What good is an IPA?

[eltorrente]

Lots of good responses, but not many recommendations! Still, I appreciate the input.

My recommendation is to brew beer that you like, and eventually your tastes will change/evolve. You'll begin to get a new appreciation for various ingredients and styles, and will begin experimenting more and more.

When I first drank Coffee or hard alcohol, I thought it was horrible and couldn't believe people drank that stuff and actually enjoyed it.. I drink buckets of coffee now and love it, and very much enjoy a nice Scotch. It took some time though. That's the way that most homebrewers are, too - you start up with a certain taste, but eventually you'll find some ingredient, like a certain hop, that you really like - and you want to capture that flavor and end up making an IPA.

I do tend to like English Pales, and I love the aroma and flavor of Saaz, EKG, and Nugget, and I think Willamette and Fuggles have their places.

Maybe find some hops you really like and make an English IPA. Come up with an awesome PA recipe, then amp everything up and turn it into an IPA and see how it comes out.

I'll look out for some of the beers you guys recommend (although DFH describes their IPAs as "citrusy," so I'm not optimistic that I'll like them).

DFH IPA is horrible to my taste buds lol. I love IPA's, but for some reason DFH 60 and 90 are really awful to me. I get them really fresh around here, also - yet I just can't enjoy them, but I've tried many times. I think they are awful. :cross:

 

[guldalian]

+1 for goose island IPA. I think they use Styrian Golding or something similar.

 

[roastquake]

I know is expensive, but try a bottle of Samuel Smith's India Ale, it's an excellent English IPA and is nothing like the citrusy kind. You can justify the price because you can try a true English IPA before you go and buy the ingredients for a 5 gallon batch of your own

 

[beersk]

I'm not a fan of IPAs in general.. although I will drink the hell out of this:

I went to Gritty's in Portland a few weeks ago when I was visiting some family in Waldeboro. I liked the beer at the pub, but didn't like what I bought in bottles. It tasted pretty stale. But it was probably because of where I bought it...a small town Hannefords...

I used to think I loved IPAs more than I've come to realize now. I like them, but can really only drink about a pint, then I'm ready for something maltier. Excessive hop flavor just leaves a nasty taste in my mouth and kills the palate anyway.

 

[Beernik]

I find that I like PAs and IIPAs more than IPAs.

For me, it's generally the catty simcoe that I don't like more than the grapefruity C-hops.

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.

 

[NewWestBrewer]

You sir are an idiot... just kidding. Everyone has different tastes and will like different things. I used to be in your camp and found IPA's too bitter but have found my palate has changed over time and now I brew IPA's probably every other batch.

To each his own...

Cheers

I've never been a fan of IPAs in general, but now that I'm getting into homebrewing, I'd like to figure out exactly what I don't like about them.

The reason is that I've actually had a couple IPAs and IIPAs that I didn't mind so much, but others actually make me feel sick if I drink too much. I suspect it's the fact that most IPAs taste like grapefruit, and I HAAAATE grapefruit. All the IPAs that my buddies tell me are the best (such as PseudoSue) taste like grapefruit juice to me, and make me want to start puking out of my eyeballs.

To test my hypothesis, I'm looking for a commonly-available (or at least available in WI) IPA brewed with hops that are not the three-C hops or any of the other grapefruity ones. Also, no Chinook - I had a single-hop pale with that and didn't care for it.

You sir are an idiot... just kidding. Everyone has different tastes and will like different things. I used to be in your camp and found IPA's too bitter but have found my palate has changed over time and now I brew IPA's probably every other batch.

To each his own...

Cheers


Any recommendations?

 

[speeddemon190]

Two Hearted was my gateway IPA.

Mine too!!....now its like crack. Up to about 70 IBU's (ranger) then I feel they get too bitter.

 

[Beernik]

My gateway IIPA was Squatter's Hop Rising. I think it's Amarillo, Cascade, & Chinook.

The Amarillo & Cascade dominate with orange and citrus flavors. The Chinook is more of a background flavor.

 

[Battles4Seattle]

My recommendations are Enjoy By by Stone and Fresh Squeezed by Deschutes. They are maybe exactly what you are describing you don't like but they are my favorites.

Titan IPA by Great Divide is great and that might be a good one to try. This is fairly bitter though but I'd say more dank. It does have citrus notes though.

My first IPA I really got into was Celebration Ale by Sierra Nevada though.

 

[PastorofMuppets]

I dont normally go for ipa either but I do love baltic IPA and other darker ones where a malty background adds a nice rich complex flavor but even these only on rare occasions

 

[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