IPA’s are like someone took the worst part of beer and made it the only part of the beer.
Oh, no…I like IPAs…does this mean you guys are gonna make me go back to Reddit?
I’m afraid so. Enjoying an IPA is simply unconscionable in the Lemmy hive mind.
Seriously though, I like an IPA once in a while myself, I just wish the local store had a little more selection
It’s not a hive mind, it’s a central consciousness
It actually is more of a hive mind than reddit. A decentralized consciousness.
Resistance is futile.
It’s a collective consciousness
No, you’ll just be the lemmy nerd and be bullied about it.
Yeah, alcohol. IPAs taste like bitter piss as much as lagers do but at least with IPAs I get drunk faster and don’t put on as much weight.
I’ve always liked IPAs, and I’m probably going to continue to, but the style is kinda beat. They’re at a point now where they’re just doing the most nitpicky variations on the theme. Dry-hopped rather than wet? That’s a juicy IPA. Lactose back sweetening? Milkshake IPA. Ran out of finings and can’t clarify your beer? It’s not ruined, it’s haaaaaazy. Strong enough to black you out after three? Double IPA. After two? Imperial IPA. No stronger than the American light lagers you used to steal from your dad? Session IPA.
The point of IPAs was that they were full of huge, bold flavor in a market that was saturated by beers that were competing with one another to taste the most like a vodka soda and have the lowest calories (and therefore ABV) possible. They were the revolutionary vanguard of beer that tasted like beer. But now I can get all sorts of wild shit. Fruit sours, coffee/chocolate stouts, real pilseners that actually taste like beer, proper copper lagers, all sorts of amazing stuff. The era of the IPA being the only “real beer” has ended. I wish someone would tell the breweries.
Man, all those “wild things” you mention have existed for ages here in Belgium. IPAs are pretty much the new kid on the block. Weird how different our cultures are.
Do you mean you wish someone would tell the stores? You just said you can get all those other things, those would be coming from breweries.
No, I mean I wish someone would tell the breweries that they can pare it back to only seven different IPAs per season and instead invest more in different styles. I can get some wild shit because I’m fortunate to have one really good store about 20 minutes away but between being in PA with weird laws about who can sell booze, how strong it can be and how much they can sell and the relative glut of local brewers that are still in 2010 we could stand some work. Even moreso because the summer is winding down and I can already hear the thunderous sound of the Imperial Pumpkin Ales rolling in. “It’s 14% ABV! Put a caramel cinnamon rim on the glass and it might even taste like something!”
I love a real ass IPA, but like anything, after a while you get bored of the same old same old. Dabbled with seltzers for a hot minute, but I’m back to wine/cider mostly now. IPAs being so heavy feel more like Trappistes to me now: only during the winter.
Fair go. I really only brew ciders and seltzers nowadays but that’s mostly because they don’t have a cook step (and therefore don’t have a wort chilling step that’s a giant pain in the ass and a wonderful place for infection to creep in)
IPAs sell.
OMG, I’ve quit so many homebrew clubs because of their unnatural fascination with hops, Hops, HOPS!!! Boil 'em, brew on 'em, back 'em in your taps… HOPSSS!!!
If i wanted to feel like I’ve just been smacked in the face with a bag of fresh grass cuttings, I’m sure I could pay a guy.
One fucking guy was making hops extracts to DROPPER into his Hazy New England IPA so there was a fucking green oil slick on top. I quit on the spot, got up and walked out.
Reference brewing in to US is a lost art. Present a Kölsch or a Maibock in spec and they shit on you because its too sweet, but if you just make it an Imperial with more hops…?
Ptui.
Removed by mod
Can’t a man get a sour or two? Maybe some regional cider, if it’s not too much to ask?
I mean yeah, sure. You can at every beer store near me 🤷🏻
I think that’s kinda the thing about this post. Alot of people don’t have a place to find these things at all. Though I know a few, just not super convenient for me. I feeling like I am ALWAYS at the grocery store for something, though.
You may, we have a space provisioned at the rear of the facility
Have you ever had a hopped cider?
Some brewers can’t help themselves. Even when they brew a style that would traditionally have low IBUs they bump it up by about 10. Lagunitas totally messed with Newcastle Brown Ale once they got their grubby hops-loving mitts on it.
This breaks my heart as I’ve been looking to try it since I loved the old one
Lagunitas already makes too many IPAs. I like them, but you would think they would want some variety in their lineup. Its sad to hear that they messed up the old brown ale.
Even more luck need if you dare like dark beer.
I guess I’ll always have Guinness and negro modelo. but I crave variety.
I just want a good brown or porter.
cant relate. i love the International Phonetic Alphabet
Well, I also like Isopropyl Alcohol
I feel like this has changed a lot, actually. 8-10 years ago it was all IPAs, but now I can find all kinds of craft beer. Maybe it’s more of a west coast thing. I currently enjoy grabbing new Pilseners when I see them.
Lucky you. In the south east is just the typical big name brands and an unrelenting wall of pale ale, unless you go out of your way to a store that specializes in boutique beers
I don’t think it’s just a west coast thing. I live in the Midwest, and my local Kroger has two beer aisles: one for typical macrobrew/domestic stuff, another entirely dedicated to craft beers. IPAs make up like 40% of the craft aisle, which is a lot, but it’s by no means the only option anymore.
Yeah I feel like the “lol OMG all craft beers are IPA” meme is pretty outdated, and just not true anymore in my experience.
milk stout, Belgian Ale, porter, or brown ale - excellent most of the year.
Wheat ale, white ale, whitbier are where it’s at for thirst quenching in summer heat.
For those of us in New England - treehouse brewery, for the win!
I once home brewed for a wedding. 21 gallons of beer. One amber, one milk stout, one wheat, and one brown… and only one exploding bottle!
and only one exploding bottle!
People not in the know might think you’re joking, but that’s seriously impressive! 😁
Thank you. I haven’t home brewed in years. It’s a lot of work and very disappointing when a batch gets infected. Depending on where you are, it can be very difficult to properly disinfect the equipment. I do miss it, though.
properly disinfect equipment
I was into the hobby pretty deep before someone taught me the homebrewer’s axiom: fermenters are cheaper than beer.
Idk if that extends to kegs and other equipment though.
Idn raw dollars, yes, but you are committing labor, which has a value. If you are being paid $60/hr at a job, theoretically you should multiply the hours of labor you put on by that value. Of coursevwe know a labor of love should not really be calculated that way, but it is a useful metric.
I remember several of the brews I did were two-stage. They started inn a plastic bucket, then moved to a glass carboy. These produced more sophisticated flavors and clearer beers. That is labor intensive and adds labor and risk of contamination during transfer.
Then there is the bottling process! That’s fun for the first 10 minutes.
I think you’re missing my point, and it’s my fault. For clarity, when I say fermenters are cheaper than beer what I mean is that it’s a bad gamble to try to use a fermenter that may have pockets of infectious material in it from a previously infected brew. Better to spend $30 on a new bucket than to trash $100 worth of ingredients and whatever value you place on your labor because you didn’t want to spend the money on a new primary
Move to Sweden, here you can’t buy a beer above 3.5% abv in a store. Anything above that you have to buy at the state owned liqueur store systembolaget. The upside is that they have a pretty good assortment. The store in my small town carry about 300 different beers. About a third is IPA.
Is a porter too much to ask for?
Hear hear. So few and far between to find a good Porter these days. Then when you do, half the hipster two rooms serve them chilled.
I was so sad when I once stumbled on a limited run stout on tap and they served it ice cold in a heavy frosted mug.
Assuming you’re in the northern hemisphere, yes? Wait until it’s not 100 degrees out and they’ll be back
It’s almost Oktoberfest season! There will be lots of great non-IPA beers then!
Oktoberfest beers are the best beers.
It should be a worldwide holiday.
Cincinnati has a big Octoberfest event every year but I always miss it because it’s in September. I guess I should try to be ready for it this year.
They’re already selling Oktoberfest beers at the stores near me. Feels early, but I do enjoy a good Oktoberfest beer so it evens out.
Around here, Oktoberfest beers come out in mid August, drives me nuts.
Still missing c/beerporn on lemmy! Anyone interested in creating it? :)
We need Showerbeers if anything
As someone who doesn’t drink beer, reading this thread feels like I’m trying to read Dutch: I definitely know some of these words, but the rest is a mystery.
I kinda thought all beer was made roughly the same with just different ingredients, now I’m falling down a deep Wikipedia rabbithole.
It gets nutty.
The Bavarian purity laws defined beer in that part of the world as something that can only have hops, water and wheat. German beers tend to be straightforward and balanced
Belgians had no such compunctions and some will put fruit and other stuff in their beers. Their beers are a bit more out there and yeast (clovey) forward. Lots of Belgian beers also add candy sugar that gets fermented off which is how you get some golden ales that don’t have heavy bodies but have ABVs of 9% and up (Bud is 4% and wine stays around 15%)
British beers tend to be malt forward (ie, biscuity) ales. Legend has it that when the Brits shipped beer to their far off colonies that they over hopped the beer (hops are the bitter element that also acts as a preservative) the deployed soldiers came home and asked for the pale ales like they had grown to love in India and the IPA was born
Americans kind of picked and chose from a lot of the styles around the world and true to form made them bigger, bolder and borderline obnoxious. A lot of the hops being grown these days have been bred to taste certain ways which is why some IPAs taste like citrus or pine trees.
Edit: typos
The Bavarian purity laws defined beer in that part of the world as something that can only have hops, water and wheat.
Hops, water and barley. I think not using wheat was kind of the point actually, since wheat can be made into bread, and you wouldn’t want a bread shortage, would you? Banning others from brewing wheat beers, and then giving a monopoly to your own court brewery to corner the market, is also a baller business move.
Bah! You’re right.
And that’s funny: I never knew it was for someone else to have a monopoly on what beers. Thank you!
There is a local brewery here in Alabama that makes a beer called “Sour-Pash”. Does it have a lot of alcohol? No. Hops? No. Is it fucking delicious and refreshing? You god damn right.
I love this beer, and it’s always sold out when I go to buy it.
There is an entire family of beers called “sours.” They’re funky AF. Pretty weird (but I’ve had good ones).
Dunno if that’s what yours was, but might be something to look into if it is and you like that style.
Sours are cool because they can taste like anything from cold vomit to a liquified popsicle
Just had a sixer of Victory Sour Monkey. They soured a Belgian Tripel. It’s awesome
