Are Americans too enamored with Hops?

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American hop too much?

  • Yes

  • No

  • Screw you- Hops are my heroin.

  • That just American style.

Results are only viewable after voting.
MikeFlynn74

MikeFlynn74

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Everything I have been reading is that Americans over hop everything. You guys think this is true with American micros?
 
It is all perspective. That is like asking, 'Do Belgians ferment to warm?' or some other question regarding a characteristic of a countries beer tendencies. The US hops stuff up, it is what we do. Not good or bad, just the facts.
 
Personally, I think that we aren't too enamored with them, but brewers lately HAVE been too "in love" with Cascades.
 
Some beers are way overhopped, but the majority seem nicely balanced. I have seen cascades in too many things lately, I had an Irish Red sample that was dry hopped with them...
 
I rarely bother now with commercial American brews unless I know them from the past experience. Far too often I have been greatly dissappointed by brews that people here have recommended, but just turn out to be hop bombs with little or no regard to balance.

I understand that this is a regional thing, and each to their own tastes, but there is certainly a pissing contest going on between some of these brews for hopiness IMO.
 
Out west, I find that to be the case. Eastern and MidWest breweries are starting to go hop-crazy but the shortage helped restrain their hand a bit.

I'm sick of "Imperial" anything. Make a balanced beer to the style. I'm more impressed with a good beer than an IBU delivery vehicle.
 
I think it is a bit of a fad... if you really think about it, "craft beer" hasn't been a big deal for that long in the US in terms of market size. There have been great beer around for a long time but the growth of "craft" has exploded over the last ten years or so.

In the US, for a LONG LONG time it was BMC... that's it. All of a sudden you have an explosion of craft beers. you had a bit of a fruit explosion beause it was easy on the pallet and I think what you have with hops is just a race to be as different and "EXTREME!!!" as possible... hence the heavy hops.

What is the next marketing idea after a ton of hops?? Imperial.... "hey, let's make 'good beer' only with really high alcohol!".

I think American brewers are all over the road right now trying to find a happy medium... something the Europeans have already had for a long long time.

I don't think it is all bad though. Experimentation is great and while a lot of stuff isn't balanced, I don't think that makes it BAD. I think some of the hop bombs are actually pretty good if you go into it knowing that's what you're getting.

I think it is going to be interesting to see what the next fad is... crazy malt???
 
Boerderij_Kabouter said:
It is all perspective. That is like asking, 'Do Belgians ferment to warm?' or some other question regarding a characteristic of a countries beer tendencies. The US hops stuff up, it is what we do. Not good or bad, just the facts.
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I agree with this and is why I voted it is just the American style. I don't prefer the "hoppy just to be hoppy" beers, but it doesn't mean they are overdoing it.
 
If people like it, who are we to say it sucks? Different strokes for different folks.
 
To me it seems like they are specifically enamored with cascade but cascade is one of my least favorite hops. as for over-hopping I think american brewers might be obsessed with bigger is better but most of the beers are in balance, malt to hops.
 
DeathBrewer said:
That just American style.
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I would agree with that, but the reason I didn't vote for that option is because I don't believe that the American style has yet been properly defined. I think it is still in the experimental stages, and I honestly think that American beers will hop down in time.

In saying that I do not think that US brews will become just like their foreign counterparts. They will still be uniquely American, just less hoppy as a whole, just like American cars are slowly becoming smaller. ;)
 
I also think that "American Style" is WAY too broad. We didn't really invent anything, but added lots of twists to stuff to make it our own.
 
A well made beer is a well made beer. And I've had plenty of well-made hoppy american beers. The flavor of hops is pretty awesome. I mean, think about it: if you can get a great bock from Germany, why try to reinvent the wheel? You're not gonna score a ton of customers with a well-made, but run-of-the-mill bock, you know? But plenty of breweries have built their good name on delicious IPA's and IIPA's. I don't know if we're "too enamored" with hops, but there are certainly a metric f*ck-ton (thanks for that awesome term, Kyle) of hop-focused brews out there. It's all relative, and I don't know how you can really judge something as subjective as this. People like'a the hops, so you give'a them the hops.
 
Evan! said:
A well made beer is a well made beer. And I've had plenty of well-made hoppy american beers. The flavor of hops is pretty awesome. I mean, think about it: if you can get a great bock from Germany, why try to reinvent the wheel? You're not gonna score a ton of customers with a well-made, but run-of-the-mill bock, you know? But plenty of breweries have built their good name on delicious IPA's and IIPA's. I don't know if we're "too enamored" with hops, but there are certainly a metric f*ck-ton (thanks for that awesome term, Kyle) of hop-focused brews out there. It's all relative, and I don't know how you can really judge something as subjective as this. People like'a the hops, so you give'a them the hops.
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I'm not disputing the quality of American beers. There are a load of breweries out there making excellent beer both with and without a metric f*ck-ton of hops.

Let's face it though, hops (Or rather the noticeable presence of them) is very new to the average American taste bud. It's still new, so it can be expected to take dominance for a period of time in the craft brews.

I'm hoping to be still alive and drinking in 20 years time, because by then I know that I will have easy access to much of the best beer in the world made right here in the US of A......I just think we need more time while we cool our tools a little.
 
American beer is just refinding itself . Before prohibition there were around 1400 breweries after just a hand full. They went from good traditional beers to bland mass produced cheap beer . Why, simple people didnt care they just wanted beer and booze and the hand full of breweries needed to supply it quickly.

Now the pendulum is swinging the other way we discovered beer again and as Americans we tend to push the envelope . I think that the hoppier the better will wind down to just a few really good over the top hopped beers.
 
springer said:
American beer is just refinding itself . Before prohibition there were around 1400 breweries after just a hand full. They went from good traditional beers to bland mass produced cheap beer . Why, simple people didnt care they just wanted beer and booze and the hand full of breweries needed to supply it quickly.

Now the pendulum is swinging the other way we discovered beer again and as Americans we tend to push the envelope . I think the the hoppier the better will wind down to just a few really good over the top hopped beers.
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Couldn't you have said that you agree with me? Please? :) I feel like I need all the support I can get! :D

It's like treading on eggshells being me!! :D
 
springer said:
in all good conscience I cant do that .... I have the feeling it will turn around and bite me in the ass ..... :D
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Oh, COME ON!!!

Beer is like the automobile! It gets perfected in Germany, patented there. Then America takes the concept, mass produces a metric f*ck-ton of them until we think we actually invented it ourselves and then starts peeing scorn on all the imitators of our invention....BMC is just like cars!!!

Er, how could you POSSIBLY think that agreeing with me might bite you in the ass!? :eek:


Edit: carry on guys, I was just having a brain fart. :(
 
We're Americans. More horsepower, bigger burgers, footlong subs, the atom bomb, and Pliny. Bigger, louder, faster is better. That's what we do.
 
Ultimately, the consumer will decide. We've dealt with a century of no hops. We might been in a century of hops! How many varieties of hops have been introduced in the last 10-15 years?
 
We here about the hop bombs because that is what is popular right now, and of course the breweries are going to promote the beers that make them money. That means you here about them more and they have a wider distribution. But just about every brewery out there that makes a hop monster also has several other damn good non-hoppy beers that don't get as much attention.
 
mmb said:
I'm sick of "Imperial" anything. Make a balanced beer to the style. I'm more impressed with a good beer than an IBU delivery vehicle.
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One of my favorite styles is an "Imperial" stout:drunk: But yeah, there's plenty of "imperial" PAs or Pilsners that are way too sweet for me (IE even if there's a ton of hops, it just gets too sweet). I think I like those particular stouts because they can be hoppy, big on malt, but not sweet due to the dark malts knocking them down a peg. It is all about balance....
 
One word for you imperial lovers: Weizenbock.

I need to make another one of these. I didn't add any dark malts. Just straight up Pilsner, Wheat, Hallertau and WLP300.

About 9% alcohol and ****ing fantastic. Probably a bad idea to bring it to the desert tho. My dehydration level was incredible.
 
If every beer was balanced we wouldn't have this thread so be happy we have something to complain about :D




"someone would love to have my first world problems"
- Matt Good
 
American craft brewers are certainly tap dancing on the frontier of hop utilization, but it isn’t just about being bitter. Rather, it is extracting the complexity and aroma and balancing the the hop profiles to make something sublime. And while I'll concede that the Cascade sledgehammer of late isn't always welcome, a Cascade isn't an Amarillo isn't a Jade isn't a Tettnanger. Instead of a unified American style developing, it really is a melting point of experimentation and it is this pushing the envelope that tends to produce some amazing brews. Hop on, you crazy diamonds.
 
Come on you p*ssies America is about pushing the envelope. We're the leaders of the free world. Rise up childern of the ....... oops I digress but the last time I had blood work done a hop leaf came out of my vien.
 
I see this as more of a marketing tool than a distinctly American vice.

As was said with the car analogy, as it was the first thing popped into my head even before reading LGI's post. Hops are being used like tail fins.

I also believe maltiness is the chrome, but this gets far too little notice compared to the hop blitzkrieg, since it is less conspicuous of an attribute.

They took a wonderful attribute, and since America is always overcompensating, hops levels have crept up to ridiculous levels in the PNW, where craft brewing really started getting big. There is a more balanced love of all styles of beers in the Midwest, and while AIPA's are very aromatic, the tendency to over dryhop as a way to differentiate craft brews, has been more subdued here.

But you either like a well done AIPA or you don't. If you do, you smell that aroma before you get the pint to your nose, and the feeling is a vein slapping satisfaction; a drug for those that have become addicted.

I'm all for letting the hop bombs stay out west, but I wouldn't want my AIPA's from craft brewers in MI to be any other way.

Except maybe leave the grapefruit tree out-phuck Cascades.:D
 
Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:
Couldn't you have said that you agree with me? Please? :) I feel like I need all the support I can get! :D

It's like treading on eggshells being me!! :D
Click to expand...

I agree with you Gnome.

If one puts maltiness/hoppiness on a 1-10 scale (1 = very malty, 10 = very hoppy), it seems like American craft beers tend to hover in the 7 to 10 range. I find that I like beers in the 3 to 7 range. Over-hopping could be viewed as a way to compensate for low-character malt and/or yeast.
 
Here we are going into 2020. The "hop craze" is now the craft beer norm. The big breweries have bought craft breweries who make hopcentric beers and they've even made their own pseudo "craft beer labels" that are hop heavy. Looks like American beer has redefined itself as hoppy.

My preference is still malty over hoppy.
 
Zuljin said:
Here we are going into 2020. The "hop craze" is now the craft beer norm. The big breweries have bought craft breweries who make hopcentric beers and they've even made their own pseudo "craft beer labels" that are hop heavy. Looks like American beer has redefined itself as hoppy.

My preference is still malty over hoppy.
Click to expand...

Nice thread resurrection! 2009?
 
Rise! Rise!

So how about it? Going on 11 years now since the observation was made about hoppy American beers. I was perusing the local offerings at Kroger yesterday. Every local brewery had an IPA or a DIPA. The larger breweries, too.

I thought the IPA craze would have settled down but instead it has become a staple in the American beer scene. I was introduced to hopped mead a few years ago at a fest.

Seems sours, and at least farm house, has gained some popularity, too. That's nice, for me. Starting to get more into what can yeast do for me, and really, I think there's a lot more flavor possibilities there than with hop additions.

Butt hay, it all improves the beer scene and we can stop hearing people wine about bland fizzy horse pee American beer.
 

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