I went to a brew pub in Seattle last night. I ordered a flight. They had 2 choices. Choice 1 was a taster of each of their 6 standard offerings.
Choice 2 was a taster of each of their 4 special offerings. The specials were an IPA, a double IPA, a triple IPA, and a double IPA. That made me smile.
I went with choice 1.
How many IPAs were in the standard flight? ;D
1
Nothing against IPA’s. But, can you taste anything after flight no. 2?
That about sums up my experience with Seattle breweries when I was out there.
What’s disappointing is a variety flight of several styles, that all seem an awful lot like IPA.
No, what’s really disappointing is going to a brewpub in California, order a flight of beers (a concept that does not exist in Belgium), taste one disappointing beer after another, and having to stay in the pub forever because your hand continues to move from one glass to the next without picking up any.
The real question is: Why would you want to?
I’m sure I would have gone with the flight of IPAs. Apparently I live in the right part of the world because 80% of the time when I ask myself what style I want to drink, the answer is “An IPA!”
Seriously, there is just so much going on in a good IPA! Malt character, mouth watering acidity, intriguing aromas, bracing bitterness… And each of these categories has three dimensions of variability to experiment with.
I never tire of it. :
Just to be clear. I don’t want to criticize this brew pub. They had a nice environment, good food, and good beer. I enjoyed the flight I purchased.
I just was surprised that the flight of specialties on tap consisted 100% of IPAs. I am guessing this is a reflection of the market.
As to my personal tastes, I like IPAs but tend to shy away from double IPAs. I like an IPA where I can pick out individual hop flavors like orange, citrus, pine, etc. With many double+ IPAs, I tend to think the hop flavors start to over power each other and you end up with a mega blend of hop that is harder to put a finger on and which causes lots of double IPAs to taste the same. Another issue I find with a lot of double IPAs is sweetness. A lot of them have a table sugar taste to me.
I agree. Sweetness and high hopping is a bad combo IMO. The vast majority are underattenuated. Gotta limit crystal, use sugar in place of some base malt, and mash low (148-9 IMO).