What good is an IPA?

[Cider123]

"IPA's aack, phfft, thppt!!!" - Bill the Cat

I feel the same way. IPA's make me feel the same way that a salami sandwich makes me feel when I eat it on a small motorboat that it endlessly rocking back and forth on a choppy day, when it's 96 degrees, hot and sunny, with diesel fumes blowing in my face.
Paint a nice picture?

 

[RacingRam]

"IPA's aack, phfft, thppt!!!" - Bill the Cat

I feel the same way. IPA's make me feel the same way that a salami sandwich makes me feel when I eat it on a small motorboat that it endlessly rocking back and forth on a choppy day, when it's 96 degrees, hot and sunny, with diesel fumes blowing in my face.
Paint a nice picture?

Salami sandwich? Sunny? Boat? I don't see a problem here

 

[Rambleon]

Trust your palate, man. It's an over saturated market. Spend your time brewing up recipes that are to your liking. There are sure to be many, many people who share your interests in styles other than IPA's.

 

[invivoSaccharomyces]

I don't normally go out of my way to drink them, but after 7ish years homebrewing I finally made my own: Topaz and Willamette hops, oaked, and w/ Brett B yeast. Got complemented on it last night.

That sounds quite lovely, actually! I'll probably try my own Brett pale ale this spring.

 

[Epimetheus]

I feel the same way. IPA's make me feel the same way that a salami sandwich makes me feel when I eat it on a small motorboat that it endlessly rocking back and forth on a choppy day, when it's 96 degrees, hot and sunny, with diesel fumes blowing in my face.
Paint a nice picture?

Classic.

A surprising percentage of the regular Wednesday Night Beer 'nobs declared they preferred porters and brown ales. The others were into bretts, sours, and similar strangeness. IPA was not THE fav of anyone there. Nice for a changeup, not the first choice. And I just brewed an IPA 'cuz I've never done one.

 

[opiate82]

Unfortunately I don't have many recommendations for you. I love West Coast style IPA's loaded with piney and citrusy goodness. The more the better. But I can echo what others have been saying with homebrewing in general. Brew what you like and experiment with things you don't know about. As long as your beer isn't spoiled generally either you can choke it down or find someone who is more than willing to help you do so.

Not liking IPA's in brewing is kind of like being a chef who doesn't like, for example, seafood. A good chef can still cook up an amazing fish even if they don't personally like it because they are knowledgeable about the flavors they are working with. As long as you understand the flavors and how they work with other ingredients you will be fine. You will (probably) find that the more you brew the more your horizons expand and the more you will want to play with ingredients, styles and flavors you might not have otherwise.

Just as an example, being a huge fan of the west coast IPA, stouts generally have not been in my wheelhouse at all. But I have found that I really want to brew a *good* espresso chocolate stout, just to do it. So I have been trying many commercially available ones and even though it is not a style I prefer, I appreciate them much more than I would have before I started this hobby.

 

[Epimetheus]

I appreciate them much more than I would have before I started this hobby.

+1 Exactly. After I started brewing, I tried stuff WAY out of my comfort zone, WETH that means. Really funky sours and things so hoppy it was like sucking on the bag of hops. Extreme sours are like Limburger cheese - you have to develop a palate and they they can be fascinating. In that bleu vein, I just tried Wookie Jack. The color said "malty stout", the flavor said "California ale in your face".

Like when Tommy Chong orates that famous phrase: "F-ing vodka, man!" 1:23