What's wrong with my palate???

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agentEhrman

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For a few months now, I have been noticing that I just can't find an IPA that's good enough. It seems none of them have a floral aroma anymore, the citrus is muted if detectable, and even the bittering seems off. I have been drinking tons of IPAs for a couple of years now at least, could I have desensitized myself to these hoppy gifts from our beer gods? Could that GF Palate Wrecker have actually wrecked my palate??

I just got off of a couple trips to regions where I was drinking different beers than normally available to me, many of them some of the most popular IPAs. Still, they just don't seem the same.

Has anyone else ever experienced such an unhoppy palate? I miss the good ole days when every IPA I tried was hop heaven goodness! I haven't really noticed any other changes in my palate, except maybe more gravity to spicy foods as well. But this has been going on for far longer than the IPA thing...

HELP! :eek:
 
Might be a good idea to lay off the IPAs for a while and come back after your palate recovers. It's possible to overwhelm your palate. As you age you lose sensitivity as well, which is why a lot of people find themselves eating spicier foods the older they get.
 
Take a week or so off from beer, let your palate recover.

Same thing happens when you smoke big flavored/bodied cigars, it overwhelms your palate and it takes a few days to be able to distinguish the finer flavors again
 
A week or so off beer? Are kidding me? If you told me right now, that it would fix everything, .... I would still have problems with it.

But seriously, I have been giving my palate the business I guess. It's worth a try, how about I start by laying off the hops 1st. No reason to quit the beer if I don't have too. :D
 
Check the dates on the bottles, maybe your drinking old IPA. If it's homebrew, how old are your hops and how are they stored?
 
You need to brew a Simcoe/Chinook bomb and drink it until symptoms go away. Good day.

:)

Funny that you say that, I literally have a simcoe/chinook bomb on tag right now. I was surprised it wasn't more piney. 7.5%, plenty of late editions and dry hop... Still expected more. It's actually CRAZY you said that!

:mug:
 
Check the dates on the bottles, maybe your drinking old IPA. If it's homebrew, how old are your hops and how are they stored?

Both homebrew and store bought. I have a vacuum sealer and dedicated freezer. :mad: I just want hop enjoyment back. I hope this never happens to anyone else here.
 
This may seem like a really stupid question but might the beers need to warm up a little/be less chilled??

The thinking behind that being that the summer is over and temps are falling. Maybe the fridge you keep beer in was dialed in for summer temps and cooling the beer down to lower than it had been for the last few months.

Errrrr, just realised you said this had been going on for the last few months. Ignore my dumb theory.:eek::drunk:
 
The solution for the Lupulin shift is to drink a keg of Pliny the Elder (or clone thereof) or other way over the top Imperial IPA. Go 8% and 200 (calculated) IBUs. Not much malt color, basically alcohol and hops. At least 11 oz. per 5 gallons. It tastes soooo good!

Then you are ready to lay off drinking for a couple of weeks, and start back up again with a woosey lager or wheat beer. Then a Pale Ale. Then a hoppy Pale Ale. Slowly build up again to an IIPA. Repeat.
 
I actually slowed down on drinking in general, but especially drinking IPAs. I recently cracked open one of my last few Pliny the Younger bottles and drank it at ~55F and it was AMAZING. It was better than when it was fresh, so I don't know if my palate recovered (because I had been drinking a lot of IPAs like you) or the beer improved. I think it was the former, honestly.
 
Funny that you say that, I literally have a simcoe/chinook bomb on tag right now. I was surprised it wasn't more piney. 7.5%, plenty of late editions and dry hop... Still expected more. It's actually CRAZY you said that!

:mug:

Wow.. yeah that is pretty weird. Sometimes the universe just makes sense!

:tank:
 
A week or so off beer? Are kidding me? If you told me right now, that it would fix everything, .... I would still have problems with it.

But seriously, I have been giving my palate the business I guess. It's worth a try, how about I start by laying off the hops 1st. No reason to quit the beer if I don't have too. :D

Yup, a week, more or less. It's informally called burn out; it happens when you smoke big cigars, and I'd wager it's the same with beer - your palate just gets overwhelmed with bold flavors and you gotta take a break to let things reset
 
Yup, a week, more or less. It's informally called burn out; it happens when you smoke big cigars, and I'd wager it's the same with beer - your palate just gets overwhelmed with bold flavors and you gotta take a break to let things reset


I made it a couple days drinking oktoberfest/stout/brown ales, hit a couple IPAs tonight and it wasn't long enough. This week is going to be tuff! Thanks for the positive encouragement!
 
It's certainly an odd problem to have. I am lucky enough to have a calibration point, but I do suffer from palate fatigue every now and again:

I have always been disappointed by my attempts to create an amazing American IPA because in my estimation, there are only two perfect IPAs, and they already exist. In fact, they are both made by the same brewery.
If I drink a Russian River IPA or a Blind Pig and don't experience a total mouthgasm, I know I need to take a week or two off of big hoppy beers to recalibrate. There are no more perfect IPAs than those, and this is coming from a guy who loves huge syrupy triple IPAs and big bitter bombs like Green Flash West Coast. Those are the gold standards, for me, when all is said and done. Bums me out that I'll never be able to craft as nice an IPA, though.
 
It's certainly an odd problem to have. I am lucky enough to have a calibration point, but I do suffer from palate fatigue every now and again:

I have always been disappointed by my attempts to create an amazing American IPA because in my estimation, there are only two perfect IPAs, and they already exist. In fact, they are both made by the same brewery.
If I drink a Russian River IPA or a Blind Pig and don't experience a total mouthgasm, I know I need to take a week or two off of big hoppy beers to recalibrate. There are no more perfect IPAs than those, and this is coming from a guy who loves huge syrupy triple IPAs and big bitter bombs like Green Flash West Coast. Those are the gold standards, for me, when all is said and done. Bums me out that I'll never be able to craft as nice an IPA, though.

If you do all grain, it's not too hard to craft a Pliny the Elder clone that tastes identical to the original (except for fresher hops flavor). I try not to make it often, though, as with a keg of that it is just too tempting to do a "wee taste" every time you walk by the tap. Plus nothing else on tap tastes good after having Pliny......

BTW, anybody seen a good clone recipe for Blind Pig?
 
Do you smoke? Are you sick right now or have you been recently? What are you eating and drinking before you have an IPA? How often do you drink malty beers? Are the beers your drinking fresh or old? Have you been under a lot of stress lately? These are SOME of the many things that can throw off your palate. Try drinking a glass of water and eating some oyster crackers to cleanse your palate or drink some really malty beers. Then try drinking a good fresh IPA, this should help. And just to note, I put ground Ghost Pepper powder on almost all my food so the spicy foods aren't the culprit.
 
Do you smoke? Are you sick right now or have you been recently? What are you eating and drinking before you have an IPA? How often do you drink malty beers? Are the beers your drinking fresh or old? Have you been under a lot of stress lately? These are SOME of the many things that can throw off your palate. Try drinking a glass of water and eating some oyster crackers to cleanse your palate or drink some really malty beers. Then try drinking a good fresh IPA, this should help. And just to note, I put ground Ghost Pepper powder on almost all my food so the spicy foods aren't the culprit.

Thanks for your response, I don't regularly smoke, I haven't been sick, I have tried mild and spicy foods with and before my IPAs, I've had fresh brewed hop bombs as well as questionable bottles, no more stress than normal :drunk:. Ihave also tried cleansing my palate but not really had any favorable results. :/
 
I wanted to come back and update everyone who might be still interested..

It's been near impossible to completely stop drinking hop bombs, but I have certainly cut down. If I hadn't gotten a bunch of new stuff after a trip, it might have been easier to not drink them. The bottles of russian river Pliney clearly state to drink the ASAP, ;). Anyways, I feel like I have made slight progress, very slight. But I have still been drinking a few IPAs a week, if not more. Once my fridge is cleared of the preciously hopped, ever deteriorating goodness... I will be sure to report back after taking a real week of two off of my hop addiction. I have my fingers crossed it will help.
 
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