddy the waters.
     
    R_i_P, drtth and JackHorzempa like this.
  12. drtth

    drtth Initiate (0) Nov 25, 2007 Pennsylvania
    In Memoriam

    Can somebody point me to where it says "tastes like to me" or "doesn't taste like to me" is the way beer styles have been, or should be, categorized/defined/illustrated/exemplified?

    I once made a rattlesnake stew using a chicken stew recipe (the flavors are similar). Some of my friends who didn't have access to the ingredients list complimented the flavors, etc. of the chicken stew I'd made.

    But somehow I couldn't quite believe that somehow I'd magically turned that dead rattlesnake into a dead chicken.
     
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  13. JackHorzempa

    JackHorzempa Grand Pooh-Bah (3,375) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
    Society Pooh-Bah

    You are 100% correct here. If breweries are viewing "IPA" as a marketing term than creating more substyles will not 'fix' the issue here. There is absolutely no way to enforce that breweries label their beers to a prescribed list of beer definitions.

    Cheers!
     
    MNAle likes this.
  14. MNAle

    MNAle Initiate (0) Sep 6, 2011 Minnesota

    Before this get too far, I WAS making a joke! (re: dozens -- it seems -- threads asking this question!) :wink:
     
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  15. Squire

    Squire Grand Pooh-Bah (4,385) Jul 16, 2015 Mississippi
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    This is the crux of the problem. Marketing any ole thing under the IPA name like they used to do with Pilsner.
     
  16. MNAle

    MNAle Initiate (0) Sep 6, 2011 Minnesota

    [​IMG]
     
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  17. jmasher85

    jmasher85 Savant (1,169) Mar 27, 2015 Maryland

    That's the point right there. Too many sub-categories and you just confuse 80% of beer drinkers as a whole. Nobody except geeks want to have to learn a whole new vocabulary of what to drink. It's like metal-heads who need to fight over which bands are metal-core, speed metal, thrash metal, black metal, and I can't bother with figuring out the difference. Just let the packaging and label, and the flavor, speak for itself and don't be disingenuous about what is in the bottle or nobody will trust your beer again.
     
  18. JackHorzempa

    JackHorzempa Grand Pooh-Bah (3,375) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
    Society Pooh-Bah

    This discussion seems to have taken a path towards discussing ‘labeling’ and marketing of beers. For those of you who have interests here I would strongly suggest you watch this presentation:

     
  19. HighlandtownBMore

    HighlandtownBMore Initiate (0) Jul 26, 2017 Maryland

    Hey I see Maryland! Same! The beer I was discussing was Monument Brewing Battle IPA (malty) and RAR Nanticoke Nectar.

    I feel like it's an overall complex problem because then a casual can try an IPA and decide they don't like IPAs but they are so different they might like an IPA just not that brewery's interpretation of an IPA and thus someone is turned off from a style all together, even tho it is vast.
     
    jmasher85 likes this.
  20. marquis

    marquis Pooh-Bah (2,313) Nov 20, 2005 England
    Pooh-Bah

    No modern beer tastes remotely like a traditional IPA.Bone dry,low ABV and long aged.
    For most of the 20th century IPA was simply another name for Bitter,under 4% ABV and 30ish IBUs.
     
    Jaycase likes this.
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