What's up with the IPA fad?

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Darwin18 said:
The real title of this thread should be, "What's up with all the Hipsters and the Saison Fad?"
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Or "What's up with sours, what's up with high gravity brews, what's up with lagers, what's up with [blank]." The bottom line is that there will *always* be a "popular" style that is more in vogue than the rest (and a second most popular, and third, and so on). What that style is changes over time, but come on, what are we doing here? It seems like folks are just hating on something because it's widely popular but not to their own personal tastes. Who cares?

Sorry, but I am really sick of this topic (not on this thread specifically, but in general). If you don't like a particular style of beer, good for you. Don't drink it. Quit whining. If you don't like any variant of that style (in the case of IPAs, the difference is pretty f-ing huge between west coast, midwestern, east coast, and English, so while they all are IPAs, they don't have the same profiles at all), good for you. Don't drink it. Quit whining. I don't like mega-estery bubblegum Belgians. Good for me. I don't drink them, except when I can try one out with an open mind. And I won't whine because other people do like them.

Furthermore, we're all homebrewers here. We're some of the ONLY people not limited to what's commercially available on the shelf at our local liquor store. Don't like IPAs? Don't brew them. You already knew that. Don't like saisons? Don't brew them. You already knew that. Know of a brew that you *do* really like? Brew it so you have something to drink when your local store only sells stuff you hate. Duh. It's not rocket science. :smack:
 
^Then it would kinda suck if all your grocery stores started only carrying tomatoes and a few apples.

Nobody's saying IPAs need to die. The overwhelming criticism lies in the overabundance of the style in relation to anything else. Like the style? Good for you! But variety is the spice of life, and when many liquor stores eschew other styles in favor of 62 different IPAs, variety is hard to come by.

And before the "they stock what sells" argument comes back up, think about how bad a bad, stale IPA is. There's no way they move enough of every brand of IPA that bottles aren't collecting dust.
 
MarathonMurse said:
Nobody's saying IPAs need to die. The overwhelming criticism lies in the overabundance of the style in relation to anything else. Like the style? Good for you! But variety is the spice of life, and when many liquor stores eschew other styles in favor of 62 different IPAs, variety is hard to come by.

And before the "they stock what sells" argument comes back up, think about how bad a bad, stale IPA is. There's no way they move enough of every brand of IPA that bottles aren't collecting dust.
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I agree with you, don't misunderstand me. I mean, I love IPAs, but the stores tend to lack truly thorough variety. My point is that there's no reason for complaining about it when you possess (presumably, since you're on this forum) the capacity and knowledge to make whatever beer you want at home. Not enough variety at the store? What's missing, in your estimation, that you really wish they had? Brew that.
 
I do like apples....I also like ketchup and sauces. Pretty sure I can make use of mass tomato sells. I wouldn't even have to get on a forum and talk about all the tomato loving freaks out there.

Sorry I had to have fun with it. Plus I hate the fact I find BMC way more at stores and restaurants than IPAs or any craft beer.
 
I don't particularly enjoy them, but I'm not going to hate on people that do. My main problem with them is the following.
Even at bars/brewpubs/w.e. that have 50 or 100 beers on top I'm limited to say 5-10 non IPA/sour/lagers.

Maybe 1-2 browns, usually 1-4 stouts, maybe 1-4 porters. Usually no irish reds, ambers, milds.

Either no belgians at all, or 8 belgians but all pale hop bombs. I've yet to actually see a dark belgian strong ale, but I hear that they do exist.
 
I love IPAs, but I agree that there are far too many of them on the market. I get that they're popular and brewers brew what sells, but there are so many so-so and just flat-out bad IPAs on the market. Somewhere the reasoning came about that you aren't a real craft brewery unless you have an IPA--preferably several--in your arsenal, so they just make one for the sake of making one. (Although, it seems like saisons are starting to move into that position.) I'd be thrilled to see some other styles gain popularity. I love a good ESB, or a bock, but there are relatively few domestically-made ones.

On the other hand, I admit there are times I'm browsing the shelves and thinking, "had it, had it, had it...well, there's a new IPA out, I'll try that," so I'm not helping the situation :eek:
 
Yooper said:
Stores stock what sells. I happen to love IPAs, and drink mostly APAs, IPAs, and sometimes American reds, so that would be a great store for me.

I don't think it's a "fad"- it's just what a lot of beer geeks like.

I don't like Belgians or sours, and lots of people like those.
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Dang, Yoop. Here I thought I was in love, and then you demolished all my hopes and dreams in one fell swoop.....:(

Happiness to me is a bottle of Brouwerij Sterkens' Hoogstraten Poorter sitting in my fridge next to their Bokrijks Kruikenbier, and facing the delightful dilemma of which one to open first....

A highlight of my life was the day I discovered Danstar's Belle Saison yeast; I've been using it ever since.

IPA's? Eh... I'm not impressed. I'm not into letting the hops overload the malt. But I'll admit I like some of the offerings from Lagunitas anyway: first time I bought their seasonal Lucky 13, I think I spent five minutes with the glass under my nose drinking in the hops aroma, before I even took a sip.
 
hehawbrew said:
I'm an IPA guy but I see where you are coming from. I think a lot of brews use similar hops, so, they are not always exciting.

If you have't already, try these: dales pale ale by Oskar blues, troegs pale ale, or Sierra Nevadas pale ale. Those are the only three IPAs I'll buy at this point.

Ever since I started making my IPAs with Citra or simcoe hops, I've had a hard time buying IPAs .

I think if you have an IPA with simcoe hops, you'll fall in love.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew
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I'm not a fanatic; I do buy hoppy beers sometimes. My wife got into one of my Sierra Nevada Pale Ales while I was out of town last month. Her idea of a perfect beer is Michelob, so let's just say she had trouble finishing it. I suspect the only thing that kept her from pouring it was her mom's credo, formed during the Great Depression and drummed into her children: waste not, want not. :D
 
MarathonMurse said:
^Then it would kinda suck if all your grocery stores started only carrying tomatoes and a few apples.

Nobody's saying IPAs need to die. The overwhelming criticism lies in the overabundance of the style in relation to anything else. Like the style? Good for you! But variety is the spice of life, and when many liquor stores eschew other styles in favor of 62 different IPAs, variety is hard to come by.

And before the "they stock what sells" argument comes back up, think about how bad a bad, stale IPA is. There's no way they move enough of every brand of IPA that bottles aren't collecting dust.
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I don't think you can ignore the stock what sells argument but course of this thread I realized something...people either have really ****ty craft beer stores or I have a lot of good ones around me. IPAS, and I include DIPAs, make up about 10%
 
pricelessbrewing said:
I don't particularly enjoy them, but I'm not going to hate on people that do. My main problem with them is the following.
Even at bars/brewpubs/w.e. that have 50 or 100 beers on top I'm limited to say 5-10 non IPA/sour/lagers.

Maybe 1-2 browns, usually 1-4 stouts, maybe 1-4 porters. Usually no irish reds, ambers, milds.

Either no belgians at all, or 8 belgians but all pale hop bombs. I've yet to actually see a dark belgian strong ale, but I hear that they do exist.
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I'm calling BS on this!

Once again, this poster gives no information regarding where this supposed situation exists, but even in the IPA capital of the world, where ever that might be (San Diego?) I have a hard time believing that any bar with 50 taps or more has 95% IPAs and other highly hopped beers.

Most bars that I'm aware of that have large numbers of taps also have pretty thorough web sites, usually with up to date listings of what's on tap. So I challenge all you complainers out there to post a link to one of these bars that's the target of your wrath. Sorry, but without some evidence, I just don't believe it's as bad as you say it is.

I'll even kick this off with a local watering hole just outside of my neighborhood.
http://www.mojossportsgrille.com/Draft_Beers.html
Total of 57 taps. I'll even knock off the 5 BMC beers and the two Dos Equiss. So out of the remaining 50 there are 12 IPAs/DIPAs. That leaves 38 beers for the non hop heads out there. That's 24% IPA, 76% other craft beers. Somehow I think this has got to be far closer to the norm then what you complainers are presenting.

Update:
Sorry, I just noticed this list is a year old. However, I just ate dinner there on Saturday, and the current list is pretty similar to this one, with some different selections, but still roughly the same ratio of IPAs to non IPAs.
 
I realize now you are in Houston. I thought all of those beers looked pretty familiar. Same here in South houston, they do a good job of beer diversity. I think some people's problem is that places aren't carrying the beers the want because those beers don't move well. I like a good tripel or barley wine but you won't sell many at a sports bar or restaurant. People keep saying they have to sell what moves but on the other hand they can't sell what doesn't move.
 
Craft beer stores are good around me, it's just the bars that don't have diverse drafts. If they have bottles it's usually pretty good variety of styles with about 20-30% being hoppy. The breweries are also usually pretty good about it too since they only carry what they make so it's not like they're only going to produce a few styles.
 
I like IPAs but got burned out on them. They do all taste very similar to me at this point.
I am really big into Belgian beer, sour ales, any style that has a wide range of diversity.

Brewing a jalapeño cream ale and an all-brett IPA at the moment. The brett adds some much desired character to the IPA for me.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
We can play tap tally all day on this thread. My local bar has 36 taps, 100+ bottles to choose from. This comes in at nearly 150 beers, only 16 are IPAs. We got 6 Japanese beers there...what up with the Japan fad?

EDIT- They organize their bottle menu by style and its evenly split across the spectrum
 
This is a fascinating thread - interesting opinions being debated, but what is really making me envious is the number of bars I hear about that have 30+ taps of different craft beer. I know of four bars in South Africa that may have more than 20 different beers on tap. You guys are spoilt for choice!
 
I'm not a fan of IPA's either. They're everywhere in Minneapolis, most taprooms have at least 2 or 3 different IPAs. Double or Imperial IPAs are becoming more common. I'm definitely in the minority of non-hop heads here. I think of hops as a seasoning, adding flavor to the beer, but I don't want it to dominate everything else.
 
Around me this isn't really an issue in stores. It's just in the micro pubs. And I'm sure being in SoCal has a lot to do with it. I just get pissed when I go in a pub to try something new and I can't get an interesting Porter but there are 9 IPAs on tap… and 5 of them taste the same.

To each his own. Brew and drink on!
 
kyt said:
I'm of like mind here, I don't like IPAs at all. In addition to not liking hops, I'm pretty allergic to them. As I've tried more and more styles and brands (thanks mostly to Untappd) I've noticed it's not the bittering additions. I can drink and enjoy an ESB with out my face completely shutting down. I think it may be beers that are dry hopped that affect me the most. I thought I'd be safe with a Duvel one night out, I was wrong.
I always wanted to rub hops in my hands and enjoy the aroma like Jim Cook in the Boston Lager commercials, until I had the chance to try it one time. Hops smell like skunk @$$ to me. I haven't smelled all of the kinds, but of the ones I have, I can't tell the difference between any of them. They have all smelled horrible. And they leave nasty garbage in the kettle and fermentor. Nasty snot green turds!
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Maybe you should make some brews as they were done pre-hops?
 
At some point this is all complaining for the sake of it. Welcome to 2014, your selection of craft beers, IPA or otherwise, is better then it's ever been in your lifetime. Just drink and brew what you want without being judgemental about people who like something different.

Variety is the spice of life, and there's a metric **** ton of it out there.
 
jbaysurfer said:
That's still not even close to some of the claims in this thread, and those are definitely extreme examples.
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The point is, that's what I have available locally. You may have better, but I have no idea what a belgian, bock, trippel, or dozens of other styles taste like- they're simply not available to me because of the over saturation of IPAs.
 
First of all, if the IPA style is a fad, it's likely only a fad because of one of two reasons. One being that it is one of the more flavorful styles, and it seems like a lot of craft beer fanatics gravitate towards big flavor beers. The other being the alcohol content. I think this is normal. As people experiment with new beers it seems natural to keep trying bigger flavor beers. I think a lot of people's palettes start to adjust in the process. I know mine has.

I do have a hard time believing some of the claims in this thread though. There are two good craft beer bars near me, one has 140 different beers available between bottles and taps. I would say that IPAs account for maybe 10% of what they have to offer. The other bar has a smaller selection, but it's ratio is probably the same. The retailers where I live are no different with a pretty even distribution across most styles. With that said, the number of lagers available at retail easily exceeds any other style by a pretty significant margin.
 
MarathonMurse said:
The point is, that's what I have available locally. You may have better, but I have no idea what a belgian, bock, trippel, or dozens of other styles taste like- they're simply not available to me because of the over saturation of IPAs.
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I have to wonder if this is simply an issue with demand. As an example, I asked a local retailer if they can get Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar. He said they stopped carrying it because it didn't sell well. I don't really get why it wouldn't sell considering it is a solid beer with a 91 rating on Beer Advocate, but with a limited amount of shelf space they have to stock what sells. It's unfortunate for me, a person that likes a variety of styles, but I can appreciate the situation they are in.
 
Beers that sell make money. Beers that don't sell, do not make money. Right now, IPA's sell.

If a majority of craft drinkers weren't spending money on IPA, other things would move ahead of them.

A local spot has 12 draft beers. 1 of those is framboise lambic. It's gross, it's not even beer, it's a waste of a tap. But someone must be drinking this garbage. It must make money, why else keep it on tap all the time.
 
I prefer stouts and porters, but on occasion I enjoy a good IPA. It's something I have to be in the mood for.


With that being typed I absolutely LOVE black IPAs. You get the bitter roastiness of the roasted grains and the maltiness that typically goes with stouts, but the hop bitterness as well. It's awesome.
 
I think we can all agree on at least one common trait among all these craft brews as of late. No matter if you enjoy IPAs, stouts, lagers, or any ale, we have a much better selection of beer now than we did 15 years ago.
 
MarathonMurse said:
The point is, that's what I have available locally. You may have better, but I have no idea what a belgian, bock, trippel, or dozens of other styles taste like- they're simply not available to me because of the over saturation of IPAs.
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Uncovering BS one Google search at at time:

The point is I just looked you up. Hobart, IN. There are a plethora of beer options within striking distance from you. You are either just complaining for the sake of it, or you have a very limited ability to travel beyond the BMC liquor store around the corner....I suspect it's the former.

15minutest to Merrilville, and the first pub I looked up had all of 1 IPA on tap. The next hoppiest beer was Fat Tire...an Amber ale.

Within an hour, the beer options are virtually limitless.

You are either just complaining for the sake of it, or you have a very limited ability to travel beyond the BMC liquor store around the corner....I suspect it's the former, since you can be at one of the best beer retailers in the midwest in less then an hour by car, or less then 2 hours by public transport.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Hob...be7a54168431ff50!2m2!1d-87.654339!2d41.881511
 
So your argument is that I have variety available if I drive for 2 hours and pay for parking in Chicago? Sorry, but gas, tolls, and parking adds up to a quick $50.

And your other option is to drink and drive? Classy.
 
I don't think IPA is a fad per say. Here in Washington State which we all know yakima hold 90% of the worlds hops supply. So we lean towards that hoppy goodness. IPA's are just a matter taste I know many people who dont like IPA's and fair number of people who really enjoy them. I feel its a matter of developing your palette to seek the enjoyment in which IPA's brings to many people. I enjoy the hop flavor that certain strains of hop brings to the beer.
 
MarathonMurse said:
So your argument is that I have variety available if I drive for 2 hours and pay for parking in Chicago? Sorry, but gas, tolls, and parking adds up to a quick $50.

And your other option is to drink and drive? Classy.
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Clearly, I think you're complaining for the sake of it. A simple google maps search of "brewery" near Hobart, IN results in ~6 breweries within a 15-mile radius.

Figure 8 has a Saison, a pilsner, an oatmeal stout.

18th Street has a french saison and a double milk stout.

1bbl nano Hunter Brewing doesn't have their tap list online, but is nearby

Crown Brewing has a cream ale, two porters, an irish red, four seasonal stouts, and their guest bottle list sports more stouts, Two Brothers' saison, and a couple european beers (non-hoppy).

And then you have Three Floyds, where, sure, there are a lot of IPAs, but there are a lot of other beers too.

But go ahead, continue whining about how there's "only" IPA around you...
 

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