180 on IPAs

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McMalty

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Ok, so i've been drinking beer for a long time (not always good beer, but none the less), and IPAs were always my last choice. Not only that, but i had contempt towards what i thought was a national community that was just hopping on the next fad. To me, hoppiness was not a desire, it was a nuisance. I wanted to taste a lot of malt in my beer, not all the bitterness (which is typical of many american style brews). Well as it turns out, my palette was just not yet refined. The reason I didn't enjoy IPAs previously was the same reason kids don't enjoy hot wings. The turning point was Lagunitas Undercover Investigator Shutdown (and every other Lagunitas brew since then), it's a very balanced brew (and it's not an IPA btw), so you can appreciate the sweet maltiness with the hoppiness. From there, the spark started a fire. Now 3/4 of the beers in my fridge are IPAs. I enjoy my stouts and porters just as much as i ever did, but my world has opened up with the addition of IPAs. Sometimes I just crave that sweet hoppiness that makes u feel like ur actually drinking something. So I strongly encourage all the IPA haters out there to venture off into higher IBU brews.....(pretty much anything Lagunitas makes), b/c you might figure out something you've been missing all along.

For all the people like me, what was the brew that turned you...or at least put you in that particular direction?
 
Ahh the good 'ol Lupulin Shift, welcome to the club brother. Your story is how it works out for a lot of people. I personally used to think Sierra Nevada Pale Ale was a touch too bitter, and now I can drink a 100+ IBU IPA and love every sip.
 
Terrapin's India Brown Ale is what turned me around. Had all the malt of a brown, but got me appreciating hop flavor and bitterness. You're now open to a whole new area of beers.

Interestingly enough, my palette went from all malty, to very hoppy, and now I'm all about sours.
 
Ahh the good 'ol Lupulin Shift, welcome to the club brother. Your story is how it works out for a lot of people. I personally used to think Sierra Nevada Pale Ale was a touch too bitter, and now I can drink a 100+ IBU IPA and love every sip.

....yeah....SNPA used to be way to bitter for me...now it's more or less a 4th beer (a beer i drink once i drink 3 good beers and don't really care as much about the taste of the 4th)
 
I was basically thrown in the bitter end of the beer pool, so to speak. I first became interested in craft beer after I moved to San Diego about 7 years ago. One day my landlord/roommate saw that I had stuff like Stone IPA, Red Stripe and Gordon Biersch in the fridge (being the only "decent" stuff I could find at the local Albertson's), and he asks if I knew that I lived about 10 minutes away from Stone Brewery.

Needless to say, the open patio became my weekend hangout rather quickly, and my craving for all things hoppy & mouth-puckering increased a hundred fold.
 
Short's Liberator.

i don't care what anyone says, i'd take a Short's over a Bell's any day.

you michiganians take your beer for granted, i tell ya!
 
I have always enjoyed IPAs much more on tap at the pub than at home from a bottle. Not sure why that is but the bitterness just seems smoother on tap.
 
Ok, so i've been drinking beer for a long time (not always good beer, but none the less), and IPAs were always my last choice. Not only that, but i had contempt towards what i thought was a national community that was just hopping on the next fad. To me, hoppiness was not a desire, it was a nuisance. I wanted to taste a lot of malt in my beer, not all the bitterness (which is typical of many american style brews). Well as it turns out, my palette was just not yet refined. The reason I didn't enjoy IPAs previously was the same reason kids don't enjoy hot wings. The turning point was Lagunitas Undercover Investigator Shutdown (and every other Lagunitas brew since then), it's a very balanced brew (and it's not an IPA btw), so you can appreciate the sweet maltiness with the hoppiness. From there, the spark started a fire. Now 3/4 of the beers in my fridge are IPAs. I enjoy my stouts and porters just as much as i ever did, but my world has opened up with the addition of IPAs. Sometimes I just crave that sweet hoppiness that makes u feel like ur actually drinking something. So I strongly encourage all the IPA haters out there to venture off into higher IBU brews.....(pretty much anything Lagunitas makes), b/c you might figure out something you've been missing all along.

For all the people like me, what was the brew that turned you...or at least put you in that particular direction?

+1

I moved into IPA bombs and now I have really been experimenting with large hop additions for flavor & aroma with moderate bittering. I love the citrus smells as much as the bittering.
 
brewski08 said:
you michiganians take your beer for granted, i tell ya!

Indeed. When I was in Michigan last summer, we stopped at a liquor store on our way out and picked up as much beer as we could fit in the car with all of our stuff and our two dogs. It wasn't enough.
 
Widmer Broken Halo.

But at first, when I got interested in beer, it was because of novel yeast-derived characteristics, especially the POF-positive (Belgian, weizen) ones. Broken Halo and Stone IPA being available at the corner store pushed me into a hop kick.

I'm still in a noble hops phase, but it's slumping into a wafery-decoction-maltiness obsession.
 
I hated PAs and IPAs for the longest time. Someone brought a case of SNPA to a BBQ we had at the house and that day I wasn't much of a fan of it. About 6 months later I realized I still had half of the case left and I tossed a couple in the fridge. For whatever reason that first one I poured was like sweet nectar of the gods. That set me off on a tasting spree of every PA and IPA I could find. For my birthday my wife surprised me with a trip up to Santa Rosa to hit up Russian River when they had Younger on tap. From that first SNPA until now I have definitely gone through a Lupulin Threshold Shift, just like RR's marketing says.
 
I too have been making the shift. Hopslam was the first big hoppy beer that I actually loved. Now I like them all!
 
I came to IPAs through high IBU stouts, and barleywines. I started my craft beer craze hating huge number's of world class IPAs so i layed off them for a couple of months and jumped straight in to everything dark. Luckily the friend i started drinking craft beer with was a near instant hop head, so there was always one around for me to take a sip of. Eventually my palate developed to the point where i can handle the biggest, baddest, hop bombs around. It talks time like any other good thing in life.
 
I grew up a hop head. My dad always had snpa on hand at all times. He would always pour me a sip or two when i asked for some of it. So i never not knew a love for hoppy beers. Converesly its been a long and slow shift towards appreciating maltier beers for me over the years.
 
The first time I had an IPA, I didn't really like it it at all, but some some odd reason, I was craving one a few days later. I liked the next one I had and have been a hophead ever since
 
When I first got into brewing my train of thought was narrow minded as to what I was attempting to accomplish. I then started sampling every different ale I could find at the stores in research for different things to brew. To start, I hated bitter IPAs. I still don't like crazy bitterness, but have grown very found of hop flavor and aroma. My palate is tuned into the difference between plain bitterness and flavor, especially with "c" hops. I can enjoy pales and IPA's now better than ever...and understand why I like or dislike it.
 
Short's Liberator.

i don't care what anyone says, i'd take a Short's over a Bell's any day.

you michiganians take your beer for granted, i tell ya!

Nope we just have it good while others in our country have it not soooooooooo goood :). Shorts, Bells, my favorite Founders, Arcadia, Dragonmead, and the list goes on.
 
Not a fan of the Shorts I've had. They have a few good ones, but a lot of what I've seen lately are just flavors I'm not fond of. Plus, taking the label off their bottles is practically impossible!

Bells just has better hoppy beers IMO, while Founders rules the dark ales.

Looking to pop open a Hopslam tonight, with maybe just a hint of bourbon added for variety. I think hopslam is a good beer to try if you are interested in hop flavor, but don't' want a harshly bitter IIPA.
 
Not a fan of the Shorts I've had. They have a few good ones, but a lot of what I've seen lately are just flavors I'm not fond of. Plus, taking the label off their bottles is practically impossible!

Bells just has better hoppy beers IMO, while Founders rules the dark ales.

Looking to pop open a Hopslam tonight, with maybe just a hint of bourbon added for variety. I think hopslam is a good beer to try if you are interested in hop flavor, but don't' want a harshly bitter IIPA.

I agree. I find Short's fairly inconsistent, with their standard beers being pretty good (when not infected). The best is to have them on tap at the brewery. Founders is great, but Bells has better variety.

My favorite Michigan brewery is Jolly Pumpkin, though.
 
I have had good brews from shorts and some that were awful. I have never had a bad beer from Founders nor from Bells. Anyone who is just diving into hoppy should take homercidal's advice and give hopslam a try. It is an extremely well balanced brew with just the right amount of bitter and hop flavor to balance out the extreme malt bill. It is a perfect brew.
 
I agree. I find Short's fairly inconsistent, with their standard beers being pretty good (when not infected). The best is to have them on tap at the brewery. Founders is great, but Bells has better variety.

My favorite Michigan brewery is Jolly Pumpkin, though.

I actually went to JP after a Michigan football game and I found their beers to be kind of gross (I am not a fan of tart or sour stuff). But we walked down to Arbor Brewing and I loved all of their beers!

To each their own I guess. JP is highly respected for what they do.
 
Being on Long Island, my first introduction to a real IPA was Blue Point's Hoptical Illusion.

We were on our way to see Stone Temple Pilots at Jones Beach, and we stopped at the beer distro. I didn't want a BMC six pack, and I didn't want the thicker, heavier craft beers that I enjoyed so much, so I tried the Hoptical...why not? I love Blue Point toasted lager, how bad could this be? I was so unprepared for the hopiness, that at first I was a little put off, but as I had a few more, it all began to make sense in that parking lot in the summertime.
 
Homercidal said:
I actually went to JP after a Michigan football game and I found their beers to be kind of gross (I am not a fan of tart or sour stuff). But we walked down to Arbor Brewing and I loved all of their beers!

To each their own I guess. JP is highly respected for what they do.

Oh how I love Ann Arbor.

Was there over winter break. Stopped by Grizzly Pink and had some great beers!

Great brews in Ann Arbor I tell ya.
 
When I was young, I was into the maltier brews, like a good marzen. But I had a czech pils in a brew pub once that I thought would be similar to a czech light marzen. Nice suprise found with those saaz hops.

That was many moons ago. I've gone to liking hops less bitter, piney and grassy, and more to the citrus nowadays. And big bitter is not as important as the essence of the oils that flavoring hops add.

I'll still drink anything hoppy though.
 
Bell's two-hearted did it for me; Stone's Ruination cememted the deal. Now when I brew a Cream Ale I wonder what I did wrong to make it taste so bland :p
 
Ive always enjoyed IPAs for the aroma and bitterness of hops, even while party drinking in college. But when I first tried Hopslam 4 years ago, I was completely hooked on finding extreme hoppy beers.


I just tried Green Flash's Palate Wrecker lastnight. WOW! Definately takes hoppiness to another level. Mashed and sparged with hopped wort. Then heavily hopped. Might have to go get another :D
 
Short's Liberator.

i don't care what anyone says, i'd take a Short's over a Bell's any day.

you michiganians take your beer for granted, i tell ya!

Agreed on the Shorts vs Bells. It's not that I dislike Bells in anyway, but with Shorts, Founders, and Jolly Pumpkin all available whenever needed... Bells is one of my last picks anymore.
 
I'm not into extremely hoppy beers, but I like hop flavor a lot. The first beer to really do it for me was Sam Adams Noble Pils. Not an IPA and not that bitter (34 IBU) but the hops are the main flavor component, and it was the first beer I liked that was hop-forward in flavor.
 
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