What makes for a bad IPA?

When it tastes like soap.

Or French onion soup.

 

I can describe a good IPA much better. For me a great balance between bitter and citrus. Its always nice when the taste matches the aroma.

 

Some bad ones I've had tasted musty, and they were fresh.

 

Not sure I would say Racer 5 is on the less hoppy end of IPAs... Hop Devil strikes a nice balance though.

Im not sure I can say a specific guideline as to what makes one bad as I like a variety of IPAs and their associated flavors, but I definitely know when I am having a bad one at the time I am drinking it. A common theme I can point out is the age of an IPA makes a huge difference in almost all cases.

 

A good IPA shreds your senses with a barage of fruit and honey sweet malt but it keeps you off balance with it's lack of balance and hop oil and resin that leave a sticky aftertaste that's full of flavor but that disappears on a dry palate. it's the pine and tart citrus that keeps you questioning and drinking. And it's the icy sugar like malt that keeps you feeling like a kid with some beer candy.

A bad one is loose. Bitter, maybe even has onion flavor. Has tastes that make you turn away in your palate and seek a reason that makes up for the taste in other aspects of the beer. It's not crisp, it's not clean or sharp. Muddled flavor. Drinks like juice rather than beer even if it's tart grapefruit juice. Shun loose company.

 

Age

 

If that post was a response to mine, I wasn't being sarcastic. I have come across both those issues in IPA's before. I think Hendrick's comment about some being "musty" is problably what I am referring to when I said soapy.

 

Lack of balance. I know there will be those who will disagree with this statement simply because I use the term, but it terms of the style and even more the individual beer, you cannot make a good beer without appropriate balance.
A beautiful hop profile can be a waste if paired with a subpar grain bill. It is all about flavors melding together and appropriate counterpoints.

I am not a fan of high levels of caramel malts in my IPA, I find them even more unappealing when paired with a strong pine flavor from the hops. Pair the same grain bill with a more tropical hop profile and you have a decent beer. That piney profile does better with a cleaner, more subtle malt flavor. You need to play to your strengths, the malt and hop profiles should enhance one another, not detract from the beer. A balance must be struck between the two to produce a solid offering.


Oh, and Belgian yeast tends to make for bad IPAs too.....

 

Well balanced.

 

The entire concept.

 

Lemon pledge?

 

When you put the beer in your mouth and you make an involuntary grimace.

 

Caramalt...yuck

 

An IPA that is either under attenuated or has too much crystal malt character. On the opposite spectrum, a beer that is so dry as to be not complex enough on the palate.

Interestingly enough, I'm not sure IPA can actually be "too bitter" if you're used to IPAs or Double IPAs, but it can be astringent. For example, Pliny the Elder has a theoretical IBU level that's beyond what will actually get into beer, but it doesn't drink "too bitter." My un-expert opinion is that I only really notice this in beers where the alcohol isn't hidden very well AND its really bitter; the effect is astringency.

 

My wife would say cat piss aroma, she does not like Simcoe or Citra IPAs.

I would say - vegetal, diacetyl, acetaldehyde, hot fusels, onion and garlic.

 

If first sip induces a gag reflex...

 

Lack of balance