ilovefuzz.com

I know you had the Ruthless Rye and the 400 Lb Monkey, what else have ya tried?

Also American IPAs tend to have more citrus hop flavors and in some cases passion fruit/mango/other wackadoo shit. It's an awesome rabbit hole to dive into. CLEARLY my favorite type of beer.

Really, though, don't be shy about trying new stuff. Go on ratebeer and beeradvocate to hunt down highly-regarded porters, saisons, stouts, etc.

Oh shit you're 19 I can't recommend it to you, uh, this isn't beer, this is... grown-up soda. Drinking is bad wait til you're old enough askyourmothergotoyourroom

English IPAs are what IPAs are actually supposed to taste like. Bitter and hoppy, but still having significant malt flavor. Americans then took that style and did what we always do. Make it so over-the-fucking-top that it basically tastes like chewing on a hop pellet.



(not sure if you can tell, but I'm not a big fan of American IPAs)

And the sediment on the bottom of a bottle is almost always going to be yeast. That just means that it was bottle-conditioned (i.e., instead of carbonating the beer before bottling, they put the uncarbonated beer into the bottle with a little extra priming sugar, which wakes up the yeast in the beer, and the yeast carbonates the beer in the bottle. It's perfectly safe to drink, it just tastes yeasty. Just think of it like a little dab of vegemite at the bottom of your beer

bigchiefbc wrote:And the sediment on the bottom of a bottle is almost always going to be yeast from a bottle-conditioned beer. That just means that it was bottle-conditioned (i.e., instead of carbonating the beer before bottling, they put the uncarbonated beer into the bottle with a little extra priming sugar, which wakes up the yeast in the beer, and the yeast carbonates the beer in the bottle. It's perfectly safe to drink, it just tastes yeasty. Just think of it like a little dab of vegemite at the bottom of your beer

Ah shit my bad. Forgot about that.

Yay, new beer order in. I love spending an hour scavenging around beer stores.

Lots of Norwegian and Danish beers on the way.

bigchiefbc wrote:Americans then took that style and did what we always do. Make it so over-the-fucking-top that it basically tastes like chewing on a hop pellet.

I'm so glad that happened. Bitterness is my favourite. Coffee, beer, anything. Ultra bitter espresso is the best. I think it goes hand in hand with not liking sweet tastes.

jfrey wrote:

bigchiefbc wrote:Americans then took that style and did what we always do. Make it so over-the-fucking-top that it basically tastes like chewing on a hop pellet.

I'm so glad that happened. Bitterness is my favourite. Coffee, beer, anything. Ultra bitter espresso is the best. I think it goes hand in hand with not liking sweet tastes.

And more power to people who dig that style. The thing that pisses me off is that it more or less pushed out malt-balanced IPAs completely out of the US market, so that I need to look for English IPAs, which are more or less impossible to find here. It just basically means I can't ever have a classic IPA, even if I want one.

bigchiefbc wrote:

jfrey wrote:

bigchiefbc wrote:Americans then took that style and did what we always do. Make it so over-the-fucking-top that it basically tastes like chewing on a hop pellet.

I'm so glad that happened. Bitterness is my favourite. Coffee, beer, anything. Ultra bitter espresso is the best. I think it goes hand in hand with not liking sweet tastes.

And more power to people who dig that style. The thing that pisses me off is that it more or less pushed out malt-balanced IPAs completely out of the US market, so that I need to look for English IPAs, which are more or less impossible to find here. It just basically means I can't ever have a classic IPA, even if I want one.

Come hang in Boston. I feel like I see English IPAs all the time.

I tried the Dogfishhead Immort Ale last week and my brain almost exploded from how delicious it was.
Also, Lake Placid Nippletop Milk Stout is very relaxing to drink. Not very carbonated, super smooth, tastes like coffee.

I'm glad my roommate and the lady friend are into craft beers.
It's awesome trying new shit with people.

jfrey wrote:

bigchiefbc wrote:

jfrey wrote:

bigchiefbc wrote:Americans then took that style and did what we always do. Make it so over-the-fucking-top that it basically tastes like chewing on a hop pellet.

I'm so glad that happened. Bitterness is my favourite. Coffee, beer, anything. Ultra bitter espresso is the best. I think it goes hand in hand with not liking sweet tastes.

And more power to people who dig that style. The thing that pisses me off is that it more or less pushed out malt-balanced IPAs completely out of the US market, so that I need to look for English IPAs, which are more or less impossible to find here. It just basically means I can't ever have a classic IPA, even if I want one.

Come hang in Boston. I feel like I see English IPAs all the time.

Perhaps. All of the places I go, all I see for IPAs is names like HOPSLAM, HOPWALLOP, HOP STOOPID, HOPS-UP-YOUR-ASS, OH MY FUCKING GOD HAVE SOME HOPS

*I may have made a few of those up.

Have you tried Left Hand's 400 Pound Monkey? That's carried pretty much everywhere and it's pretty good.

jfrey wrote:Have you tried Left Hand's 400 Pound Monkey? That's carried pretty much everywhere and it's pretty good.

I actually don't remember. The graphic looks familiar, but maybe I only saw it and didn't buy it. I'll definitely try it out next time I hit the shop.

Harpoon & Long Trail's standard IPAs may fit the bill for your English-style taste. Similarly, Green Man and Highland, but you may be too far north for them. Regardless, all quite good.

bigchiefbc wrote:
And more power to people who dig that style. The thing that pisses me off is that it more or less pushed out malt-balanced IPAs completely out of the US market, so that I need to look for English IPAs, which are more or less impossible to find here. It just basically means I can't ever have a classic IPA, even if I want one.

Nah, you can definitely find many a tasty balanced IPA.
All the breweries in Portland has a normal and a hoppy as fuck IPA. Bridgeport Blue Heron is a near perfect IPA.
A cool thing that's been happening to balance some of the hops has been the birth of dark IPA's. Get the malts and the darker flavors with the crisp finish of the IPA's…seriously, Cacade Dark Ales [HUB, Widmere Brothers, etc] all have an incredible beer that's only been around for a few years…Order a HUB Secession Dark IPA online…soooo damn good.

This is why I really like New Zealand IPAs. I know exactly how tiresome Hoppy IPAs can get, they just tend to get the balance right. Countries that do good wine generally do good beers also.