What makes for a bad IPA?

A good brewer can pick up on anything in a beer....ANYTHING.

 

Whatever is used to make Gubna.

 

Too Dry. Too Bitter.

 

I'll never understand how people like Stone's IPA's. I tried RuinTen cuz I had recently gotten into IPA's and thought, this is supposed to be a highly rated IPA, so I'm sure I'll like it...wrong. The nose was really nice, but the taste was straight bitterness. I remembered liking the taste for a second or two and then getting straight lingering astringent bitterness. Taste is subjective, though, so if someone likes Stone's IPA's, I can't say they're wrong. I just won't ever have them. Oh, and to answer the OP's question, I feel that good IPA's have a nice balance of hops and malt.

 

Guess my other post was delete worthy for some reason but IPAs are no simple beer to speak of let alone brew.

A bad IPA will be unbalanced. Either towards the hops or towards the malt or towards the yeast.

A bad IPA will have a poor hop profile. Think of the overly bitter or too weak IPAs you've had.

A bad IPA will have a poor malt bill. Think of a watery malt bill or an overly ambitious Black IPA.

A bad IPA will have a poor yeast strain. Think of any Belgian IPA you've had and most IPAs with lager yeast.

 

Age, too much sweetness from malt, big alcohol presence.

 

Onion/garlic profiles.

 

Alexander keiths... you Canadians know what I'm talking about eh

 

For me, it tends to be a bitterness/balancing issue. IPAs that I find too bitter I often don't enjoy quite as much. I especially hate when a beer seems to taste bitter, but not have much flavor outside of that.

 

It used to be WAY better...it's a shell of it's former self....Oskar Blues is so damned good, but it is the black sheep of their IPA family to be sure. Oskar the G'rauch on the other hand....

 

You are my bizarro hop palate. Those are my favorite hops. The only one missing is Citra but who doesn't like citra????

 

When they're overly bitter with no flavor to back them up. Perfect example is Breckenridge Lucky U IPA.

 

Shouldn't taste any alcohol in an ipa.

 

I also don't like it when there's nothing but citrus. I love me some grapefruit and pineapple like flavors in an IPA.

 

I'm guessing you were being a bit facetious, but in a sense I'll agree with that. Not bitter enough/cloying is as bad in my book as being overly abrasively bitter without the malt to back it up. Like with all other beer styles, the well made ones will have their own harmony about them- flavors, bitterness, residual sugars, all working together.

 

A bad beer is one which has gone off or isn't like the brewer intended.
Otherwise, whether a beer is good or bad depends upon whether or not you like it.
IPA is of course the least understood and most misrepresented beer "style" on the planet but that's by the way.

 

I agree with some of the comments in this thread like "soap", "cloying", "astringent" and "french onion soup" (damn you summit hops) but I also think lots of people are wrongfully calling certain "takes" on IPA bad in this thread. Some IPA's are well balanced from a malt to bitterness standpoint, others aren't. Some are balanced from a bitterness to aroma standpoint, others aren't. Some are intentionally brewed with a bit more sweet caramel than others.

Having a personal preference with regards to these spectrums in particular is just that - a preference. It doesn't make examples brewed well to the other ends of those spectrums bad per say. In other words, there are good IPA's with a balanced malt to bitterness profile and there are bad IPA's with a balanced malt to bitterness profile. Same thing with bitterness vs. aroma and caramel vs. dry maltiness.

 

They work great in blends, but Simcoe is a little cat pissy, and Mosaic is a cousin to it, so it follows some similarities. Last night was my 1st all Amirilllo in Chasin Freshies, and it was ok, but not all that dominant a flavor. Love all Citra hop brews though. Most really great brews are blends, hard to get anything more than one dimensional with a single hop.

 

All good beers have one thing in common: a pretzel aftertaste (IMHO).

 

MALT BOMB, that is all