Don’t get me wrong, I still drink them from time to time. I have a keg on right now. But here’s my top reasons.
You can’t “downshift” meaning: If you drink an IPA the only thing you can really enjoy the rest of the night is hoppy beers. Hops just destroy your pallet. Go try drinking a nice German Dunkel after a hoppy IPA. You can’t really enjoy it. OTOH if you drink a dunkel you can switch to pils, or doppelbock or barley wine or … even IPA!
ANYTHING will make them taste odd. I had chapped lips. I put on some chapstick. Tried to drink an IPA and could not get my head around what I was tasting - just tasted bad. Or the time I brought some “Italian Ices” into the brewery. Went to taste an IPA and was like “WTF is wrong with this”. Had to ban italian ice after that.
Shelf life.
Pain in the add to brew. Probably not as much of a problem on the home brew level. Dissolved o2 is an issue in how you add the dry hops though (see #3).
It was during the San Diego AHA conference that I realized that I didn’t really enjoy IPA that much. In that town with virtually nothing but IPA’s available, it was hard to seek a craft alternative.
I still enjoy a nice IPA occassionally, but it’s long past a position of ‘go to’.
Peanut butter beers are all over Central IL, no idea why. Went on a bus trip to a few breweries, almost every place had a peanut butter porter or stout.
Lucky for you on the availability, hazy ipa’s seems like a real hit or miss style.
I haven’t tasted a lot of kolsches that are satisfying, a lot better luck with satisfying pilsners. Any thoughts on why that is?
Final thought: I honestly have also been shifting of IPAs, but mostly because I’ve found a place with an amazing Norwegian Farmhouse Ale.
And as a side peeve: You think hazy IPAs are annoying? How come whenever I DO see a brewery (major ones even) putting out a Pils, it’s not crystal clear? Get you $#!+ together, craft brewers, step up like a real brewery. I now return you to your regularly scheduled fray.
Why stop at pils not being clear? The local brewpub is the same way. Bitter, Stout, Pils, Helles, Cream Ale, IPA, Brown Ale, Red Ale, Porter…in the last year I’ve tried all those styles, and all have been cloudy.
And not just a little cloudy, we’re talking you can taste the yeast cloudy. Whatever yeast they use seems to have a peanut-like flavor. On rare occasions when the beer is clear that flavor isn’t there.
I get that small breweries may not have time to let beer settle, so maybe we should be fussing at the consumers willing to buy crappy beer…
Time to let beer settle? Read Kunze. German brewers (and he considers this ideal practice) ferment eight days, lager seven to ten, and filter and carbonate. As a homebrewer, I lager two or three weeks and filter and carbonate, just because I don’t get around to moving the batch on. Even with IPA, I remember Teri Fahrendorf being quoted as saying “an unfiltered IPA is like an unfocused picture.” Unless it’s a Hefe or a Wit, hazy beer is a sign of: a) seriously stale beer or b) seriously slack brewing. Most beer will already be staling by the time it clears itself. Filter. OK I again return you to whatever.
My bad! Cask ale has its own exemption from filtration. But look how hard the brewers at the turn of the 20th c. worked to develop rapidly clearing yeasts and better finings. And I can tell you, no matter how much beer is left in cask, as soon as the slightest turbidity appears, good British pub patrons will raise the alarm, and a publican worth his salt will change casks. Crystal clear bitter is its own special joy. EDIT To your point Phil, at the turn of the century, British consumers would not accept running beers unless they were as brilliant as the aged stock beers they were replacing! So yeah, uneducated consumers are part of the problem
Doesn’t it seem like most people who switch to craft beer do so because they get tired of drinking the same thing every day? (BMC) Just to… drink the same thing every day. (IPA)
I like them. But I like a lot of things. Honestly, over a six pack of the world’s best IPA, I would choose 6 different kind of average, anything else. Of course if a mixer 6 pack actually were available, it would probably be an IPA, a NEIPA, an over hopped Pale Ale, an IPA brewed with Belgian yeast, a Black IPA, and a barrel aged triple IPA.
Personal preference? I like both styles very well. I like my kolsch a bit more estery. Pils I like with a solid hop presence.
I should say I don’t really have any qualms with the NEIPA style except that the beer geeks are so head over heals about them. That is what I find so truly annoying. I don’t particularly care for them personally but I do agree they manage to pack some amazing hop aromas and flavors.
Whenever I go to a brewery for the first time, I try out their pils, Kolsch, or other similar beer. If it’s good, I know they can brew. You can’t hide mistakes in those beers.
I like many types of beers. But, there is something amazing about a pils that is well done.
I extend my right hand of fellowship to all the pils brewers out there (like me)!
If you ever find yourself in Austin TX, stop at ABGB for some outstanding Pils. The have a lighted sign now that says “Pils Pils Pils”. I didn’t get a picture.
Scroll down to see a picture of their GABF winners. Clear but not filtered, I think, one brewer said he like Biofine-clear.
Those are some beautiful beers. I remember you brought Biofine to my attention elsewhere on the forum, Jeff. I really have to try it, but I recall that it’s temperature sensitive and I’ll have to wait till after the thaw to order it!
