What makes for a bad IPA?

Blech. My wife and I vacationed in Halifax this summer. I had an Alexander Keiths "IPA" the night after I had a Garrison Imperial IPA. Maybe the contrast made things all the worse, but that Keiths beer was terrible.

 

Honestly, about the worst characteristic an IPA can have for me is to be overly malty. Granted for my personal tastes, many of the IIPAs are much too malty for me...but I understand the whole brewing process and the need for more fermentables to increase alcohol. An unbalanced hop bomb is much less offensive than a malty IPA.

 

Astringent IPAs or ones with too much tobacco or leafy hop character, had my first single hop beer with Calypso in it last night, yuck.

 

What IPAs do you like? The reason I ask, I love me some Stones...

 

Had some in Germany, it made me sad & go back to drinking Pils

 

The things that usually make me think, "this is a bad IPA" are: too bitter, too boozy, not enough hops, or too much of the wrong kind of hops (I can't take the oniony stuff).

 

I don't like to taste the alcohol in my IPA's, so that would be a big strike against. In terms of flavor profile, there are some beers that I find "earthy", which is fine, but in bad cases becomes "muddy" and in extreme cases becomes "pond water". Maybe this is similar to the onion/garlic flavors that others pick up, but I like onion and garlic, so I have a hard time using those words to describe the flavor I get in such beers.

 

Recipe balance.
Age.
Served too cold.
Bad recipe, or a lazy brewer who ignores the fine print of things like hop acids.
Served too young. Some ipas just taste too rough if you push them too fast. Mellow!
Poor handling and maintenance of product; either at the brewery, or distro levels.

 

Too much malt, too heavy on the ABV!

 

Flower Power, Surly Furious, Alpine Pure Hoppiness, Duet, Nelson, 3 Floyds Permanent Funeral, and Pliny the Elder. Also, I forgot about Alesmith IPA. That one is really solid as well.

 

Been a while since I've any of those Love all the Alpine, Alesmith & Surly to be sure. I guess Furious this summer would've been the most recent. Must just something about the mixture of hops in play maybe for the Stone? To me it seems a little more citrusy than most of beers you mention. Every once in a while I come across one everyone loves & I'm left scratching my head. That's part of the fun of trying new stuff until you are staring at 5 beers left & wondering what the hell you're gonna cook with it...

 

Not enough malt to balance the hops, a good IPA should be both sweet and slightly bitter.

 

I haven't had Gubna since the recipe makeover, but it's gotta be an improvement. The original recipe had 2 features, Onion and Fish. It was terrible.

 

IMHO, the things a good IPA needs are: just the right amount of malt (not so much that it's sweet, not so little that all you taste is hops), a dry finish, and a couple different hop aspects. I get bored with IPAs that are just citrus-bitter bombs. I tend to like the pine and floral hops a bit better. Of the widely available IPAs my 2 favorites are Firestone Walker Union Jack and Stone IPA. But generally, I'll drink a fresh, local IPA over any of the big brands. There's good ones being made everywhere, so finding a local brew shouldn't be overly difficult for anyone in the USA these days.

 

when i think pine-sol would taste better. too much grapefruit is NOT a good thing either
Pine taste = bad
is not a sour, too much punker = too much grapefruit taste.
just my 2 cents.

 

I tend to not like IPA's that have any pronounced cystal malt. That's just me though. We have a local IPA in Spokane that has tons of crystal, and people buy the hell out of it.

 

if you're looking for balance in an American IPA - you're barking up the wrong tree.

old ipa's are a bad choice. I don't buy them if they're one month or older. I don't usually buy them if they don't have a date, but if I know they're fresh or new I'll try them. imo hops turn quickly.

old high abv ipa's DO NOT turn into barley wines. you can fool yourself but not me

certain hop varieties are a little on the grassy side. I don't usually prefer these.

 

Too sweet, too malty, one dimensional.

 

A bad IPA for me is age, I know that's a shocker right!
Also balance does have a factor. Along with under carbonated IPAs, that goes for almost all beers though. Inconsistency can make a IPA bad as well. Cheers.

 

Age & lack of hop forwardness.