Seven Brides Brewing IPA

I really don't intend this to sound mean or dickish or anything, but if you're paying attention to IBUs (or ABV, or any other somewhat arbitrary beer measurement) you might be doing it wrong. Just my 2₵, which is worth exactly that.

To answer your question, I don't know the IBUs but Heady Topper was probably the most tongue-scouring hop bomb I've ever had. But not necessarily in an entirely good way, I'm afraid.

 

Beer Valley Leafer Maddness and Avery Maharaja come to mind as the most bitter I have had.

 

It's been a couple years since I've had that, but I agree. Ridiculously hoppy. In an unbalanced, one-note, palate-wrecking kind of way.

I haven't had Frankenlou's for a while either, but I recall it as another beer that's very hoppy yet not very remarkable.

I'm an unabashed hophead, but I've come to realize over the years that super tongue-bracingly hoppy does not always equal "good."

 

Victory Hop Wallop always strikes me as a absurdly bitter and unbalanced.

 

Didn't I read somewhere that, beyond a certain IBU threshold, a human palate can no longer distinguish the difference? With that said, the most palate-wrecking, one-note, harshly bitter beer I remember having was Moylan's Hopsickle. That was back when I was still using my IPA training wheels, though.

 

First one that come to mind is kind of an obvious choice, Palate Wrecker.

 

The thing about perceived bitterness is that it is dependent on the BU:GU ratio (that's bitterness units and gravity units). So relying on the IBU is not very useful in many cases.

For example, Founders Breakfast Stout and Founders Centennial IPA are both ~60IBU. The reason that FBS is a stout and not a Black IPA is because it has higher gravity which adds sweetness to balance out the IBUs.

Note that typically the GU is based on the OG of the beer, but due to factors like attenuation, fermentability, and the types of malt, even this is not a foolproof way to determine bitterness.

The Mad Alchemist has some great pages explaining this:
http://www.madalchemist.com/chart_bitterness_ratio.html

 

My main issue with Frankenlou's and Leafer Madness is it's nearly impossible to find fresh and the bottles/cans aren't dated. That beer is horrible when old.

 

Bitter Bitch from Astoria Brewing was probably the most noticeable "whoa," bitter/tannic beer I've had, BUT IBU can be deceiving.

An intensely sweet, malty beer with a high ABV can have a high IBU (Lots of hops + lots of malt to even it out + aging = high alcohol, sugar, and technically 90 IBU with no noticeable bitterness). Several breweries list "100+!" as the IBU, but at that point, I think it's just showing off... anything above 90 or so is probably undetectable. Im not sure if you can technically go above 100? (?) A blown palate is a blown palate after that.

So if I want something bitter=hoppy, I look for the 65-100 range in IBU. This has me curious to try that particular 7 Brides, though. IBU aside, sometimes you want a bitter hop bomb. Glad to hear the suggestions.

 

Stone Ruin-Ten just came out today for the second year in a row. Clicking in at 110 ibu. That's the biggest hop bomb, ibu monster I can remember.

 

I thought this IPA sucked, it takes more than just a huge smear of undefined hop flavor in the mouth to make a good IPA (in my opinion). It just had so much unidentifiable hop profile. Just had stones ruinten DIPA and that is probably the hoppiest I've ever had. Even when I burped it was intense citrusy hops, and at 10.8% it was HUGE