You Californians sure like hops

I find this somewhat amusing (and sad) since the PNW has Engelberg Pils and Heater Allen. Reality Czech is quite nice, though. (I'm assuming that's the one on the CA list.)

 

Rofl. As ive mentioned before in many other posts there is an extra relaxation chemical in hops. Whenever i drink a fresher ipa where the essential oils are still in tact, i almost instantly feel it.

 

I will respectfully disagree. I love that stuff. And while we're on the subject Odell IPA is awesome also. In fact, ODELL IS AWESOME.

 

I think this is probably the most telling statement you found here. There are so many incredible breweries doing incredible things with beer. Incredible! (It's incredible how often I use that word) Give a Californian something from Stone or Firestone-Walker and we'll tell you how it's the best example of the style (OK - so might some GABF/WBC/BJCP judges if we're talking about F-W, but I digress). I'm not saying that those breweries aren't incredible (really? again?), it's just that they have the added bonus of brand recognition.

My point is this: we are all subject to bias, and I believe that said bias leads to a greater "love" of IPAs from Californians... especially from a select handful of popular breweries. Californians do love hops, and we also know that people expect us to love hops. So when a Cali brewer from Santa Rosa puts out an incredible (somebody please buy me a thesaurus) IPA, we can't help but proclaim it to be the model example of the style.

 

A brown ale hits a different sort of spot than an IPA. With that note, I'm fresh out of IPAs over here.

 

I'll gladly help polish those off.

 

Ugh I know, us poor, poor RIGHT coasters...we only have Heady, 60-75-90-120 Minute, Burton Baton, Surly, Gubna, Deviant Dale's, Double Simcoe, Bengali Tiger, Resin, Hop Wallop, Exit 16, Flower Power...

 

As an SD hophead, I'll say that Sixpoint Resin and Bengali Tiger are two of my favorite east-of-Alpine, CA beers.

 

I think it's important to keep in mind that the OP didn't say anything about California (or the Northwest) brewing better hoppy beers... just that we seem to enjoy them more (with rankings used to validate the claim). There are a ton of great IPAs from the East Coast, Midwest and the South, and I don't think anybody here is arguing that there isn't. So, let's just all agree that Heady Topper is great, so is Hopslam and Bengali Tiger and Maharaja and Pliny the Elder and so on and let's get down to the real issue here: What's wrong with Californians' taste buds such that we crave hoppy beers? Too much Mexican food?

 

****take another sip of my glass of Durty******* Yup, yup you California guys sure are lucky to have those fine hoppy beers out there on the best coast, I sure am jealous, yup.

 

I've never really thought of Oskar Blue's as an IPA powerhouse.

 

Well, as you praise Odell, let me defend Oskar (a little). G'knight is my 2nd fav CO beer, after Dry Dock Double. #3 is probably Myrcenary. With Avery's base IPA #4. (I despise Maharaja.)
But this isn't a thread about CO beer- I apologize.

 

Yeah, sorry- you're right.
So, back on point, as a diehard SoCal hop *****, I must say that I'm a huge fan of 2 OR brewers: Deschutes and Caldera.

 

I think what's what's really notable about this is that EVERYBODY likes stouts.

 

Yeah, this got out of hand.

It's clear that California does produce more IPAs than our NW counterparts.

 

We just don't let most of our IPA's leave the NW ... as someone who runs a WA brewery, the idea of shipping beer to California.. or even Oregon... is sooo far off my radar it isn't even funny. We won't be spending any more cash to increase production capacity just to sell more wholesale beer 1,000 miles away. We don't believe it is prudent to be shipping beer out of state if there is even 1 single bar or consumer in Washington that cannot access our brews relatively easily. Besides, it is much more profitable for us to sell our beer in our Taproom by the pint or the growler than it is to sell it at distributor wholesale prices.

 

Neither did avery or odell.

 

Dad, you're drunk again. Go home.

 

And guess where all those hops come from! NW!