If you haven’t tried Rogue’s Voodoo-Bacon-Maple Beer, give it a try. Smoked malt. True bacon aroma and taste. Seriously.
I love IPAs. There are few beers that I can drink just one and be satisfied. IPA are great but too many give me some epic heartburn (dont even get me started on hangovers).
Eh, it’s just a matter of personal taste. I’m not a fan of IPA’s; I like my beer mellow and malty. My best buddy* loves* IPA, the bitterer the better.
Somehow, we still manage to get along just fine. 
IPA is my destabilizing compound of choice. There are lots of good ones out there, but my favorite is Mammoth Brewery’s IPA 395. Once in awhile I’ll get an IPA that tastes kind of off (“skunky” would be the term I’d use) – I chalk that up to a old/bad batch or maybe improper storage.
I would say IPA trand is giving way to the trend these day is barrel aging, especially bourbon barrel aging. The thing about IPAs is they can be all over the place in terms of what you get. I personally try to avoid beers that taste to bitter, but there are still some IPAs that I love. And in fact my favorite beer of them all is Pliny the Elder, a double IPA from Russian River Brewing. It is bitter but it is balanced very well and finishes smooth.
[QUOTE=silenus]
{snip} Sweet beers are for chicks and Scotsmen.
[/QUOTE]
I was really enjoying this thread and found it very informative until this remark. Was it really necessary to post such a derogatory generalization?
It is so ruled that silenis owes you a beer. It’s all good. 
Scotch ale is the Edinburgh version of Burton Ale: dark, with a bittersweet, sometimes slightly metallic tang, and generally strong. Scotch Ale was first used as a designation for strong ales exported from Edinburgh in the 18th century. The term has become popular in the USA, where strong ales which may be available in Scotland under a different name are sold in America as “Scotch Ale”, for example, Caledonian’s Edinburgh Strong Ale or Edinburgh Tattoo, is sold in the USA as Edinburgh Scotch Ale. As with other examples of strong ales, such as Barley wine, these beers tend toward sweetness and a full body.
-per Wiki.
As for offense, a thousand pardons, effendi. I grovel, abashed that I have disturbed your tranquility with my japery. I bang my head on the floor in apology.
I’m with the OP on this. My taste buds don’t like bitter, for some reason. I can’t eat endive or other bitter greens, and a beer that is overloaded with hops is just unpleasant to me. So I usually opt out for a lager, a hefeweizen, or other sissy, girly beer.
Add my vote, too. I tend to stay with good, strong lagers as my regular suds, but I will try and probably like almost any variation. But IPA… why anyone would want to drink beer that tastes like Listerine - and why it would become such a widespread taste - just baffles me.
@kayaker & silenus: many thanks for extending the olive branch. I’ll have a Guinness Stout, please!
Oh, don’t get your kilt in a bunch.
And I couldn’t disagree more with the OP, although I do agree with others who’ve said the constant bar-raising in hops content isn’t the greatest trend (I had also thought it similar to the more-macho-than-thou hot sauce phenomenon). I like high-alcohol beer and I’ve grown to really enjoy hops, but there is such a thing as too much.
[QUOTE=Vinyl Turnip]
Oh, don’t get your kilt in a bunch. {snip}
[/QUOTE]
I’m not a Scot, so I won’t presume to speak for Scots (especially now that silenus has explained his joke). I challenge statements alleging all women prefer their alcoholic drinks to be sweet and with a low alcohol content because that stereotype undermines any credibilty a woman may have when she participates in alcohol-related discussions. I would appreciate your understanding how dismissive comments about women’s “girly” tastes make me fear I might be told my participation in discussions such as this one is unwelcome.
I apologize to the OP for the digression and will not go off-topic again.
I’m with the OP. I love all things beer with the huge exception of IPAs. Hops are a necessary evil and need to be minimized.
I likened the trend to the same frenzy that led people to believe that good coffee had to taste burnt a la some of the Starbucks offerings. A bunch of self-proclaimed experts with their toadies walking in lock step in order to appear sophisticated.
The wine industry has the same cadre of “experts” who are so sure of themselves they wouldn’t deign to try a wine that from an area that their fellow experts haven’t sanctioned. These same experts get consistently fooled in blind taste tests. Afraid to admit they like a bottle of wine that’s under the $20 mark.
There’s a current trend for “Imperial <insert your style here>” beers, as well as “Double Imperial <insert your style here>” beers.
So in many cases you’ll have a brewery’s IPA which is reasonable, but then you’ll have their “Imperial IPA”, which is effectively their IPA on steroids. Bridgeport’s Hop Czar is a good example.
Bridgeport’s regular IPA is about 50 ibu and 5.5% alcohol, which is squarely in the IPA ballpark according to the BJCP style guidelines (40-60 ibu), considering that a usual bitter or pale ale is more in the 30-40 range.
Their Hop Czar on the other hand, is 85 ibu and 8% alcohol.
Perhaps you’ve been getting the imperial variant on a lot of them?
FWIW, my favorite beers tend to be bohemian pilsners, Oktoberfests, and more English style ales. I can do American IPAs, but they’re usually big enough to be a special occasion pint, not an every day one.
IPAs are doing quite well still here in SF. It was actually really nice to see a few brewers catch up & surpass Younger as far as the IIIPAs go. But it’s not like IPAs are muscling out stouts & sours.
They just released a peanut butter chocolate one.
I thought the Maple Bacon was flat-out undrinkable, FWIW.
I thought there was a real-disconnect in the smell of the maple-bacon and the taste. It smelled like maple-bacon beer, quite pleasant. But then I drank it and it was not good at all.
I haven’t really noticed anything called a double imperial. I’ve seen Double IPA. I’ve seen Imperial IPA. And I’ve seen a classification as Double/Imperial IPA, but not on the label (and that, of course, just means double and imperial mean the same thing.) I’m not saying that there isn’t a beer somewhere called a double imperial, but if it’s a trend, I haven’t seen it, and I like my ultra hoppy, ultra alcoholic beers every once in a while and seek them out. Once again, could be a regional thing.
I like all those styles, too, and I want to see a trend towards more well-flavored session beers, too. Goose Island occasionally features styles like English Mild (at 3.5%) and Ordinary Bitter (at 4%) at their brewpubs, which I find to be pretty cool. Flavorful malt base, but not knock-your-socks off with alcohol. I lived a few months in the UK, and I remember the local pubs usually have a few beers in the 4% and under category, including something they called an India Pale Ale, but is unlike what we know as an IPA here in the US right now. I wouldn’t mind a shift to having more of these low-to-moderate alcohol English styles.
My prediction is that the craft market will move a bit more towards the middle-of-the-road styles. Were I starting up a brewery, that’s exactly what I would do. I don’t think we need any more IPAs, Imperial IPAs, stouts, porters, and imperial porters. How does one differentiate themselves from the rest of the market? Of course, there should be some big beers in the portfolio, but I’d do something like the styles you mentioned, and base my brand around that. There do seem to be a lot of American wheats and amber ales that American brewers do as their middle-of-the-roads, and that’s fine, but even that’s been overdone.
I’ll repeat what I said here
Not resolved in the least; only the beginning. Say what you will about the particular style, and enjoy your own favorite styles, but IPA’s are coming into their own. Just like most things “American” take on a life of their own. Not since IPA’s were originally produced, were they ever more defined. And taking off, in a new version, as is the American way.
I love IPA’s, and I have always loved beer. My first IPA was Oregon IPA in, say, 1996 or so. I don’t see it anymore, but thank The Man Jesus, others are now readily available. My latest IPA indulgence was Sierra Nevada’s Hoptimum. 10% alcohol which was not up front and in your face. Just real tasty. On a lower abv level, I love me my New Belgium Ranger IPA. And many others, don’t get me started…