Am I wrong?

I just don't know what it is, but I know I can homebrew better than half of the mircobrew bottles I buy. I just bought a 6 pack of Victory's Hop Devil IPA. Yes it is hoppy but no malt taste at all. My house IPA taste 100% better. I bought a 6 pack of SN Celebration Ale my Winterbrew is 100% better. The list goes on and on.

There are some really great beers out there that I can not compete with, but it seems as off late there are some really lame beers in the stores. Is it just me? Am I tanted?

Really hoppy ales & left coast IPAs especially do not have much of a shelf life. They get bitter in a weird way rather quickly. By the same token, once you start tuning recipes to your own tastes, you are on a slippery slope.

david_42 said:

Really hoppy ales & left coast IPAs especially do not have much of a shelf life. They get bitter in a weird way rather quickly. By the same token, once you start tuning recipes to your own tastes, you are on a slippery slope.

Click to expand...

This seems weird to me. Weren't IPA's originally brewed to survive the long travel from Britain to India?

Not trying to Challenge you David, it just seems odd to me. Maybe these brewers are doing something different or maybe the original IPA's didn't taste that good (compared to today's standards) after arriving at their destination.

Flyin' Lion said:

This seems weird to me. Weren't IPA's originally brewed to survive the long travel from Britain to India?

Not trying to Challenge you David, it just seems odd to me. Maybe these brewers are doing something different or maybe the original IPA's didn't taste that good (compared to today's standards) after arriving at their destination.

Click to expand...

Hops effectiveness as a perservative vs. hops retaining their hoppy goodness.

olllllo said:

Hops effectiveness as a perservative vs. hops retaining their hoppy goodness.

Click to expand...

These kegs of high gravity ale were dry hopped with several ounces, if not pounds, of the finest quality hops to help preserve them during a slow boat ride from England to India. The temps were not stable, the seas were rough and nobody racked the beer off the hops after a week or two.

If the beer wasn't good, I doubt the style would have survived long.

To the original poster: yes, we are all tainted... with good taste for good beer. It seems to me that there are a lot of breweries jumping on the microbrew band wagon, trying their hand at craft brewing and experimenting with different styles. With the recent interest in the US for *good* beer, the market appears to be flooded with all kinds of microbrews. Some are not that good and won't last long. Some are exceptional and stand out from the rest, but these are rare.