Post #130805 by martiki on Mon, Dec 13, 2004 3:55 PM

There's nothing wrong with hops, per se, obviously. I just think that in their quest to prove that Americans can make good beer despite the global stereotype of our cruddy lagers, microbreweries have overcompensated with the hops. This has probably been going on for at least 21 years (at least as long as Mendocino Brewing Company has been around). So of course you need hops to add character, balance the flavors, and act as a preservative, but it has gone out of control as far as I'm concerned, with hops overwhelming so many brands and styles. I mean why do IPAs, Wheats, Reds, Ambers, Pales, Pilsners, Porters, Stouts, hefeweizens, bocks, and others all have to taste like they're brewed with eight tons of hops, with a bag thrown in for dry hopping, and a hop flower in every bottle! (jk) It's overwhelms the other flavors and causes the styles to become muddied. In the initial rush to show that they were distinct from the Coors of the world, all these new microbreweries went heavy on the hops. This meant that the new class of micro-connesuirs out there developed a taste for hops early on. I know I did. And then their palates became used to high levels of bitterness. So now we've got all these beers out there celebrating the fact that they are over hopped, like it's some kind of fucking "extreme sport". What a shame. So many microbreweries are undrinkable to me- Lagunitas for one, Red Hook for another. I think Marin Brewing Company only has about three or four really drinkable beers, and they are the most GABF awarded brewery in California! I'm glad there's some places out there who list their IBUs, I wish more of them did it. And what a joke for so many American microbreweries to to say they're inspiried by English brewers, when in most cases the English use far fewer hops and lower ABVs- making their beer often times more quaffable and enjoyable, but without sacrificing flavor.

Obviously not all microbrews are shit- there are several good ones out there to my taste at least. But once I grew out of hop-fetishism, I discovered a whole world of new and exciting flavors.

To paraphrase:

Once you go , you never go back.