Wife is having a lupilin shift!?!?

Ok, my wife loves to drink wheat beers in the warm months and stouts in the cold months. This has been true for 2+ years. She will drink some of the most estery/phenolic wheat beers I have ever tried and stouts that even are a bit much for me but consistantly she will tell you "I do NOT like IPAs". She will try a sip from mine, normally wrinkle her face up and say something like "Still don't like them" or my favy "smells like cat pee and tastes like pine needles."

I have brewed and brought home MANY different IPAs and she has tried just about everyone with the same result including PTE original and clone so it is not for lack of exposure.

On Sunday night we went to a bar for the Packer game and some chicken wings. She was struggling with a beer selection and defaulted to an import wheat (Stout would not pair well with wings she thought and I agreed) and I wanted to try a NB Snowday. Not the hoppiest of IPA's or really high IBU's but it went well enough with my wings. Well, she had a taste and then made a face unlike I had ever seen before then proclaimed,"That is not bad at all!" and proceeded to order one and drank it. (I honestly expected her to give up a short way through it.)

There are a few clone recipies floating around and I now may have to make her something like that. She still has 12.5 gallons of penta chocolate stout she needs to drink...so it will be a little while. I actually wonder if by this time next year she if she will be wanting super hoppy ales...or if this is just a random anomoly?

I absolutely hated IPA's when I started brewing. Now I love them. Sometimes it's an acquired taste. Only bad thing is now you'll have to share your IPA's.

I also did not like IPAs when I started. Just checked my fridge and in it I have Celebration Ale, Torpedo, Yellow Snow IPA, 2-Hearted Ale and Acme IPA. Next brewday is 10 gallons of EdWort's IPA. I too have made the shift in only 2 years!

Welcome to the Dark Side.


We have hops.

I'm enjoying the hop shift in my wife as well. It just means that I can brew more of the beers I like to drink and have fewer of them be "me only" beers. I was the same way- I used to dislike extremely hoppy beers and wheats. Now I'm a hop head with a taste for all sorts of hefs and american wheat beers. Still working on the wits- something about the spicing that I don't care for. I'll get there though. Now if I could only get the wife into sours...

Count my wife in with a shift in her hop habits. She's not a huge beer drinker anyways, but when she wanted a beer, she'd always get Coors Light or something fruity like a Magic Hat #9. Everytime I had her try an IPA, she would always reply "too strong". I wasn't sure what that flavor description meant (alcohol, bitterness, hop flavor or what), but last spring I made a few lighter APA's that she seemed to enjoy. Over the past few months when she tries an IPA (mine or commercial), see seems to enjoy the really hoppy aroma/taste beers, but not anything with a lot of bitterness. Bitterness seems to be what she meant by "too strong". She had a Coors Light a few weeks ago and said it tasted dull. Looks like I'm converting a future hop head.

How old is your wife? If she isn't at least in her middle forties, she should probably see her doctor. Just joking. You said she TRIED all those IPAs - did she finish them? Flavorful beer sometimes has to be adjusted to before you really taste it, at least for me.

BrewMU said:

How old is your wife? If she isn't at least in her middle forties, she should probably see her doctor. Just joking. You said she TRIED all those IPAs - did she finish them? Flavorful beer sometimes has to be adjusted to before you really taste it, at least for me.

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My wife IS young, she is 8 years younger than me! When she "trys a beer" she takes 2 or 3 drinks from the glass so it is safe to assume she knows if she likes it or not by the time she hands it to me to finish for her, if needed. I will try again in a few days with a different IPA, I am thinking a New Glarus Black Top (I have a few stashed that need drank anyways.) and/or a Bell's Two Hearted...something hoppy but still very approachable.

This also is a huge pushing point for me to get some hop based personal care products from her (She makes home made soaps and such) I very well may end up with soap, shampoo, deodorant and lip balm that are all made/scented with hops. She keeps telling me she is going to do it but is just waiting for enough free time (post holiday season) to do it.

That's exactly what happened to Bob. His idea of a "hoppy beer" was Fat Squirrel.

He now thinks "Hopasaurus Rex" at Titletown could use a few more hops.

Zamial said:

This also is a huge pushing point for me to get some hop based personal care products from her (She makes home made soaps and such) I very well may end up with soap, shampoo, deodorant and lip balm that are all made/scented with hops. She keeps telling me she is going to do it but is just waiting for enough free time (post holiday season) to do it.

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This sounds awesome. A local charcuterie makes hop sausages with whole hops. I could live my life drinking, eating, washing and smelling like hops.

We found that my wife only likes certain IPAs, specifically those that don't have high bitterness, but have high flavor and aroma properties. I'll be doing a hop burst for her soon.

It's the spicy food that made the IPA taste a bit more mild.

Just have her eat more spicy things, she will drink the IPA's down like water.

usfmikeb said:

We found that my wife only likes certain IPAs, specifically those that don't have high bitterness, but have high flavor and aroma properties. I'll be doing a hop burst for her soon.

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This is what I think her deal is going to end up being as well. Which is fine by me as I am discovering I also like more flavor and aroma and less face imploding bitter.

I will try again in a few days with a different IPA, I am thinking a New Glarus Black Top (I have a few stashed that need drank anyways.) and/or a Bell's Two Hearted...something hoppy but still very approachable.
Can you get Firestone Walker Union Jack where you live? With all the IPAs out there, this one stands out - the hop flavor is crisp and sharp, but the bitterness isn't excessive. The imperial version, Double Jack, is awesome to - 9.5% alcohol, but abso-frakkin-lutely delicious.

Zamial said:

I wanted to try a NB Snowday. Not the hoppiest of IPA's or really high IBU's but it went well enough with my wings.

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wasn't aware Snow Day was an IPA. listed as an american black ale, and the bottles of snow day i had lived up to that.



*ducks*

Zamial said:

"smells like cat pee and tastes like pine needles."

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Haha that is priceless. Like others I didn't like hoppy beers when I started drinking craft beers. I liked...pretty much what your wife likes...wheat beers and stouts. I went to a bunch of beer tastings and every time I was like "why would somebody do this..." then one day I got home...and I craved hops

She'll probably get used to the bitterness first...then she'll start to say that other beers are flavorless and weak...and start saying that yours are better (that's what my wife started doing anyway)...it can be quite the morale booster :rockin:

My wife hates hoppy beers. When I tried Bells 2 hearted ale I thought I had found one she would like since it taste like fruit juice to me. No dice, she made the same face when she tried it and said "I don't like it". *sigh* some you just can't convert.

NordeastBrewer77 said:

wasn't aware Snow Day was an IPA. listed as an american black ale, and the bottles of snow day i had lived up to that.

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hahaha never had it in a bottle, mine were from the tap...

Homercidal said:

Welcome to the Dark Side.


We have hops.

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I live on the "Dark Side" drinking motly Porters, Stouts, and Black anything the year round.

Zamial said:

hahaha never had it in a bottle, mine were from the tap...

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really? that's interesting, i haven't tried it on tap yet. liked it, so if i see it, i will. is it really more of an IPA? in bottles it was quite dark and malty, albeit hoppy for what it was, but nothing approaching IPA or even APA. that'd be interesting if the tap version is that different.

"Pleasantly hoppy, Snow Day carries the subtle chocolate and caramel flavors of a new brewing malt known as Midnight Wheat. The Styrian Golding, Centennial and Cascade hops bring the backbone of hoppy bitterness to complement the roasty undertones. This beer is the deep garnet of a roasted walnut and presents a creamy tan head, floating artfully atop. Snow Day is bold and hoppy, drinkable and strong.
It reminds you to enjoy the unexpected."

but thats just what new belgium says on their site..... they may be wrong.

"Brewed by:
New Belgium Brewing
Colorado, United States

Style | ABV
American Black Ale | 6.20% ABV



Notes:
Winter. Serving types had: bottle (175), on-tap (13), growler (3). " -beer advocate

NordeastBrewer77 said:

really? that's interesting, i haven't tried it on tap yet. liked it, so if i see it, i will. is it really more of an IPA? in bottles it was quite dark and malty, albeit hoppy for what it was, but nothing approaching IPA or even APA. that'd be interesting if the tap version is that different.

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IMO it was more hoppy than anything. For someone that never read the label or any review on it, I thought it was yet another dark IPA but done more on the sessionable side. It is not so much that I am trying to make it out to be more than what it is but it is not far off from an IPA or IPA styled beer, it has 50 IBU so I am told, with most of it being late edition Centennial and Cascade and that does not make it sound less like an IPA to me...It is not my beer, so it is called an ADA from them so that is what I shall call it going forward... :cross:

when i think IPA, i think of something a bit more like O'Dell or Two Hearted. Snow Day is hoppy(ish) for a dark beer, but at 50 ibu it doesn't even approach ipa, especially considering the roast and nutty malt character. don't get me wrong, it's good beer and a nice seasonal for winter, but i think the reason someone who's a fan of roasty stouts and such would enjoy this is because of the dark malt character.
Are you familiar with Cascadian Dark ale (aka "american style india black ale *gasp*)? that's a very hop forward, but slightly roasty style. i think that would be something that could make bold hop flavor and bitterness accessible to a malty, roasty, dark beer lover.

Yooper said:

That's exactly what happened to Bob. His idea of a "hoppy beer" was Fat Squirrel.

He now thinks "Hopasaurus Rex" at Titletown could use a few more hops.

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Oh my God. I LOVE Hopasaurus Rex!! I could dive into the glass and just hang out like a happy little goldfish. Mmmmmmm, Hop Rex.

This happened with my friend's wife. Three years ago she hated IPAs. Now she's so used to drinking Founders Centennial that she doesn't really want much else besides IPAs. I think this happens with a lot of people, where they initially say they dislike a style, but grow to love it over time. This happened with me and coffee. What I don't get is getting stuck on the same style. Then again, if I could afford to always drink Jolly Pumpkin, I would probably be stuck on sour ales for life.

Wife tried Two Hearted again last night. Nope.

I still haven't made anything my wife will drink. She thinks recipes as low as BM's Cream of Three Crops is too bitter. I've tried fruit beers, apfelwine, nothing goes over. I wanted to get her to like beer so she would stop whining about my brewing so much. It seems like brewing is my hobby and whining about brewing is hers

Setesh said:

I still haven't made anything my wife will drink. She thinks recipes as low as BM's Cream of Three Crops is too bitter. I've tried fruit beers, apfelwine, nothing goes over. I wanted to get her to like beer so she would stop whining about my brewing so much. It seems like brewing is my hobby and whining about brewing is hers

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Wow a thread of mine was necroed. I feel honored.

My wife now drinks super hoppy beers and just about everything else. She does not like malty or smoked beers but will still try them. My 7 month old son LOVES the smell of hoppy beers. (No he doesn't get a taste yet.)

As for your wife maybe try to make a braggot, mead or wine. I am sure there has to be something you can make that she will like, unless she does not like alcohol.

OOOPS! I have no idea how I got to such an old thread either, I started on the todays posts page and opened all the pages I thought looked interesting in new tabs. Obviously I had an old tab open and didn't pay attention :smack:

Actually, you hit it on the head with wine. She loves Ice wine, and I've made several batches of that for her, but it hasn't seemed to raise her opinion of brewing beer.