OK, I'll admit it. I will probably never brew an IPA.

In my time brewing, I have not once been tempted to make an IPA. Now, don't get me wrong. Sometimes when I'm out, I see an IPA or IIPA on the beer menu and it just hits the spot. (Not often, bu occasionally.) But when I think of what I want every day when I get home from work, an IPA just ain't it. APAs and relatively hoppy beers are definitely in my rotation, but no one could accuse me of being a hophead brewer.

Anybody else in the same camp? I understand the hop love, but it's just not me.

Not quite the same with IPAs, but I am not a fan of hefes and lagers. But hey, to each his own. We all got into the hobbie for the same reason, to make beer we like to drink and have a good variety in what we drink.

Never say never. I'm not really a hop head, but I go through all kinds of phases. For the past couple of months I've rotated through a few different IPAs (Fuggles, Centennial, next up Amarillo) along with my usual assortment of Belgians, malty Scottish brews, stouts, etc.

Id never had an American IPA before I made my own recipe to try it out. Its one of my best beers to date and makes a nice change to my English Bitter or Dry Stouts etc. I will definitely be making more in the future, just been playing around with a CDA (or whatever you prefer to call it) this morning. If you hardly ever are in the mood for an IPA then brewing one might not be worthwhile since the flavours will mellow reasonably quickly, however maybe you would prefer it then? Anyway, if your going to spend your time and hard earned money brewing beer you want to drink then you want something you enjoy. I just love beer so I am making everything I can think of.

I've certainly come to appreciate hops a whole lot more since beginning homebrewing, but I just find IPAs a bit much. Do people find them refreshing, or just love the flavor of hops?

A good APA, though...hot damn. I'm planning on brewing the Can You Brew It Pale 31 clone in the next few weeks. That has to be one of the best beers I've ever had.

A lot of people like American IPAs, and that's fine, everyone to their own tastes. It seems to be coming to a point though where people feel they need to apologise for not liking hop bombs. More hops does not make a beer better, it just makes it hoppier.

When i started brewing I always thought i would expand my horizons from bitter to all the other stuff. It still hasn't happened. I'll keep tinkering with my bitter recipes, and if I feel the need for something different once in a while, I'll just buy a commercial (For now at least)

I guess that's why this hobby is so swuft. If you don't want to brew an IPA, you don't have too. Next year there will be another beer that will seem that everyone is brewing. A while back it was RIS (which I felt the same way you do about IPAs). I believe the best part about this hobby is that we can brew what we want pretty much when we want.

I'm in the same boat as you. I do enjoy a good IPA/IIPA but it's not what I drink the most of. I brew what moves the fastest. I might end up making a small batch to supplement those times when I do get an IPA craving though...they can get expensive!

I used to be like that. I can still remember the first time someone gave me an IPA to drink. I thought it was nasty and couldn't understand how anyone would enjoy drinking something that bitter. But somehow I have come around to liking the hoppy beverages. I think it just takes some palette training.

In fact a female friend of mine who used to drink almost exclusively witbiers and the like (and got my wife drinking them as well) has now slowly come around and enjoys the hoppier pale ales and IPAs. Hopefully my wife will follow suit as well, since I really enjoy a good IPA at the end of a tough day.

weirdboy said:

I used to be like that. But somehow I have come around to liking the hoppy beverages. I think it just takes some palette training..

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See? Palette training? That implies that hoppier beers are better and that a poor palette can't enjoy the superior brew....It's all just a matter of personal taste, really. No training required.

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

See? Palette training? That implies that hoppier beers are better and that a poor palette can't enjoy the superior brew....It's all just a matter of personal taste, really. No training required.

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Well, I hated beer the first time I tried it, too. I don't mean to imply anything of the sort. I think it just takes time for your brain to adjust to the flavors if you're not used to them. Most native Japanese people I know can't eat spicy foods, because it's just not in their diet usually. But that doesn't keep expats here from enjoying the excellent Mexican food here in LA...it just takes a bit of adjusting.

I used to like only exclusively malty beers. Then I used to like only hoppy beers. Now I like all beers. I brew what I'm in the mood for at the time, which sometimes leads to beer sitting in the kegerator for a while. But I always have friends that are in the mood for MY beer - and that helps keep the hobby going!

For a long time I didn't like IPA's, but the more I brewed and the more beer I tasted, the more I got a craving for the lupulin! I swear it's addictive. In any case, a HUGE +1000 to all the "That's why we homebrew" posts. You brew what you like, no apologies necessary. The only beer style I can't stand is scottish ale. I just can't understand why folks like it so much. So, I don't brew it. But a lot of people love it, so they brew it. That's the point of this hobby! Congrats on coming to terms with what you really like!

I'm the opposite. 50-75% of the beers I brew are IPA's, with the other percentage being pale ales. IPA and APA are the only beers I can justify brewing because it's what I want to drink 95% of the time.

Its not that I don't like stouts, porters, hefe's, wits and everything else in the brewing spectrum, I just can't justify brewing it and having 2 cases of it sitting in my basement.

When I open the fridge to reach for a beer it's like there is a magnet pulling me toward the hoppy beers.

To each their own. Brew what you drink the most.

im in the same boat. i brewed an IPA that I thought was really good and entered it into a competition.

"Needs more hop flavor and aroma" say the judges... proof that it isn't my thing I guess. I'm all about malty german beers and big belgians mostly.

Some American IPAs have just gone too far in my opinion. I've drank a few IPA's over 80 IBU's that were super bitter beers, yet they were good. Theres nothing wrong with that. But alot of American IPA's have a harsh bitterness that I just don't understand why people drink them. To each their own though..

I barely drink commercial beers nowadays because everything is about hops and how much they can squeeze into a single bottle.

I won't be surprised at all when Dogfishead comes out with a 12oz bottle packed with whole hops and a little grain alcohol to "balance" it out.

No IPA's for me.

more hops for the rest of us

I wasn't very interested in hillier beers at first. But as I brewed more I would smell the hops as they went in to the boil. I started liking that smell in my beers. So, now I can enjoy all these hippy beers, but mostly I like a well balanced malty mellow dark beer. Not exactly sure of that style yet. Maybe a really mellow not too nutty or roast brown ale or Porter.

arturo7 said:

more hops for the rest of us

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+1

I just made two batches of IPA. Frankly it is by far my favorite style of beer, which some ways detracts from other beers. Kind of like a porter, you really can't follow up a style of beer after an IPA and enjoy it the way it should be enjoyed. However, anytime I am sampling beer I work my way towards the IPA, which kind of gives me the grand finale is coming feeling.

But to each their own, if everyone had the same tastes we would not have the awesome variety of so many great beers we have today. We are a blessed people

When I first got into this hobby my best friend, who had been brewing for almost 10 years, told me that it's inevitable that I will become a hop head. So far I am about 15 batches into my new hobby and I find that more times than not I am reducing the hops in my recipes. I have fallen in love with stouts, porters, and wheat beers. During the hot summer months some ales are definitely in order too. So I wouldn't let the hop bomb crowd put any peer pressure on you. As has been stated many times already in the post, just brew what you like and don't worry about it.

I will even take it one step further, I refuse to enter my beers in any competitions. The only judge I care about is me. And in case you were wondering (and I'm sure that you were) there are only two places in my personal judging competitions. 1st place - filtered through the liver, 2nd place - flushed down the toilet.

IPA's until the day i die :rockin: hops are a gift from the gods, imo...

I'm with ya. Not a big fan of IPAs, so I guess I'm not a hophead. But I do like a HUGE hop nose.

Originally i wasn't a big iPA fan but that has changed, although I have yet to brew one but that will be changing soon also:rockin:

GRHunter said:

When I first got into this hobby my best friend, who had been brewing for almost 10 years, told me that it's inevitable that I will become a hop head. So far I am about 15 batches into my new hobby and I find that more times than not I am reducing the hops in my recipes. I have fallen in love with stouts, porters, and wheat beers. During the hot summer months some ales are definitely in order too. So I wouldn't let the hop bomb crowd put any peer pressure on you. As has been stated many times already in the post, just brew what you like and don't worry about it.

I will even take it one step further, I refuse to enter my beers in any competitions. The only judge I care about is me. And in case you were wondering (and I'm sure that you were) there are only two places in my personal judging competitions. 1st place - filtered through the liver, 2nd place - flushed down the toilet.

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I think what you say is very common. when I started homebrewing 12 years ago, I felt almost exactly the same way. I first started out trying to brew German Hefe's and red ale's, then pale ales and kolsch's. I am now brewing a bunch of Pilsners with all kinds of yeasts, hops and temperature ranges looking for a balance between hoppiness and maltiness that (I) am happy with.
but since I began homebrewing, I have brewed practically every BJCP style in some version or another, except for Lambics and big belgians.

my point is, that when I started, I brewed from a very narrow mind set, that has gradually evolved and changed with my experiences, and I fully expect it to continue to evolve over time. I now enjoy a good IPA more than just about any other style and even my pale ales are much hoppier than the style guidelines. I agree we should all brew what we like, but I also believe we shouldnt forget why we do this, to enjoy ourselves and drink our own beer.
I wouldnt be pressured into brewing anything I didnt like though!
Brew on Brothers!

Bubba_Mustafa said:

I'm with ya. Not a big fan of IPAs, so I guess I'm not a hophead. But I do like a HUGE hop nose.

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Actually, I think I agree with this one. Brewing has completely opened up my eyes (or nose, rather) to the wonders of well-designed hop aroma. I moved from New York to L.A. a while back--before I got into brewing--and was back in NYC recently for work. I had a draft Brooklyn Lager for the first time in quite a while and was blown away by the aroma. Just so pleasing. I never would have noticed--or appreciated--that in the same way before.

There's nothing wrong with liberal doses of hops in beers, but.....

I can't sanction the more=better=bigger=better=more excessive compulsive american mindset. Fins were great on cars, up until 1959 when the Cadillac was just ridiculous.

In the beer world we (american big brewers) went Light, and Lite and lighter and then Ice Brewed (lighter and drier still) and now we are Ultra and 54 or whatever at the same time there is "Sink the Bismark" at 41 %abv (not american, but influenced by our extreme beer culture), Utopias, and experimenting with various ingredients and thermolupelin fusion (l should trademark that). There are two pendulums in the beer world and they have seemingly swung so far out, that they may just stay there a while. To each their own, but.....fads do come and go.

I personally will stay in the malty middle, and occasionally enjoy an IPA (or a light beer).

I was thinking the very same thing, but then it hit me, I can brew an IPA and bottle it and forget about it. I may only drink 1 a week or less, but I could have have a whole year's worth of IPA, maybe even two or 3 in one batch. This could be a very interesting beer as it will evolve every month into a whole new flavour profile.

I love APA, but I really have never found an IPA I'd want to drink more than one of on an odd occasion.

Usually just way too much for me.

I also never liked IPA's or dreamed of making one, until I tried Stouds's double IPA. It was my awakening! Well, sort of. I went crazy sampling IPA's, and hated most of them. But, Stoudt and consequently Brooklyn Brewery's IPA have shown me the rarity of this gem.

I have an IPA brewing right now!!! My first all-grain batch too. So, well see how it comes out.

GRHunter said:

When I first got into this hobby my best friend, who had been brewing for almost 10 years, told me that it's inevitable that I will become a hop head. So far I am about 15 batches into my new hobby and I find that more times than not I am reducing the hops in my recipes. I have fallen in love with stouts, porters, and wheat beers. During the hot summer months some ales are definitely in order too. So I wouldn't let the hop bomb crowd put any peer pressure on you.

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I view it kind of like most kids are with spicy foods; they hate them as a child, then go through a "make it as hot as possible" phase often around college age, then eventually most people settle on wanting a balance most of the time with the occasional spicy craving.

I particularly like IPA much anymore. My friend and I did drink quite a lot of it summer 2008. He still drinks it constantly and I'm done with IPA's.

I like hops, but to me so many IPA's have little character other than hops.There are very few I will even drink commercially anymore.

I drink all beers (except for sours, and most wheats), and brew most of the style guidelines.

I still brew IPA/APA most of the time because that's what I drink daily. We just had a brewday get together, and a few people brought kegs. Yep, everybody brought IPAs. We had three IPAs on tap, with a few bottles of other beers. I'm not really into the high alcohol hop bombs, because they just aren't quaffable in the summer. But a lower ABV hoppy dry IPA goes down great, no matter the weather for me. I just love IPAs.

i love ipa's, also, but apa's are my normal. i prefer the 40-45 ibu range. i like all kinds of beer, though. oktoberfest and wit aging
doppelbock, porter, apa, st arnolds divine reserve #7 bottled
wit and dunkelweizen on tap
bavarian hefeweizen and oatmeal stout fermenting
vanilla porter on deck

i like them all

Ignoring IBU, I find the interpretive difference between APA and IPA to be a very fine line. For example, the https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/cascades-orange-pale-ale-84558/ uses like 6 ounces of cascades, its a literal hop-fiesta, much hoppier than even most IPAs you can find commercially, but the bitterness profile is low, putting it in the APA category.

I could have a whole year's worth of IPA, maybe even two or 3

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I had thought about the same thing (brewing a batch for my occasional hankering), but it is the fresh hop flavor and aroma that goes first, and this is what I actually like about the APA and AIPA styles, not necessarily the actual bitterness.....(and why I order/buy one occasionally).

I feel the same about many Belgian styles and other complex beers.....I don't really want to make 12 gallons (my normal batch size) of something that I don't want regularly and now that I can buy many styles in more than one location, I will succumb to purchase an occasional craving. It also makes sense to buy a sixer of bud when you want one rather than go through the effort of making a difficult beer that doesn't have a great shelf life.....

I have a similar thing, just with wheat and belgian style beers. I've tried them, but haven't gained the taste for them yet. I didn't really like IPA's much at first either, but the more craft beer I drank, the more my palette expanded and eventually I started to love the hops.

jdog188 said:

I also never liked IPA's or dreamed of making one, until I tried Stouds's double IPA. It was my awakening! Well, sort of. I went crazy sampling IPA's, and hated most of them. But, Stoudt and consequently Brooklyn Brewery's IPA have shown me the rarity of this gem.

I have an IPA brewing right now!!! My first all-grain batch too. So, well see how it comes out.

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same here, never cared much for IPA's until I had a Brooklyn Brewery IPA and Flying Fish Hopfish.

Before I started to brew, I really did not like hoppy beers. I loved brown ales, stouts, porters, etc. When I started brewing, I started picking up more and more commercial beers to get a good feel for different styles. Now I really enjoy hoppy beers. Not to say I dislike the previous beers, but I enjoy the bitter side of the spectrum better then the malty side these days.