Wait a minute - I am sitting here in stunned silence.
90 Minute IPA is...
sweet!?
I'm trying very, very hard to think of a way to nicely say, "If you think this beer is sweet, you really need to reset your taste buds away from Glowing Lava Vindaloo and Hops Tea and back to something that makes sense."
I mean to say, yeah, I live on the East Coast and all that, but fer Crissakes - if you think 60 and 90 are malt-forward and sweet, you've got taste buds rented from Dave Lister. How much hops do you guys want, anyhow?
I'm not defending Sam and the boys; they can do that themselves. I'm slightly concussed by the idea that anything other than a beer that tastes like a pound of hops boiled in five gallons of water isn't worth calling 'hoppy'.
To each his or her own, I always say; I have to confess a real concern for the state of the industry when breweries have to keep ramping up their flavor-bombs just to keep the vocal 'geeks' happy. It's disconcerting to look at sites like Ratebeer and find that the Extremely Big Flavor Bombs are all 'A+' while excellent, well-balanced, finely-crafted beers of less than 7% ABV (and don't have obvious flavors that kick one in the tonsils) are rated 'C' or worse. I know we live in America, where "bigger, faster, louder, MORE" is the general rule. I submit, however, that we're losing the ability to appreciate excellent beer for what it really is.
Bob