I'd saw off my leg for my grocery store to start carrying something besides shitty IPA's and Budweiser
I'd saw off my leg for my grocery store to start carrying something besides shitty IPA's and Budweiser
What do you mean it's only IPAs here?
Why there's also Double IPAs, triple IPAs, quad IPAs, Imperial IPAs, every kind of fruit-infused IPAs, hazy IPAs, seasonal IPAs, limited edition IPAs, New England style IPA, West Coast Style IPAs, wheat IPAs, rye IPAs, oat IPAs, Session IPAs, red IPAs, and non-alcoholic IPAs.
And if none of that appeals to you we also have a limited edition seasonal dry-hopped pils that according to the menu tastes like an IPA.
You forgot Black IPA's, which I unironically love and have an extremely difficult time finding compared to 5-10 years ago.
Depends where you live. Areas with a smaller craft brew scene do end up with the "nothing but IPA" problem. But where I live in the PNW there's simply so damn many that even with 50% of them being IPA's, you still get a huge selection of other pilsners, stouts, amber ales, hefenweizens... its pretty nice.
About 10 years ago it was probably closer to 80% IPAs. It was a big joke here that IPA stands for I Pretend (I'm not an) Alcoholic.
The only reason there is more on the market now is because we all stopped pretending the taste of motor oil with grapefruit gave us a better buzz.
Even now, most breweries will only seem to offer 4 varieties of IPAs, a pilsner/lager and a stout. Maybe an Amber but I feel the Mac & Jack's copycat scene has mostly died out now.
Very true. I thought I hated craft beer because I lived in a small town in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, Minnesota. I moved to Minneapolis, and it's craft beer galore. My personal favorite brewery is Fair State
True. It does seem like it is more than 50% sometimes. Unforthcoming my taste buds are pretty burnt out from too many IPAs at this point. I used to love a wide range of beers but now basically stick to a hoppy-nonhoppy scale. I used to love Belgians and ambers and porters and all sorts of beers that were on the maltier side. Not really my jam anymore.
My comment isn’t disagreeing with you. Only adding my two cents.
I live in an city that is on the top 10 list for breweries per capita in the world. And it’s all IPAs. Maybe 20% is not. And yeah it’s nice that I have 20 beers to chose from that aren’t ipas when I go to a place with 100 taps. I just hate having to sort though it all.
There should be an IPA menu, and a non ipa menu.
Also: IPAs have a lot of sugar content, and combined with alcohol sugar gives me a shitty buzz and a headache. I don’t know how people can drink more than one.
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?
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.
For anyone who likes IPAs anyway, their low alcohol versions do tend to taste a lot more like real beer than any low alcohol pale lager does.
What types of beer would you recommend?
Username checks out
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.
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)
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!"
IPAs sell.
A lot of that stuff existed alongside IPAs like Dogfish Head for years. The explosion of IPAs in recent years coincides with the rise of Tree House Brewing, who may not have invented the New England IPA, but certainly mainstreamed it. At their second brewery, you'd see license plates from all over the country and you had to either show up 3 hours before opening or wait 3 hours in line. It was insanity. They were selling out every day at $15-20 a can back in 2014. They made stupid money, and their expansions since then will tell you all you need to know.
Anyway, within a year, the copycats started appearing, and that's when the IPA craze really took off.
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.
cant relate. i love the International Phonetic Alphabet
Well, I also like Isopropyl Alcohol
Fuck that, I love ipas. I had to live half if my life with bland lager and pilsner and nothing else. Ipas ftw
There are beers that are not IPA but do have taste too.
Me Me Me Me Me
So you don't give a shit that they only sell IPA as long as you're satisfied? Sounds like one hell of an ego trip to me.
Can't a man get a sour or two? Maybe some regional cider, if it's not too much to ask?
You may, we have a space provisioned at the rear of the facility
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.
Have you ever had a hopped cider?
Come to New England and have some Downeast. Don’t need any other cider after that.
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.
Meanwhile, in France, wine consumption is down due to craft beers to the point the government is going to spend 200 millions to prevent market crash.
Not being a beer drinker I have to ask: why the IPA craze? Aren't lagers, stouts and whatever other beers an option for crafters?
IPAs are still riding a popularity high in the US. It's easy to make, you don't have to be as precise and careful with your beer when you make them, the hops will hide your mistakes. Sign of a bad brewery, is they only sell IPAs. Currently in the US, IPAs are the top selling style, unfortunately. Saisons are so much better, for example.
Basically, despite all the vocal complaints, IPAs sell better.
I enjoy IPAs personally but it does get frustrating when you want something different.
While not the cheapest, IPAs are relatively easy to make and extremely easy to iterate on. IPAs in general allow brewers to fine-tune flavors and thus pump out multiple novel flavors quickly in order to find a market. If you go the stout or lager route, there's really only so much wiggle room as they're mostly 'solved' beers; as in buyers know exactly what they want to taste, and you better deliver that taste. IPAs are also really, really easy to dial in alcohol content without giving up flavor, where as lagers like Budweiser can only lower alcohol content while lowering the overall taste profile, hence the term 'piss water' for low alcohol lagers.
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.
Honest advice? Brew it your self.
I started making my own beer because I couldn't find a good Scotch ale. I now have a pile of recipes for English style of ale (which I'm happy to share for those interested).
Stout n port game down under is strong. We have good selection here now but it's pricey.
There was a time where i could walk down the street and get a 4-pack of guinness from the gas station, but now it's all IPAs. That, or cheap beer.
Same here. The few that are available aside from guineas extra stouts and a couple nationwide coffee/oatmeal stouts are like $16 for four cans. I can't afford that.
At this point my taste buds are even burnt out on good IPAs (for those who accept such a premise as possible).
I'm lucky enough to see some good reds/stouts/etc come through a few times a year, but the ratio of IPA:Not is just ridiculous IMO.
yeah TBH I barely drink beer at all anymore because finding beers I like has gotten to be such a chore.
There's some IPA's I like but I don't like drinking nothing but IPA's every time I drink beer. And pretty much the only "mainstream" beer I spend money on is Modelo, but again, if I drink nothing but that all the time after a while I start to get tired of it.
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 just want a dark good thick porter that doesn't taste like an IPA but burned and bitter.
Thank God stout season is coming back at least
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
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.
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
Yeah I feel like the "lol OMG all craft beers are IPA" meme is pretty outdated, and just not true anymore in my experience.
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.
It's almost Oktoberfest season! There will be lots of great non-IPA beers then!
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! 😁
Sour beers are where it's at
Breweries are everywhere now but when I go and there isn’t even one sour on the list I get really disappointed.
I had the best sour a few weekends ago in NH. I really wish there was a wider variety around. They’re always my favorite. Love a good stout too.
So many breweries half ass a sour, Victory-style.
It's true. But I also hate the flavored sours. Where they're literally adding flavoring to beer.
I'm currently enjoying Axe & Arrow. Honestly great with actual fruit.
It's nice to have variety, but I'd like to be able to buy a tall can of an amber ale or something on my way home from work.
Oh absolutely. It's good to have at least one beer you can always come back to. For me that's been the Dogfish Head Sea Quench Ale
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.
I just got into home brewing over the last year. The process is a lot easier than expected. You can yield about 5 gallons of beer for about $40, USD. The initial start up cost to get the gear wasn't unreasonable either.
Same here! I even found most my stuff second hand off craigslist / Facebook marketplace. So far have made a great peanut butter porter, coconut milk stout and hefeweizen.
Yeah you need a bucket, an airlock, some bottles, a few hand tools, and some wort and yeast.
Years ago I started to get into it, and looked up how to make beer on Youtube. First hit I got was this guy walking into this industrial kitchen-like room with lots of stainless steel equipment and grinding some wheat. And I'm like "well I guess this is beyond my reach." Then I found a guy called Craigtube and it's like "Oh yeah, this is doable."
You have some pretty cheap ingredients. Beers I made were generally closer to $60.
Obviously different beers range in price, but most of the yeast and hops I have built up a stash on hand. Generally when I go to the store I only need the grains for the most part.
I love IPAs. I t seems that the sour and gose fad is still going on, but IPAs are easy to produce and popular, so I don't think they're going anywhere anytime soon.
jesus christ gose, really? my wife is german and when she had a gose a few months ago she said it reminded her of her childhood (her parents would let her have some when she was like 13 and they'd order large bottle for the table w/ dinner)
Yeah, they started getting popular about 4 years ago and pretty much every US tap house has at least one these days.
I've been liking the NEPA's (orange / citrus based)
Tried one sour and it was meh. Definitely a one beer type for me.
NE and hazy IPAs are where it's at. A little bit of citrus and/or floral flavor to set off the bitter hops... Mmmm
If you're into fruitier beers, you should try pairing a wheat beer with goat cheese. My GF and I had a fried goat cheese appetizer with jalapeno jelly and house brewed key lime gose few year ago. It was killer, and we said we needed to go back, but then quarantine, supply chain, yada yada, and here we are sitting at our computers.
On edit: changed "key goses" to key lime gose".
Don’t forget hard-everything.
Belgian ales are where it's at.
It's the yeast baby
I've noticed more of those popping up lately, which is good for me because I also enjoy them.
Thank you, totally agree on this. Give me a nice kosch or something else interesting
In all my beer drinking days, I've seen a kolsh on the shelf or on tap maybe two times. Otherwise I've always had to brew my own.
For me it's bourbon barrel aged pastry stouts and other barrel aged barley wines.
Any kolsch paired with a clean pilsner is a nice combo.
Ugh same here, every selection is half IPAs. Not a fan myself but the history behind the style is my favorite beer "origin story". It would help if more breweries listed the hops used. To me that's the key to knowing if I'll like it
Not just half... Some companies even make IPA Variety Packs! Where the hell is my Stout variety pack? Or my bourbon barrel aged ale variety pack!?
Also, yes, if they listed what hops were used I might actually try some IPAs instead of assuming all of them taste like a bitter flower that's trying to make me gag.
Nothing tastes better then a pint of liquid bark, just goes down so smooth!
/s
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.
@prole They tend to not be available in the grocery stores nearby. The only place I've found a really good one was at a brewery tour and it was a one off brew someone had done for the attached bar.
Never had a beer I liked, and EVERY SINGLE TIME a friend will tell me what they like is actually good "you can't even taste the beer flavor, just the blank" and every single time, it tastes like beer with no hint of the blank.
Same. I gave up on beers years ago. I accept it's not worth my money anymore just in hopes of figuring out what people like about it. I still enjoy some wines (though relatively few and I wouldn't consider it an amazing taste). Mixed drinks are really where it's at. Can't go wrong with spiced rum and diet coke! There's also so many very delicious sugary mixed drinks, but I try to minimize those because it'd take like 500+ calories to get a buzz.
People's palates work differently. You might just have one that is more suitable for something else than beer, I guess.
Yeah, that sounds about right. Funnily, I'm also the only person I know that drinks tequila on occasion that doesn't have a horror story about it.
God, I thought I was the only one. relief
I agree. Shitty IPAs are shitty, but I guess that is by definition.
I've switched back to regular old boring Heineken. Gimme something crispy and watery that won't weigh me down at 10am.
I did a Sweet 16 bracket elimination contest for regional IPAs a few years back just to force myself to identify the 'good' ones and eliminate bad ones. Even after doing that, I do a little dance any time there's something else available.
Or sours, gross
How dare you.
Lol the down votes don't matter, I think people are just having fun.
And I'm only feigning outrage because sours are my favorite.
I wasn't one of the downvotes, fair
Ugh, I once made the mistake of not checking what I was ordering at a bar.
Sour pumpkin beer. I know that many people like sours, and I like some pumpkins, but together, I'm out.
I feel you.
I brew my own beer just have a decent Munich style lager.
Looking at you New Belgium. How many damn IPA's do you need? "Cigarette butts in a can" all taste the same.
"cigarette butter" as in, milk a cigarette, then churn? Yeah that's about the flavor of an IPA.
I meant "butts" but of course both work!
Love their Trippel though
Thought I was on r/bartenders for a minute there :)
I like IPA and there's like 3-4 very distinct sort of IPAs. There's a imperial IPA from a local craft around me that's almost caramel dark and people might not even call an IPA on a blind taste test.
But, I must agree it's kinda silly theres 2-3 IPAs in the craft section for every other type most places. I tend to buy the IPAs when I buy craft beer (outside of making a trip to the really big selection places) because the only other craft options are like "bland blonde #82 from probably owned by Budweiser brewery" or "ale that tastes like spoiled Newcastle". Sometimes they have dales pale ale in a few different labels for more money.
Craft beer has just become a shit show at retailers for me. No one carries any of the cans I like anymore. I have to go far out of my way to buy anything I actually want. Fortunately I live 15ish minutes from a downtown with a half dozen good breweries that have 10+ beers on tap year round. I'm not a bar/brewery person and I wish I could get cans to drink at home still though.
Lol you nailed it with "spoiled Newcastle" for ales.
Also, IPA's are so 2010. At least here in the Pacific North West, where the "craft brewing revolution" started.
I just like beer, don't really care about trends. I also live in the deep south. Like it's 110 somewhat regularly this time of year deep south. So a good 6-8 months of the year I'm not normally looking to drink anything dark and heavy. Most IPA is drinkable when I'm sweating my pits out in the summer.
IPAs must be "babbies first brew" in terms of difficulty while a decent lager or stout is the Dark Souls of brewmasters.
Wisconsin here and grocery stores here sell pretty much anything your alcoholic mind can think of
You from the states? Over here in Germany I can get (in a 5 km radius):
- Pilsener
- Hefeweizen
- Schwarzbier
- Porter
- Kölsch
- Lager
- Export
- Bock
- Helles
- Alt
- Kellerbier
- Landbier
- IPA
- Stout
- Red Ale
- Brown Ale
- dubbel/trippel/quadruppel
- ...
We can get almost all of those here, too, though the traditional German ones seem to be less common. What bothers me is that IPA, fine brews, have been a freaking obsession here for about 10 years, and it's driving me nuts. It's at the point where one says "I want a craft beer" and they list 10 IPA, one lager, one amber ale, and Guinness.
C'mon people, take your heads out of your asses and look around!
It really varies by location in the states. Im lucky enough to live in an area with a ton of different craft breweries that do a ton of different things, but there's definitely places here that have fuckall in that area
It has to vary wildly by region in the US, because in the northeast, this "hurr durr only IPAs everywhere" meme hasn't been accurate for like 10 years, if it was ever accurate at all.
Have a gander at the last 20 drinks here: https://untappd.com/PariahBrewingCompany
I literally walked into this place last year to check it out, saw what was on tap and had to turn around and walk out (the strong ale or witbier even wasn't even there). It was IPAs all the way down.
I've seen kolsch in the PNW of the US a couple times. It doesn't hit the same as it did when I was in Germany though.
I was able to get a locally produced rauchbier at the Cincy Beer fest about 12 years ago. Cincinnati has a large ethnically German population, but I was still surprised by that.
Oh yeah, forgot about rauchbier. I don't like it very much though.
Rauchbier is such an experience. For anyone who gets the opportunity to try one: get two. You'll need to drink one to get used to it and another to really enjoy it.
What is this, 2012?
I thought, not so long ago, this was the same meme but with "pilsner" instead if "ipa" .
I guess things are a trend/popular for a reason.
Try Sour Monkey
Berry Monkey tastes even better and is even a bit stronger. It's dangerous lol
Thank you for the recommendation!!
I love IPAs, but I do have to wonder why don't they make more varieties.
Wow, that sounds awful. Happy to live in a place where I can get good beers and a variety of them.
Good news OP. It’s almost Jack-O Pumpkin Ale season.
Disclaimer: im an IPA drinker. But honestly, I will drink almost any style of beer. Just no bretts for me.
I’ve honestly gotten to the point where I’m just buying from my local breweries. I still grab some from the grocery stores, but I’m done hoping the grocery stores will carry the good stuff.
The local grocery that’s supposed to be the “good guys” (they aren’t) gutted their beer aisle and somehow got rid of almost all the good stuff.
I'm happy with the number of varieties of ciders and perris for sale here. And some nice wines, these days. Sometimes the trick is to switch from beer.
My local breweries have tons of options but the grocery stores only carry their IPAs and at most 1 other variety. Usually a blonde.
I feel lucky. Two great local breweries are as easy to visit as a grocery store run.
They both do classic styles and delicious NEIPA.
And, these two joints aren't even the top breweries in the state per many, many beer snobs. Fuck, Treehouse and Trillium.
Rock it Widowmaker and Long Live!
New England represent!
Even some gas stations have big selections of local craft beer around here.
Here in Kansas City we have plenty of IPA. But there are a bunch of breweries and they all have plenty of non ipa varieties.
I cant tell the difference.
I've been enjoying Magic Hat lately
My local liquor stores carry Killian's Irish Red Ale and I swear by it. It's hearty with a subtle oaty sweetness.
Otherwise maybe look for Sam Adams? Or is that only a Massachusetts thing?
Seems like OP only goes to shitty bars that only have bud light and lagunitas IPA on tab. Get a Hop Passport and explore the local scene https://www.hoppassport.com/ (assuming you are in the US)
Or OP lives in Seattle. This place has great beer culture in theory, but in practice it's an IPA hellscape.