Anyone else overwelmed by the amount of hops in IPAs and NEIPAs?

[kiwipen]

Whenever I buy an IPA or NEIPA, especially NEIPA, all I can taste and smell is the absurd amounts of hops. the bitterness is just too much. Maybe I can smell something fruity, but the taste is just a bitter attack on my tongue. i know these beers are supposed to be heavily hopped, but to me they are hopped far beyond what I can appreciate.

The good thing about being a home brewer is that I can brew beer I think I'll enjoy.

Does anyone else find NEIPAs and some IPAs unpleasant? Maybe I've been drinking some bad examples, because I can't understand how someone can find these beers drinkable. If you like them, good for you, I'm not saying you are wrong and I am right.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

I agree, I think most american ales and many american iterations of european styles are way over hopped. Dry hopping and/or bombing with late hop additions styles that are supposed to be malt driven to the point the malty notes are completely drowned in hoppyness.
Also many Americans seem to have an unhealthy fear of esters, some like Founders and Great Divide get it right when making more classic styles though.

 

[Toxxyc]

NEIPAs aren't bitter, they're hoppy. Big difference. IPAs typically are bitter because the hops are boiled and the alpha acids in the hops are isomerized into the bitter compounds we taste. NEIPAs use a lot of very late and dry hopping to deliver the hops' flavour, into the beer, but the alpha acids aren't isomerized into bittering compounds.

Yes, NEIPAs can be bitter, but they generally are not. I prefer my IPAs bitter (high IBU) and my NEIPAs not bitter (low IBU). Very fruity and very juicy though.

EDIT: Regarding your question - I find the hops overwhelming, yes. Not from a taste perspective, but from it's cost.

 

[Jag75]

I dont like overly bitter stuff either. My IPAs are about 60-65 ibu . My NEIPAs around 30 ibu.

 

[brewswithshoes]

I was homebrewing for about 2 years before i really even started liking IPAs. I was introduced to NEIPAs by a friend on a trip @ Treehouse which are good, but too me sometimes push too far with the overpowering late additions/dry hops.

I really enjoy both styles of bitter IPAs & juicy NEIPAs, but do agree that many breweries have been pushing beyond the limit of enjoyable balance in both styles.

I think it was Vinnie @ Russian River that coined the coined the lupulin threshold shift term. It seems like the amounts just keep going up and become the entire focus of the beer. (also, i may be in the minority but am one that likes a west coast IPA but don't care for Pliny)

You are correct though in being able to dial in to your liking with homebrewing is AWESOME. I've maxed out my NEIPAs at about 10oz per 5G batch and feel i could go head to head with many breweries offerings. I've tried as high as 18oz per 5G batch, and exactly what you said "everything else gets lost" and it tasted like a giant hop bomb mess.

 

[ChiknNutz]

I am originally from WA state where westcoast IPAs abound. I honestly cannot stand a lot of them as I do not prefer the overwhelming harsh bitterness that seems to dominate that style. As such, I quit drinking anything that said IPA for many years as I associated the harshness to every IPA. I relocated to NC a couple years ago and discovered the NEIPA style which I find is much different and fits my palette quite well, it is now my preferred style.

 

[Barbarossa]

I can't stand either. At all. Personally, I prefer the taste of beer over the taste of bitter grass.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

I can't stand either. At all. Personally, I prefer the taste of beer over the taste of bitter grass.

To be fair there are some decent IPA out there, my biggest concern is the hop-craze spilling over into styles where it really does not belong.

 

[Barbarossa]

To be fair there are some decent IPA out there, my biggest concern is the hop-craze spilling over into styles where it really does not belong.

Reminds me of the double down from KFC. Too much is just like not enough.But people are buying it, so I can only watch the show from afar.

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

Anyone else overwelmed by the amount of hops in IPAs and NEIPAs?

Nope

 

[kiwipen]

To be fair there are some decent IPA out there, my biggest concern is the hop-craze spilling over into styles where it really does not belong.

Which styles is it spilling over to?

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Which styles is it spilling over to?

Stouts, Brown ales, Porters, "Modern" Saisons, Imperial Stouts and many more.

 

[Dr_Jeff]

I've never had a beer with too much hops.
In California, I had a beer called Menace 2 Sobriety, it was a triple IPA at 10.1%ABV and ~340 IBUs, it was awesome.

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

If a style is done right like an ipa or neipa or porter or esb, and some one does not enjoy it that does not mean the style is wrong. That would be like me saying "anyone else want to vomit when they drink a sour?" Its just not my style, I dont enjoy it therefore I dont drink it. Movie quote "I cant swim, I know I cant, so you know what I do hunnie, I stay my black ass out the pool!" (not intended to offend, just making a point)

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

If a style is done right like an ipa or neipa or porter or esb, and some one does not enjoy it that does not mean the style is wrong. That would be like me saying "anyone else want to vomit when they drink a sour?" Its just not my style, I dont enjoy it therefore I dont drink it. Movie quote "I cant swim, I know I cant, so you know what I do hunnie, I stay my black ass out the pool!" (not intended to offend, just making a point)

Gone in 60 Seconds

Great movie

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I will add that flavors/compounds do register different to different people. Beers that I find to have a mid-level of bitterness, my girlfriend thinks are way over the top. She hates "IPAs" has learned that she loves NEIPAs. I enjoy the style myself, but she gravitates to the 9% ones that are saturated with hops. I tend to pick up a strong astringency once the dry hop level gets to high, where she says she does not notice any astringency in these beers.

At least to me, bitterness and astringency have some similar character but differences. Bitterness tends to sit toward the back of my tongue and build through the aftertaste. The hop astringency hits early and right up front on the tongue and fades. To me that astringency is a sign of a bad example or one that is too young...but maybe that is just my preference.

Reminds me of the double down from KFC. Too much is just like not enough.But people are buying it, so I can only watch the show from afar.

That is the American way...if it tastes good it will taste even better if deep fried covered in cheese with bacon!

 

[Snuffy]

I'm not a fan of crazy hopped beer either - but I can't say there is any style I don't like as a whole.. There is enough variation in the IPA and NEIPA styles that you can find some you like.

 

[hotbeer]

I thought absurd amounts of hops was one of the things that made an IPA and IPA.

Took me awhile to get used to them, but now very hoppy beer is my preference. Though I'll sneeze once or twice while drinking them.

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

Thats funny, I thought I was the only one sneezed occasionally with hoppy beers. Still love them.

 

[NSMikeD]

I don’t consider west coast and NEIPAs IPAs. I think it’s either lazy nomenclature or limitations from the existing “official” beer styles. That doesn’t mean I don’t like what the brewers of those beers are doing. In fact I love it. I just don’t think of IPA when I drink them other that a nod to their origins. They are what they are and it’s wonderful. Fwiw IMO pure ibus doesn’t equate to good beer. I’ve sample more than I care in so called IPAs that lacked balance, flavor and complexity going for high IBUs.

Man do I love the bitter grapefruit of cascade in an ale for example. I’ve always said if Sierra Nevada came out now it would likely have the I added to Pale Ale. In any case that’s pushed the hop growers to coax different flavors and aromas out of hops (not to mention how different yeasts interacts with them) making for far more interesting options for beer lovers. And the idea of the NEIPAs taking the best of two worlds,- the flavor and aroma foreward of late addition hops from their west coast cousins and the malt and cream on the palette from their English ancestors - is pure genius IMO.

The only way to know where the line is, is to cross it. That happens all too often in brewing as pushing the envelop gets you noticed in a very crowded field.

To the OP, I appreciate that taste is a very personal thing and understand where you are coming from. Could it be a lot of meh and bad brews slapping the IPA on the label? I think it’s happens more than we care to admit. Could pushing hops offend your taste buds? Likely and that’s reasonable. Its great that homebrew lets you make what you like and it’s also great that there is so much variety out there that are outstanding brewers who do wonderful things with hops that the odds added you find what you like. Just gotta keep sampling IMO

Fwiw, I am pretty much a hop head, but every year I challenge myself to brew a kolsh and love the other end of brewing where malt is featured with a delicate hand on the hops to perfectly balance the beer in a tapestry of subtle.

 

[NSMikeD]

I thought absurd amounts of hops was one of the things that made an IPA and IPA.

Took me awhile to get used to them, but now very hoppy beer is my preference. Though I'll sneeze once or twice while drinking them.

Legend has it that it just meant a bit more hops and malt with a touch of oak than a typical British Pale Ale. Then Americans discovered beer (actually malt liquor for Fed Govt reasons) and of course we couldn’t leave well enough alone. Not being hamstrung by any traditions, and in the spirit of good old American “more of everything!”, we took the idea of an iPA and brought it to whole new levels, ripping it apart and putting it back together in unrecognizable forms, throwing out conventional wisdom and debunking what can and can’t be done with beer. And yes ... today IPA is usually associated with absurd amounts of hops and not with that beer that had to stand the long trips and hot weather in oak barrels to hydrate those British soldiers India (if that tale is even true). Today we now call that a British IPA.

 

[Cyclman]

I had a number of outstanding hazies at Modern Times taproom, and at other great breweries. But I have had undrinkable ones too. I think more extreme styles require more skill, which is too often lacking these days. Heck, some breweries can’t get simple styles right.

 

[InspectorJon]

I guess its an American thing. Some is good, more is better and too much is our goal....

Personally I like a well made really hoppy IPA, any style. I also like a great malty porter or Scotch ale. A really hoppy brown ale is kind of out of style I guess but I like that too. Drink what you like and leave the rest.

 

[Barbarossa]

That is the American way...if it tastes good it will taste even better if deep fried covered in cheese with bacon!

Yeah I know. I know kids that won't eat unless it's covered and soaked in ketchup. Anything and everything.

When I look at Asian cuisine, I fell ashamed. So much flavors. And different flavors. Here it's like freaking anything potatoes, deep fry everything and butter salt and sugar.

I'm also guilty. I made deep fried beer battered bacon last week. Dipped in Maple syrup.

 

[cgoldberg3]

To be fair there are some decent IPA out there, my biggest concern is the hop-craze spilling over into styles where it really does not belong.

I agree. There are some local breweries that I've had to learn by trial and error to expect high hops/IBUs even if the style doesn't traditionally have that. Kind of like eating food cooked by a guy who absolutely loves hot sauce, or someone who can't get enough bacon and has to cram it in to everything he makes.

Personally I think IPAs can be good, but I want them to be a category in a wide array of choices. If you don't want to drink BMC, your choices tend to be IPAs, stouts, and wheats, at least here in the midwest. Not so easy to find pilsners, kolschs, porters, belgians, or barleywines unless you want to drive to a specialty store.

 

[1bottlerocket]

I find a lot of beers that have a nice hop flavor, or an insane amount of hops, lacking the malt backbone on which to hang all those wonderful hops. Examples like Heady Topper are done very well IMO due to the wonderful malt bill and balance with the hops. Some beers which have are a hop bomb are akin to candy. I can drink one, maybe two at the most before I get burned out.

I think if the brewer pays closer attention to the malt bill the beers will be more successful.

 

[CDS]

Maybe I've been drinking some bad examples, because I can't understand how someone can find these beers drinkable.

Can you give us some examples of ones you've tasted that you find to be undrinkable?

 

[tld6008]

Don't see the OPs complaint at all.

 

[Karn]

I'm new in this game and appreciated this informative thread. Only liked one (NE)IPA out of the 10, or so, that I've tried. Went to a local brewery (after making my first brew, and embracing this new hobby, and loving this forum) and had a Flight which was fun. However, I got one 'grassy', 'rough' taste in my mouth after the very first sip and it remained for days! The order in which they presented the brews, in terms of IBU, was 24, 39, 22, and 28. It should've been 22, 24, 28, and 39?
Didn't matter, like I said the first taste overwhelmed everything.

 

[brewmanStan]

Whenever I buy an IPA or NEIPA, especially NEIPA, all I can taste and smell is the absurd amounts of hops. the bitterness is just too much. Maybe I can smell something fruity, but the taste is just a bitter attack on my tongue. i know these beers are supposed to be heavily hopped, but to me they are hopped far beyond what I can appreciate.

The good thing about being a home brewer is that I can brew beer I think I'll enjoy.

Does anyone else find NEIPAs and some IPAs unpleasant? Maybe I've been drinking some bad examples, because I can't understand how someone can find these beers drinkable. If you like them, good for you, I'm not saying you are wrong and I am right.

Same here. I think a lot of brewers have gone too far with hops in many of their beers. Just my opinion. Nothing wrong with a good well balanced IPA, but even some Pale Ales are getting a little over the top with hops.