Anybody else not a big fan of highly hopped beers?

[chainsawbrewing]

to the OP (i didn't read the whole thread) see this post. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/funny-how-your-tastebuds-can-change-36471/

long story short. keep drinking beer. it's ALL good. :fro:

 

[Dagatris]

I'm not a big fan of the ultra-bitter stuff either. I can see where people like it, and have a couple friends that love it.

What bothers me most about it, is that it seems to be the trend lately. The more hoppy your beer is, the better it is. Some companies, Flying Dog I think, have started labeling their brews so that you can tell what the bitterness is going to be like.

Others though, are a stab in the dark it seems like. I bought a Rogue Double Deady Guy and a Rogue Double Imperial Stout. Something on the order of $15 per bottle. I was so sad to find out that they are unbelievably hoppy (to me anyway). Perhaps I just need to improve my reading comprehension skills.

 

[barroomhero1234]

My first IPA was not a fan, now a ruination is a nice relaxing hoppy beer.

 

[Zoidberg]

I was a hater on IPAs just a few years ago. Thought they were "trendy" and just high abv to get ****ed up. When I started brewing though and bought some fresh centennial and cascde hops I fell in love with hoppy beers. Now I put hops in everything. Not doing the counting now but at least 8 of my top 10 commercial beers are hoppy and most of those are IPAs.

 

[Calichusetts]

I was a hater on IPAs just a few years ago. Thought they were "trendy" and just high abv to get ****ed up. When I started brewing though and bought some fresh centennial and cascde hops I fell in love with hoppy beers. Now I put hops in everything. Not doing the counting now but at least 8 of my top 10 commercial beers are hoppy and most of those are IPAs.

5 years...well done sir

 

[40watt]

I only occasionally want a very hoppy beer.


In that case, I would prefer something with a nice hop character and flavor, as opposed to just trying to achieve more IBUs. I have no use for a "hop bomb".

The more refined my pallet gets, the less I want to blow it out with hops.

 

[McKBrew]

I enjoy a good IPA or IIPA still on occasion. Have to be in the right mood.

Unfortunately I still think too many breweries are still caught up on the IPA kick and spend too much time developing a bazillion different IPA's instead of branching out. They are marketed well enough that the local stores seem to think IPA's are the only thing the customer wants.

 

[Talonracer67]

Its amazing how individual taste is. Last year when I started brewing I hated IPA's, my wife really hated them. However I was a Guinness fan and she hated that too. Only thing she would drink is a very bland lager or ale.
Now? We both are hop heads, in fact we prefer then to almost any other style. She also has gotten to love porter and stouts. Life is good! So you can acquire tastes

 

[brewbama]

I'm no hop head. I prefer a balance between malt and hops.


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[erichsmith]

I'm a hop head for sure but still enjoy a good lightly hopped brew on occasion. I've said for years that one can brew a crappy beer and load it up with hops and people will drink it.


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[Talonracer67]

I honestly think its all due to preference like i said, I DO NOT have a very refined pallet. I need strong tastes in my beer to get my attention. Someone with a refined pallet can detect subtle differences and a strong hop presence can cover up these subtle flavors

 

[Brewmenn]

I honestly think its all due to preference like i said, I DO NOT have a very refined pallet. I need strong tastes in my beer to get my attention. Someone with a refined pallet can detect subtle differences and a strong hop presence can cover up these subtle flavors

I tend to be the same way. I need bold flavors. My cooking and brewing shows that. Some people love my cooking, but it can be a bit overpowering to others.

 

[Epimetheus]

Workin' on being a hop-head.

I tried a simple IPA that came out pleasant and rather hoppy. I still prefer Porters, Stouts, and Browns. All that malty, chocolate, and coffee goodness in varying proportions

So may beers, so little time.

 

[losMythos]

Interesting thread. I wonder how much the seasons have to do with what I drink....Being from the northeast I tend to Drink and brew IPA's in the summer, Pales in fall and porters in the winter and yeasty Belgiums in the spring..Not sure why But that tends to be the trend for me. I love IPA's but something about the cold makes me not want to drink them in the winter.

 

[Zepth]

Honestly, I used to think I was a hop-head, but it turns out that I'd rather have hop flavor and aroma than bitterness. Lots of late-addition and dry-hops, and just enough actual bitterness in the background to balance the malt. DIPAs always seem like too much of a good thing to me

I've recently come to the same conclusion, hops can equal flavour without the bitter. Then again I've always claimed to not like "overly bitter" beers, and never said anything bad about hops.

Hoppy beers seem to be all the rage. I think some people go overboard with it. I have a friend who drinks the hoppiest beers he can find and is quite proud of it. I just have to shake my head. It's almost like buying a hoppier beer is a status symbol.

Sad how true this is.

 

[jgln]

I think somewhere at the begining of this thread I said I don't like them but recently I have been buying the very hoppy beers and I like one or two now and then, refreshing change. That said I recently bought a six pack of Samuel Adams latitude 48 and I think that one might have crossed the boundry of too hoppy.

 

[locusta]

I'm in the Bay Area and hop levels do seem to get associated with "beer cred" a lot here. I'm personally not a big fan of heavily hopped beers because I have an incredibly poor sense of smell (can't smell a road-killed skunk); so beers that rely on their aromas tend to just taste overly bitter to me.

That said, I think if I'm drinking beer that is more heavily hopped than my usual, I can usually "step up" in IBUs much higher than if I were drinking less hoppy beers and still enjoy them. My father-in-law thinks i'm killing my tastebuds.

 

[40watt]

It's that "beer cred" phenomenon that really makes me laugh. I don't know how many times I've heard "when your pallet improves" or something similar, you will learn to appreciate a more hoppy beer. As if you just moved over from Milwaukee's Best. I think when your pallet becomes more developed, you will be more interested in balance, subtle yeast flavors, or the malt backbone of a good pilsner.

I like to taste different hops, but don't like to taste nothing else.