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