New Guy Here

Hello all, I figured I would start out by somewhat introducing myself here, and also ask for opinions at the same time.

So I'm 24, and just started at a culinary school about an hour and a half north of NYC after 6 years of being in the army and trying everything I could. I have always preferred beer to liquor, and actually wrote a college paper at my last school slightly based off of the Discovery Channel documentary "How Beer Saved The World." Now don't get me wrong, I still love a good whiskey or scotch, but still prefer beer.

I started out with your regular domestics, but now they just taste like water to me. At my last school, I became a regular at a bar that would have 42 beers on tap an any given time, changed daily, from all different countries, and from trying out as many as I could, I found IPA's to be my favorite. Where I'm going to school now, there's a place called Half-Time who claims they have the largest beer selection in the world. From what I thought I knew about beer, I wanted a more hoppy beer, but after explaining this to one of the dudes that worked there, some of them taste to "grassy" to my taste. So now I'm thinking that I lean more towards the bitter IPA's, but not sure, so now is where I get to why I'm here. I love the strong and bitter flavor of certain IPA's, but without it being sweat or grass flavored. I'm hoping that some of you can recommend me some to try to find which I like the best for the flavor I'm looking for.

One's I know I don't like:
Hop Stoopid - Too grassy
Double Daddy - Too sweat

One's I think I do, can always go for more flavor, but could have been drunk at the time of tasting:
Stone
Sierra Nevada
Three Heads Brewing - The Kind IPA
Back Yard Bash(or backyard something or other, could have been drunk at that time too)
Sarnac IPA
Boston Lagas 40something IPA(maybe, pretty drunk already every time I had it)

tldr: Please recomend some IPA's full of flavor, more bitter than sweat, and on both ends of the price spectum if possible.

Thanks A Lot, Hope to get to know everyone here.
Dale

 

All I can say at the moment is wow. I refreshed the page an hour later thinking maybe one or two replies, but this forum is a lot more active than I would have guessed. (Good for me haha)

First off for the sweat vs sweet, I meant sweet.

So just for a small update, and to add on what I posted earlier, tonight I have had:
Double Daddy Speak Easy (San Francisco), too sweat for my liking
Hop Stoopid Ale, To "Grassy" tasting to me
Weyerbacher Simcoe IPA, Doesn't seem like an IPA, more like a dark heavy beer
Three Heads Brew - Best out of the 4 from tonight
-Bought the larger bottles that are around 22oz a piece, so feeling pretty relaxed now.

Like I stated before, for anyone that hasn't heard of half-time, this one beer store in my area is amazing, its like a candy store for adults. They claim to have the worlds largest selection, and I'm inclined to believe it. They have isles separated from what country it came from, and a duel isle of US micro brews. You can buy everything by a single bottle, 6 pack, 12 pack, or case, so first time I just walked through the micro brew isle and picked up 12 different ones that either said IPA or Pale Ale, not realizing there was a difference at the time of buying them. So I drank all 12 in one night, and took pictures with my phone of the 2 I liked the best so I could remember the next day. (The army pretty much produces alcoholics, but the bank account doesn't always like to agree.) Today when I went back through, I asked one of the guys working there to pick out some of the hoppyest ones for me to try, but now realizing I'm looking for more of the strongest bitter flavors.

So from previous posts here (which thanks a lot everyone) here is the list of the next taste testing round:
Ballast Point Sculpin
Great Divide Titan
Hercules
SN Bigfoot Barleywine
Smuttynose Finestkind
Ithica's Flower Power IPA
Firestone Walker's Union Jack
And the road trip that silent jay recommended.

So anyone who wants to chime in and edit this list is more then welcome to. I have learned that I like IPA's with a very strong and bittery flavor. I'm basically looking for one of each on a top end and a cheap end depending on how much money I have at the time, after all, I am a broke ass college student.

@aasher, if it aint dangerous, whats the point?

And to 4ballance, thank you so much on behalf of everyone I served with for your support. I personally don't feel that the support that we are given nowadays is equivalent to the support that our Vietnam vets should have received, but that is a whole other discussion.