Oh well. I’d guess 90% of the beer I drink is IPAs, then 5% sours and 5% other. I LOVE hops. Gimme an Imperial, double., or triple IPA over a stout, porter, pilsner, or lager any day.
That said, I’ll drink any beer.
I think most IPAs are fine (I actually can’t think of one I’ve had that I’d describe as “bad”), but that’s my gripe with them is that it feels like IPAs are so dominant in the market that situations like you describe present themselves. I love IPAs, but there’s only so many variations on a theme, and, after awhile, it’s really difficult to distinguish this new brewery’s IPA from that new brewery’s IPA, so I just end up sticking to my regular four or five IPAs (Bell’s Two Hearted, Three Floyd’s Zombie Dust or Alpha King [both are technically APAs, I think], Revolution Anti-Hero, and one of Dogfish Head’s offerings.) I mean, yes, there certainly are differences between IPAs, but I just stopped caring a long time ago to keep sampling new ones, when I have my go-tos for the style.
The very thought is perverse. :eek:
I would agree that 7 years ago, the beer market was flooded with bad IPAs but nowadays, there are a lot more varieties of hops available and a lot of IPAs that have a bit more going on than just bitter. Mosaic, as an example, is a newer hop variety that usually results in a very drinkable IPA.
TOFU - “Cheeselike food made of curdled soybean milk.”
First of all, any definition that begins with the amendment “like” is horrific by definition.
“Cheeselike” - LIKE cheese; resembling cheese; passing for cheese; but we can’t call it real cheese. Now, I don’t know about you, but I have memories as a child of my mom sniffing a milk container, getting a contorted look on her face, and exclaiming, “Ugh, it’s curdled!” In other words, “curdled” being equivalent to stinky, icky, spoiled, whatever.
So, I’m supposed to eat a “foodLIKE” substance that was created from something that laid around long enough to curdle?! Really?!
Oh, it’s definitely better now. But I’m still stunned at how dominant IPAs are. I thought about a decade ago the market would have diversified much more, but it’s been slow going. Sours have, of the last few years, eaten into the market, but they’ve become their own niche fad and, unlike IPAs, I’ve had some really bad sours. (And, not to be the “I was there before it was cool guy,” but here I go anyway: I started enjoying sours about 15 years ago, when you were lucky if you can find maybe something by Cantillon and Hanssens offerings in a very well-stocked liquor store. So I was happy when it somehow, much to my amazement, became a mainstream taste. But, holy shit, are some of the new brews bad.)
Which, ironically enough, was essentially the genesis of cheese.
The beer scene is getting better and trending away from IPAs, but there are still way, way too many bad IPAs on the market. It’s not like I don’t like IPA, my favorite is Loose Cannon from Heavy Seas in Baltimore, the right balance of bitter and flavor. I think there was this weird period that we’re coming out of where a lot of people were drinking IPAs to “show off” and didn’t like it nearly as much as they pretended. There are some truly execrable IPAs out there.
For another controversial culinary contribution: I like ham and pineapple on pizza, but it has to be big chunks of fresh pineapple that becomes caramelized a bit.
See, I thought that about 10 years ago. There’s probably a thread here on the Dope somewhere where I say that we’re moving out of our IPA phase and, yet, here we are 10 years later with IPAs still being the beer that almost every new goddamned brewery churns out as their flagship beer, or so it seems to me. (And I know there’s a reason to pick that style, as it’s kind of easy to do and can hide defects and all. I mean, just look at me: I’ve never had what I would characterize as a truly bad IPA. Unmemorable is about as far as I have experienced, and that’s probably 95% of IPAs out there.)
You’re right about IPAs being easy beers to make that cover up a lot of mistakes. For a truly crap IPA, try Raging Bitch’s the only thing it has going for it is the artwork on the can.
I was talking to a guy who was opening his own brew pub and I asked what kind of beers he was going to make. He listed a bunch and then said “and an IPA because I have to for the people who think they know beer, but don’t.”
Everything you’ve written here is wrong to the point of absurd to the point of surreal. I will go to my grave insisting that this post was just a poorly thought out joke.
Thirty Helens agree: Coleslaw deserves another chance.
Here’s a couple of my own:
Sushi is Japanese fast food. It shouldn’t be expensive or served at a candlelit table at a fancy sit-down place with $50 bottles of sake. I wish we had a sushi conveyor belt diner near me.
Budweiser is a fine beer. So is PBR, Hamms, and many other easy-drinking lager beers that dominated the 20th Century. However, Bud light, or any light beer for that matter, is garbage rejected from the depths of hell.
Cake sucks. It never fails to disappoint. The prettier it looks, the worse it tastes. Give me a Betty Crocker brownie or cookie over a fancy cake any day. Pie, on the other hand, is the dessert of the gods. I thank my lucky stars that you can’t create a reality game show around who can make a pie that looks most like a castle or horse. Pie always looks like pie.
I’m with you! The only “cheese” to use for a grilled cheese sandwich is Velveeta. I’ve tried other cheeses, real cheeses and the sandwich is always tasteless.
First, “Cheese-like food” is only a description used by westerners. Everyone else just calls it food, and is not meant to be used as a cheese substitute. Frankly I don’t know why people started to use it as a cheese substitute, as it’s flavor and texture is not even close.
Second, cheese is made from “curdled” i.e. spoiler milk. Just in a controlled manner, and people who eats spoiled milk have no place to disparage any other food.
I looked it up and I know what you’re talking about. It’s that cross-style of “Belgian IPA.” Yeah, I don’t like any of those. I’m almost certain I’ve had Flying Dog’s Raging Bitch, and I’ve just lumped it into the category of “why are people trying to cross pollinate these two styles? It doesn’t work!” It seems to have its fans, though, so I just chalk it up to a style I don’t particularly like.
Cereal is really good with water.
This is so true. It’s like IPA is made for people new to the brew-pub scene, and it seems like a safe beer to try, especially since the menu is typically 50% or more IPA choices. I am sure there are some IPA that may be worth it, but I have been burned too many times. Give me a stout, porter, red, or even a summer blond instead.
Midwestern style pizza is underrated and since its easier to do than NY style you are less likely to get a bad piece.
For those who do not like IPAs, keep an eye out for Cream Ales. A few brewers have been telling me to expect cream ales to be the new-big-thing.
I like cream ales. I liked Genesee Cream Ale when I was a kid and I still do today. But, to my palate every freaking cream ale tastes exactly like genny cream ale. Not that that is a negative…
You’re insane and possibly inhuman.
Not all charcuterie is preserved meat. It also encompasses fresh or cooked prepared meats like various forcemeats and fresh sausages.