WTH is it with IPAs?

[chowmama]

DH and I go out to eat once weekly on Saturday. Today it was a really good pizza place we've been to before. But...

The beer selection was what it usually is - 5 or 6 IPAs, one cider and a cream ale in case Grandma came along. And this isn't at all uncommon anymore. It's really most restaurants.

I like IPAs when I'm in the mood. Not afraid of a high IBU at all. But this is like going to a restaurant that offers desserts and finding the selection is 5 or 6 chocolate cakes and, for the people who don't like chocolate, a single scoop of vanilla ice cream.

The world is full of great beers. Porters, stouts. Wee heavies. Belgian dubbels and tripels. Old fashioned German lagers with the old noble hops. Hefeweizens. Bocks and double bocks. I will drink them all, given a chance. (Not all at once.)

I get the feeling that hops are now what hot chilis were in the 80's? 90's? The period when the point of food became 'How much can you take? How macho are you?'. And any other flavor fell by the wayside. Shrimp and ghost peppers? Do your budget a favor and skip the shrimp; you won't taste it anyway. Anything will do.

I don't want and couldn't afford a place that had a beer sommelier. But it does matter if and what you're eating. What flavors you not only like but are in the mood for today. Is it hot? Cold? How long are you staying and how many do you intend to have?

Maybe I'm a snob. But geez, give me a choice!

[vanlassie]

1. With you 100%. Very tired of IPAs.

I go to England often and I LOVE the variety of none hoppy beers! I come home and it’s IPA or nuttin.

[Historic NY]

2. I call them impatient pale ales for those that can't wait for the good stuff.

[Pinback]

3. Agree 100%

I like an IPA once in a while, but I also like Porter, lager, Pilsner, stout, brown ale, et al. The hops mania has gotten ridiculous.

[Blue Owl]

4. Hear ya

Went thru a phase back when the IPA’s were all the rage but now have gone back to lagers, pilsners, and pale ales….

[House of Roberts]

5. IPAs suck IMHO.

I like a dark malty ale (Founders Dirty Bastard) or a double bock (like Paulaner). I usually end up with a weak lager because that's about all any place offers. I won't drink anything if I'm driving.
The NFL game on CBS had a local Beer and Wine store ad, that boasts over 1000 craft beers. You can consume on premises, but they don't sell food.

[rubbersole]

6. Or just order a Heineken.

Can't go wrong there.

[mopinko]

7. hops cover up a multitude of sins.

the whole point of an ipa is to get beer from england to india still fit to drink. they're a preservative. there's a brew pub near me where at least half the beers are ipas.
it also does not keep it's brew house sterile. every beer i've ever had there has the same stray yeast. it sour, like a belgian beer. so i'm not surprised that the ipas are popular there. the hops cover that up pretty well.

i think the guy is self taught. there arent many places to study brewing. but chicago has the premier school in the country and most of the world. there ought not to be room in the market for lousy self taught brewers, but...

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. I love IPAs myself.

However, despite the complaints I see, every bar or restaurant or brewpub I go to have plenty of other choices, so I'm not sure what the problem is.

[Lunabell]

9. I'm a cheap beer lover.

I like Bud ice or Busch natural ice is actually my favorite. I have tried oh so many different beers. IPAs, really good brands that everyone likes, but I just keep going back to what I really like.

[mitch96]

10. I like some IPA's but for the most part they are starting to taste like

pine needles mixed with fizzy water and a kick in the end..
I'm always seem to be coming back to Guinness or an Irish red ale..
Color me a traditionalist..
m

[Warpy]

11. Remember the good old days? It was Miller, Bud, and Michelob--if you were pretentious

and all of it was really cold and in the bottle--cold so you couldn't taste the carbonated cat pee.

I haven't been able to drink alcohol for decades, so the whole designer beer thing passed me by. I can't imagine loading an otherwise decent beer down with double or triple hops, what a waste! Hops were originally added as a preservative by the Dutch so brew would last more than 2 weeks in the barrel. People discovered they loved the taste and the mildly soporific effect of the plant potentiated the alcohol ever so slightly.

I agree that there's a hell of a lot more to beer than just varying the hops. My own homebrew was a dark amber and had a solid kick and was good at room temperature. I've always preferred darker stuff like porter and stout, but I agree that bock beer is nice. Lager and Pilsner? Meh.

As long as the Nex Big Thing isn't the Japanese beer cocktail. Honestly, just reading some of these things tends to hang up on a tonsil and gag me. https://honestcooking.com/beer-cocktails-inspired-sapporo/ The odd thing is that Japanese beers aren't bad by themselves.

The only thing I ever missed as a nondrinker was beer.

[Kali]

12. totally agree

IPAs and wheat beer...too many, too fashionable or something.

[AKwannabe]

13. It's mostly demographics

Young males buy the most beer.
Young males like IPAs mostly due to high ABVs
Purveyors put on tap what sells the most so they don’t get a skunky keg of stale beer.

I am a bartender. Best practice would be to tap mostly what sells fastest. Other things factor but ya wanna sell it fast. AND IPA’s sell for more per glass everywhere so if you have volume and higher price then you make more money even tho keg costs more wholesale.

A specialty pizza joint might also have another venture-a brewery (as is the case here in Anchorage) and they tap their beers even if name is diff.

All in all, most places are more interested in making money over pleaseing the customer for beer choices - and IPA goes well with pizza cuz they both have intense flavors.

I dislike most iPAs cuz of taste (soap) so not supporting… Just my two cents for what it’s worth.