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What do you mean it’s only IPAs here?
Why there’s also Double IPAs, triple IPAs, quad IPAs, Imperial IPAs, every kind of fruit-infused IPAs, hazy IPAs, seasonal IPAs, limited edition IPAs, New England style IPA, West Coast Style IPAs, wheat IPAs, rye IPAs, oat IPAs, Session IPAs, red IPAs, and non-alcoholic IPAs.
And if none of that appeals to you we also have a limited edition seasonal dry-hopped pils that according to the menu tastes like an IPA.
You forgot Black IPA’s, which I unironically love and have an extremely difficult time finding compared to 5-10 years ago.
I remember Lakefront Brewery made one for a while. I don’t know if they still do.
Most probably none of those are proper IPAs. The ‘I’ in IPA stands for India. IPA is only half-done, if it did not travel on a sailboat around the Africa from England to India.
I’m pretty sure you’re kidding, but I downvoted just in case you’re not
Fair enough. I was kidding, but downvoting a joke that lame is well deserved.
Depends where you live. Areas with a smaller craft brew scene do end up with the “nothing but IPA” problem. But where I live in the PNW there’s simply so damn many that even with 50% of them being IPA’s, you still get a huge selection of other pilsners, stouts, amber ales, hefenweizens… its pretty nice.
About 10 years ago it was probably closer to 80% IPAs. It was a big joke here that IPA stands for I Pretend (I’m not an) Alcoholic.
The only reason there is more on the market now is because we all stopped pretending the taste of motor oil with grapefruit gave us a better buzz.
Even now, most breweries will only seem to offer 4 varieties of IPAs, a pilsner/lager and a stout. Maybe an Amber but I feel the Mac & Jack’s copycat scene has mostly died out now.
Live in Seattle and that’s not true. 95% of them are IPAs and I just want a good Blonde…
Same, except I want something like a bock or doppelbock.
Blondes are not completely uncommon here. They generally have one or something similar on tap at most bars/restaurants.
1 blonde and 47 IPAs that taste like compost. Ambers are good too amd Mack & Jack’s African Amber is a good beer to that I can usually find here.
An exaggeration but I do get your point. Bars should probably have maybe two IPAs (one hazy and one standard) and then a host of other beers styles. I’d love to come across more dark lagers personally but those are pretty rare even in places like Chuck’s Hop Shop
guh, blonde ale, really?
Or Ambers
Amber Ale is waaaaaay more complex and generally better than blonde ales imo… Do you like malt forward beers?
Yarp. Theres lots of good beers out there, but the vast majority are IPAs at the moment.
True. It does seem like it is more than 50% sometimes. Unforthcoming my taste buds are pretty burnt out from too many IPAs at this point. I used to love a wide range of beers but now basically stick to a hoppy-nonhoppy scale. I used to love Belgians and ambers and porters and all sorts of beers that were on the maltier side. Not really my jam anymore.
Fuck that, I love ipas. I had to live half if my life with bland lager and pilsner and nothing else. Ipas ftw
Same here. The limey taste of hops makes the beer for me, when I get a lighter beer I’m more often than not left disappointed, like I’m drinking bubbly water that’s been sitting in a pipe for 25 years. Craft IPAs on the other hand range from “meh it’s alright” to “this is amazing”.
I’ve always liked IPAs, and I’m probably going to continue to, but the style is kinda beat. They’re at a point now where they’re just doing the most nitpicky variations on the theme. Dry-hopped rather than wet? That’s a juicy IPA. Lactose back sweetening? Milkshake IPA. Ran out of finings and can’t clarify your beer? It’s not ruined, it’s haaaaaazy. Strong enough to black you out after three? Double IPA. After two? Imperial IPA. No stronger than the American light lagers you used to steal from your dad? Session IPA.
The point of IPAs was that they were full of huge, bold flavor in a market that was saturated by beers that were competing with one another to taste the most like a vodka soda and have the lowest calories (and therefore ABV) possible. They were the revolutionary vanguard of beer that tasted like beer. But now I can get all sorts of wild shit. Fruit sours, coffee/chocolate stouts, real pilseners that actually taste like beer, proper copper lagers, all sorts of amazing stuff. The era of the IPA being the only “real beer” has ended. I wish someone would tell the breweries.
Man, all those “wild things” you mention have existed for ages here in Belgium. IPAs are pretty much the new kid on the block. Weird how different our cultures are.
I love a real ass IPA, but like anything, after a while you get bored of the same old same old. Dabbled with seltzers for a hot minute, but I’m back to wine/cider mostly now. IPAs being so heavy feel more like Trappistes to me now: only during the winter.
Fair go. I really only brew ciders and seltzers nowadays but that’s mostly because they don’t have a cook step (and therefore don’t have a wort chilling step that’s a giant pain in the ass and a wonderful place for infection to creep in)
Do you mean you wish someone would tell the stores? You just said you can get all those other things, those would be coming from breweries.
No, I mean I wish someone would tell the breweries that they can pare it back to only seven different IPAs per season and instead invest more in different styles. I can get some wild shit because I’m fortunate to have one really good store about 20 minutes away but between being in PA with weird laws about who can sell booze, how strong it can be and how much they can sell and the relative glut of local brewers that are still in 2010 we could stand some work. Even moreso because the summer is winding down and I can already hear the thunderous sound of the Imperial Pumpkin Ales rolling in. “It’s 14% ABV! Put a caramel cinnamon rim on the glass and it might even taste like something!”
A lot of that stuff existed alongside IPAs like Dogfish Head for years. The explosion of IPAs in recent years coincides with the rise of Tree House Brewing, who may not have invented the New England IPA, but certainly mainstreamed it. At their second brewery, you’d see license plates from all over the country and you had to either show up 3 hours before opening or wait 3 hours in line. It was insanity. They were selling out every day at $15-20 a can back in 2014. They made stupid money, and their expansions since then will tell you all you need to know.
Anyway, within a year, the copycats started appearing, and that’s when the IPA craze really took off.
Can’t a man get a sour or two? Maybe some regional cider, if it’s not too much to ask?
You may, we have a space provisioned at the rear of the facility
Come to New England and have some Downeast. Don’t need any other cider after that.
Downeast is pretty dang good, give Ninepin a shot as well.
Meanwhile, in France, wine consumption is down due to craft beers to the point the government is going to spend 200 millions to prevent market crash.
Not being a beer drinker I have to ask: why the IPA craze? Aren’t lagers, stouts and whatever other beers an option for crafters?
Basically, despite all the vocal complaints, IPAs sell better.
I enjoy IPAs personally but it does get frustrating when you want something different.
I love an IPA but you need to have a pallet cleanser from time to time. I’m a big fan of ‘Purity Law’ beers, they tend to be predictable, mellow flavour, and light to medium alcohol content. Perfect for lawn mowing, BBQing, or working on the car.
Perfect for lawn mowing, BBQing, or working on the car.
Oh beautiful, for spacious skies…
sheds a tear
While not the cheapest, IPAs are relatively easy to make and extremely easy to iterate on. IPAs in general allow brewers to fine-tune flavors and thus pump out multiple novel flavors quickly in order to find a market. If you go the stout or lager route, there’s really only so much wiggle room as they’re mostly ‘solved’ beers; as in buyers know exactly what they want to taste, and you better deliver that taste. IPAs are also really, really easy to dial in alcohol content without giving up flavor, where as lagers like Budweiser can only lower alcohol content while lowering the overall taste profile, hence the term ‘piss water’ for low alcohol lagers.
At this point my taste buds are even burnt out on good IPAs (for those who accept such a premise as possible).
I’m lucky enough to see some good reds/stouts/etc come through a few times a year, but the ratio of IPA:Not is just ridiculous IMO.
yeah TBH I barely drink beer at all anymore because finding beers I like has gotten to be such a chore.
There’s some IPA’s I like but I don’t like drinking nothing but IPA’s every time I drink beer. And pretty much the only “mainstream” beer I spend money on is Modelo, but again, if I drink nothing but that all the time after a while I start to get tired of it.
If you haven’t tried it, Carlsburg Elephant is a seriously good pilsner that’s widely available.
Fun fact*: Carlsburg gave Niels Bohr a house with a tap straight from the brewery for winning the Nobel prize.
Edit: * maybe not a fact.
Move to Sweden, here you can’t buy a beer above 3.5% abv in a store. Anything above that you have to buy at the state owned liqueur store systembolaget. The upside is that they have a pretty good assortment. The store in my small town carry about 300 different beers. About a third is IPA.
Where I am in the states, you can’t buy any alcohol in a grocery store.
You guys have some confusing alcohol laws and customs that side of the pond. I was in Pennsylvania (amongst other places) a month ago and couldn’t find any alcohol in Walmart if my life depended on it. I knew from previous visits that Pennsylvania didn’t allow sale in grocery stores, but that has since changed hasn’t it?
Also sometimes beer was super expensive, and sometimes it was $1.25 for 25 fl oz for some brand I’d never heard of at a freaking gas station. They don’t alcohol in gas stations here in the Netherland, but even surrounding countries that do allow it usually have fairly high prices at gas stations.
Belgium is really the best place for beer in my opinion. There is a good variety of local/traditional styles but you can also get the more modern stuff
Also much cheaper there. And you have a lot of pubs to go to. And you can drink them when you’re 16.
Yeah, when I went there it was hella cheaper to get a beer with dinner than water.
I love IPAs. I t seems that the sour and gose fad is still going on, but IPAs are easy to produce and popular, so I don’t think they’re going anywhere anytime soon.
The biggest issue with IPAs is that the ratio of good IPA to bad is way too skewed in the bad direction.
I’ve been liking the NEPA’s (orange / citrus based)
Tried one sour and it was meh. Definitely a one beer type for me.
NE and hazy IPAs are where it’s at. A little bit of citrus and/or floral flavor to set off the bitter hops… Mmmm
If you’re into fruitier beers, you should try pairing a wheat beer with goat cheese. My GF and I had a fried goat cheese appetizer with jalapeno jelly and house brewed key lime gose few year ago. It was killer, and we said we needed to go back, but then quarantine, supply chain, yada yada, and here we are sitting at our computers.
On edit: changed “key goses” to key lime gose".
Oh yeah, love me some goat cheese and jalapeno jelly!
jesus christ gose, really? my wife is german and when she had a gose a few months ago she said it reminded her of her childhood (her parents would let her have some when she was like 13 and they’d order large bottle for the table w/ dinner)
Yeah, they started getting popular about 4 years ago and pretty much every US tap house has at least one these days.
I feel like this has changed a lot, actually. 8-10 years ago it was all IPAs, but now I can find all kinds of craft beer. Maybe it’s more of a west coast thing. I currently enjoy grabbing new Pilseners when I see them.
Lucky you. In the south east is just the typical big name brands and an unrelenting wall of pale ale, unless you go out of your way to a store that specializes in boutique beers
This is true for the NE as well, but greatly depends on population size. Rural beer stores don’t tend to have as much demand for newer, different things.
I just got into home brewing over the last year. The process is a lot easier than expected. You can yield about 5 gallons of beer for about $40, USD. The initial start up cost to get the gear wasn’t unreasonable either.
As a long time homebrewer, I’ll just warn everyone here. Don’t get into the hobby thinking you’ll save money. You won’t.
You have some pretty cheap ingredients. Beers I made were generally closer to $60.
Obviously different beers range in price, but most of the yeast and hops I have built up a stash on hand. Generally when I go to the store I only need the grains for the most part.
Don’t forget hard-everything.
Inversely, everything-Seltzer 😂
It’s almost Oktoberfest season! There will be lots of great non-IPA beers then!
What is this, 2012?
I thought, not so long ago, this was the same meme but with “pilsner” instead if “ipa” .
I guess things are a trend/popular for a reason.
I did a Sweet 16 bracket elimination contest for regional IPAs a few years back just to force myself to identify the ‘good’ ones and eliminate bad ones. Even after doing that, I do a little dance any time there’s something else available.