The Lupulin Shift

I don't drink IPA's more than any other style of beer, so I doubt it.

 

If anything I've just started drinking less bitter beers. IPAs from Trillium, Tree House, and Hill Farmstead are pretty mild on the bitterness scale.

 

Its not just bitterness, although that may be most noticeable. Your ability to pick up aromas and flavors can vary from day to day based on what you've had to eat and/or drink, and when, earlier in the day. In fact one can have a six pack where all six bottles were filled at basically the same time from the same batch of beer, and experience variability from day to day. (This Sixpoint Bengali in my glass right now has more hop flavors with sweet malt backbone that the one two nights ago where the bitterness showed more, and they came from the same box.) And certainly if one beer follows another the perception of the second is influenced by the first. (This is actually what makes it amusing to some of us when people on this site ask if they changed the recipe for beer X from last year because it doesn't taste same as it used to... )

Don't let it worry you too much as what you are experiencing is perfectly normal but lots of folks just never really notice it is happening to them. This is one reason why, if I have the option, I'll typically review the 3rd bottle from a six or 4 pack--experience before, review, experience after.

 

Absolutely. I remember when I was 22, I tried Lagunitas IPA by accident and thought it was horrifying. My friends and I could barely get through the pitcher. Nowadays, I can think of few beers I love more than Hoptologist, Vendetta, fresh Squeezed, Li'l Sumpin, and Easy Jack.

 

Lupulin Shift. That's the one I work. And I love shift work....

 

Or you could be at Ruusian River for the 5th ot 6th time and say PTE has been dumbed down! I am only getting bitterness! You wife says no, it is a Simcoe beer full of Cat Pee. The next morning you have blood in the snot, and now realize your sinuses are totally screwed for a few days. It happens.

 

I was weaned on hoppy beer. 45 years ago, at least 90% of the beer I drank was IPA. As more and more of them started becoming available in the years that followed, I sought them out and they were still a preference.
THEN I got my first tastes of Traquair House Ale, McEwan's Scotch Ale, and Samichluas...and I started to dramatically shift in the opposite direction, appreciating malt forward beers more and more.
I do still love IPA (especially homebrewed and properly aged), but also enjoy two or three commercial ones (though I find most commercial ones to be one-note and lame).
But overall, my preferences have definitely shifted now to an even split between the hoppy and the malty. A well balanced malt forward beer demonstrates some real brewing skill. Hop bombs are easy.

 

I'd imagine that "hoppiness" could be limitless in a beer, but we as humans may not be able to taste or smell it beyond a certain threshold. If someone else knows any scientific data or theory supporting this or negating this, please feel free to share!

 

IPAs and hops in general aren't even that bitter compared to other foods. I just got some Assam from the plantation Doomni, and after only 90 seconds steeping at 212F it was 10x more bitter than any beer I've had. Maybe people can grow to like hops, but shit can get more bitter. Go drink something with quinine.

 

Call it whatever you want but it seems real. Just like anything we get used to that flavor. I remember when I thought bourbon was too boozy, when hot sauce was too spicy, coffee was too acidic. Now I love bourbon and drink it neat, use enough peppers to make my head sweat and drink the darkest roastest coffee black.

 

Lupulin shift? No, mine's an automatic.

 

The data support you. Above a certain intensity level the difference makes no difference in what you taste. However "happiness" is limited by the how much of the chemicals involved can be desolved into the liquid and throwing in more also loses its effects.

 

True for many of us, but not what is meant by the Lupulin Shift as originally intended by the man who coined the term.

 

It does have a lot to do with genetics. There is a sensory test in which the panelist is exposed to a bitter compound called PROP. For some people (supertasters), this compound is incredibly bitter and almost intolerable at certain levels. For others, they may not perceive bitterness at the same level that would make a 'supertaster' cringe. This genetic predisposition has a lot to do with the flavors that some people prefer over others; including things like hop bitterness and spice tolerance.

 

...having gone through this procedure myself, and knowing that I am predisposed to perceive bitterness at a high level, I tend to prefer an ibu range of around 60 to 70, with a focus more on tropical hops rather than piney/bitter.

 

I found myself going through the same evolution (well, except for the bourbon). MY taste in coffee has evolved to the darkest ,smokiest flavors I can find. I used to not like spicy food and now love it. It took me a while to get into really hoppy beer and now it is my favorite style. But I do love this time of year when my tastes seem to turn to darker, more malt forward, beer. It seems to help reset my taste buds to continue to enjoy the IPAs that I've liked without needing to search out even hoppier beers.

 

http://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324392804578362833147151480

 

Very cool article!

I shift after an IPA or two, then the idea of drinking an ESB makes me laugh.

 

I always compared hop bitterness to spicy food. I wasn't raised eating a lot of spicy food but have since developed quite a taste for it. At first all I could taste was the heat, but over time spice becomes less intense and the underlying flavors of the peppers/spice become more prominent. The same has been true for me with respect to hoppy beers. When I first started drinking DIPAs all I could taste was the bitterness but over time the bitterness seems less pronounced and I have more appreciation for the underlying hop flavors.