Craft Beer and IPA

[Pavros]

Always amuses me the arguement that brewing less hoppy beers is more skillful. The best German beers are so, because of the attention to detail in the process, not a result of the recipe. It is also possible to apply the same attention to detail in brewing a hop monster, a Stout, a sour, best bitter, etc. Balance is a flavour preference, not a sign of quality. Yes, craft beers can be unbalanced, however this is by design not lack of ability or experience. There are good and bad examples of all styles.

I could make some nice, subtly flavoured lemon and herb chicken, but sometimes mouth numbing hot wings just hit the spot.

Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk

This is what I was trying to say but written far better.

My preference is for the session IPAs and Pale Ales. This is subjective and a matter of individual taste. Take for example Brewdog's Mr President Double IPA. I have seen a lot of members writing about how much they like this. I don't as I think it has a 'hot' alcohol taste which I can taste above any other flavour in it. So, to me and my tasting preference, it seems unbalanced, but others would happily drink this in preference to some of the beers I prefer.

I am also dubious when I see new beers with the word 'craft' somewhere on the label as it smacks of marketing and bandwagon-jumping. Sometimes there is a nice beer behind the label, other times, it's just a bland bitter masquerading as an IPA.

As an aside, I saw Proper Job in a pack of 4x330ml cans in a supermarket last week, along with some others in the smaller can size. Is this a new brewery marketing trick as they've seen how popular the smaller breweries 'craft' beers have been? (Morrisons now have some of their beer aisle actually labelled as a 'Craft Beer' section).

 

[GerritT]

My solution is to phase out American hops, and stick to European hops, or NZ and the like. Good pale ales, sometimes a bit of dryhop, but no more citrus bites.

 

[dan125]

Out of interest @mgrds what do you think of saisons or sours?
I love super hoppy beers (among other styles) but can't get along with these two at all, no matter how hard I try.

 

[simon12]

Answering for myself only saisons & sours are about the only styles I don't like. My sisters husband recently made a vanilla coffee porter which I thought was great but he didn't like it at all.

 

[Cwrw666]

Interesting to hear about supertasting. My Mrs. is like that. We live on a farm and she can literaly tell if a fox has walked by in the previous night by the smell.
Me, I'm the opposite. I sometimes make smoked beers which I often find to be way too subtle, but to my wife she says they reek of old bonfires.