I like IPAs and I’m secure enough to not be bothered by the mockery my basic brothers and I face online.
My perspective is that the “basic” people can’t wait to bring up how much they despise IPAs and without a single exception the reason is always “they’re just SO hoppy!!!”
I heard a real-world explanation about why IPAs are the most common and commonly-sought craft beer. Half the reasons are unflattering, but a few are valid.
- They’re harder to fuck up because the Hops covers every damn thing and is so forgiving. Ever heard a cooking show talk about how hard a perfect Filet Mignon is because you can’t hide behind anything and everyone knows what it should taste like? Ditto with a good red ale or even pilsner.
- Similarly, nobody is known for their signature Filet Mignon because (within reason) a filet is a filet. Ditto with most types of beers. IPAs give opportunity for a lot more variety. Which is why you have more breweries making them, and then more people consuming them. I go out of my way to find non-MGP whiskey because MGP whiskies all taste the damn same to me, and I usually find a couple unique bottles every year. I can respect someone who wants to try a totally new beer every week and just fall back on a few faves.
- Related again to #2. Beyond being “SO hoppy”, IPAs have more unique flavor profiles than all other beers combined. Different hops can net you notes of orange, lemon, grapefruit, or notes of the pith of one of those, or notes of the rind of one of those. Different amounts or processing of hops can give you different intensities of those. That’s a lot of flavor profiles from sweet to sour to bitter, all in the same category.
So I’m “basic” nowadays re: beer, and I despise IPAs because I literally cannot stand the bitter&pithy ones (esp Grapefruit Pith), and there’s no easy way to know what an IPA will taste like till you’ve paid for it and cracked it open. I also get reflux and nothing blows that shit out of the water like an IPA. There’s a hops shop down the street from me, but if I’m going to brew a beer (super rare, I usually make whiskey or mead) it’s gonna be something will a chill flavor profile.
there’s no way to know what an IPA will taste like before you crack it open
That’s why I like brewers that publish their hops. I’m the opposite of you, I live for the citrusy, fruity type of hops and despise the more traditional floral/piney strains. If I see simcoe on the bill I’ll go to bed sober, but if you’ve got Willamette or Cascade I’ll make tea from them.
This thing got really popular for some reason. It must be awful!
Those dudes are so basic the pic looks ai-generated.
- Hot Saucerman ( @dingus@lemmy.ml ) English25•9 months ago
IP-AI?
you seem racist
Ah, projecting our own thoughts onto others I see.
I’m German. I look down upon these pesants. The best beer is dark and unfiltered. Anything else cannot compare.
Canadian IPA is dark and unfiltered.
Dark beer is for winter and autumn. IPA is for spring, summer, and not going off on a sea voyage to the colonies.
Edit: also when I was in Germany I mostly drank white wine. Germany is the only country that produces palatable white wine, whereas good beer can be had in many countries.
Germany is the only country that produces palatable white wine
Wow wow wow, take it easy there, them are some fighting words.
We should aspire to be friends with all beers. Let us appreciate all styles for the unique qualities they bring to the table.
Except sours, those are gross
Vegans, PSL girls, IPA guys, furries, and anime nerds seem to be the most popular targets for boring, basic memes.
It’s the middle of Oktoberfest season, and you went with IPAs for this meme?
Not to mention, there’s literally pumpkin spice beer.
Well, they couldn’t go with Helles because it’s actually good.
Oktoberfest beers (Märzens) literally have carmel malts, they’re the Starbucks of beers.
I’ve never really considered hops to be an interesting flavor. It’s just… flat and bitter to me.
I truly don’t understand why so many people love IPAs, or try to sneak extreme hoppiness into other beer styles. (An IPA with fruit juice is not a saison! And a 70 IBU “kolsch” is a war crime!)
As a person who prefers the complex, bright and earthy flavors from grains and yeast, getting face-fucked at the end of every sip by a one-note weed pine cone is so disappointing.
one-note weed pine cone
Single greatest description of the taste of IPA I’ve ever read.
I truly don’t understand why so many people love IPAs
Flavor nuance. I don’t like hopsy beer myself, but there’s a LOT of different profiles out there. I’ve even found a few IPAs I liked.
As a person who prefers the complex, bright and earthy flavors from grains and yeast, getting face-fucked at the end of every sip by a one-note weed pine cone is so disappointing.
That I’ll agree with. Not a lot of drinkers respect the mashbill anymore.
I’m the opposite. I prefer a pale ale over an IPA, but recently I found hoppy larger and it is great. I find straight larger so tasteless most of the time.
Though if I am only drinking 1 or 2 beers for the night then I would choose a dark beer.
I don’t have a refined palette, and I like fairly hoppy beers. It has to have a good flavor to it though. If it’s made hoppy for the sake of IBUs, then it’s probably bad. Like joke hot sauces are disgusting, but there are some that are delicious but really painful for me to eat, even one bite.
Older IPA hops like cascade are great but only slightly hop heavy with their classic hop flavors. The hops used more recently (I think citra and mosaic?) have great flavors when pushed to high IBUs.
Hops have amazing range. Fuggles smell like dirt. Lemondrop has a strong citrus smell.
About half of beer variety is from hops. Unless your talking about Belgians. Then it’s all yeast.
While making my earlier comment, I actually looked it up to see if maybe there was something unusual about my perception of hops, but didn’t want to overload folks with info. It seems that some people are more sensitive to bitter tastes, such as those in hops, and some folks can’t taste them at all. It’s like if the whole cilantro/soap thing were less a dichotomy, and more of a spectrum. (And I’m one of the people to whom cilantro tastes like soap.)
That’s not to say I don’t recognize or value the contribution of hops to beer, but hops aren’t the primary driver of most beers flavor profile, nor should they be. In most beer styles, the bitterness of the hops are used to balance the sweetness of the malt so the beer doesn’t taste like syrup. This allows other flavors in the malt to come out, or flavors from the yeast to say hi.
For me it’s a very fine line. I think I’m more sensitive than the average person.
If the bitterness does more than balance, then it dominates all other flavors, including any flavors within the hops themselves. It’s just bitter, flat, and tastes like how bad weed smells.
I don’t believe it’s a matter of unrefined taste. I can talk to you all day about floral notes of lightly roasted grains, the heavier flavors of darker roasted malts, or what kind of funk a yeasty beer has.
But hops. Too much, and it’s just one flavor for me. I think the only time I’ve been able to enjoy a hop’s flavor was when I ate a fresh one on a brewery tour.
if it isnt brewed in a monestary in belgium whats even the point #notlikeotherguys
That’s pretty true. People are so passionate about having an ipa
Beer is great
You know what’s better?
Free beer!
Rage bait.
IPAs aren’t really seasonal? I always associate fall with Marzen style lagers for Oktoberfest, and big winter warmers like barleywine and sweet stouts.
cant get much else craft beer wise where i live.
i like a porter ale but theres only like one shop that does one.
Stouts are nice but guinness is overplayed. Brewdog have released a stout that seems to be doing well though, but i like variety
Something I should mention: I do like IPAs (not only IPA but they are tasty) and can find all 3 of the style of shirt in this weird AI looking stock image in my closet.
Soooooo…
…International Phonetic Alphabets?
If they weren’t so overplayed it wouldn’t be so bad, but every microbrew has like 3 IPAs, 2 dry-hopped pilsners, and a seasonal novelty that if you’re lucky is something noticably different like a wheat beer or a porter.
I brew my own and I basically the same spread. Ipa is just the base beer and everything else is a change of pace.
I brew my own as well, but I think I only brewed an IPA once or twice (I got black IPA once by accidentally being too liberal with my hop additions). Never saw the need for it since I can just head to my local beer store, throw a stone and hit an IPA.
I guess it’s about frequency since it’s our (my friend and I) main alcohol consumption. We make around 12L/week.
A new craft brewery opens, the beer list is 3 IPAs, a double hopped IPA, a triple, and a bowl of hops spritzed with bitrex.