I guess this just confirms human nature

[FedoraDave]

If it's hard to get, that must mean it's good. Beer is becoming a hipster thing, I guess.

https://punchdrink.com/articles/when-di ... -rankings/

[John Sand]

I agree with the writer completely. I've observed the same character in some aspects of homebrewing.
I'm not knocking IPAs, or IIPAs, I love them. But I do see a trend in seeking the exotic over the delicious. I stopped competing because the last competition I entered had three winners that were just weird, and a judge trying to describe flavors not found in beer, nor anywhere else.
I like to make and drink beer that tastes very good, not go where no man has gone before.

[Beer-lord]

I'm somewhat in the middle. I like to try many new things though a great majority falls short of my expectations. But the flavored beers do seem to have more than needed, and though I'm not a sour fan, breweries like The Bruery throw out one new beer after another and they are usually big and very expensive and they also usually sell out.
I think a lot of this is just local marketing and making it seem like these are precious and you just have to have them but then, the novelty wears out.

[ScrewyBrewer]

I've long since given up any plans to brew, or buy, a cucumber-pumpkin-taco stout. Thankfully there are plenty of classic styles left to challenge me.

[FedoraDave]

I'm with you, John and Vince. I try to challenge myself by trying styles and techniques I haven't yet tried. No need for the exotic. Just today I brewed an Amber Ale with malts that I smoked myself. Yes, I could have bought smoked malt, but where's the fun in that? I could buy kits, too, for that matter, but I like experimenting and trying things for myself.

There are still plenty of things I can try from the traditional brewing textbooks, and I still fall back on my tried and true recipes for my big batches that are for everyday sessions.

[mashani]

I'm "in the middle" I guess.

I like some things like the Plum Saison I make, or the Raisin d'Etra like beer I made recently (both of which are delicious), but mostly I stick with "real beer".

I will use spices and the like, but that's usually when I'm brewing an old world beer style like a gruit or like that Viking beer I made this year with Juniper, or like the Holy Roman Empire style monastic Belgian reconstruction type of thing I did last year and will do again because they all turned out great. Sometimes I'll put Juniper into an IPA that I want more piney if I don't have piney hops on hand, because it works and I like it. Sometimes I'll throw some bitter or sweet orange peel into things that I think they will enhance. IE a little bit of bitter/sweet orange in a dry irish stout is actually pretty nice. But just a bit, not so much that it tastes like an "orange stout". Just enough to add a little bit of "what is that? it's good!" to it.

But today I saw a beer today that was labeled a "Session DIPA". I looked at the fine print and it was 8.5% ABV. I just laughed at it and walked away. I'll make my own 5% or < session IPA and drink it happily instead. 100% late hops, total flavor bomb, no need for the embiggenedness to bury the bitter if you do it that way. I'll just add some dextrin malts (or even just maltodextrin) if I think it needs more body next time. It works.

I don't see the point of drinking an Imperial Stout when I can make a nice dry Irish stout that is 4.5% or so and is totally delicious and I can then drink a second one or even a 3rd one and not feel sad in the morning. I don't see the point in Stone or anyone else's 9.5% ABV DIPAs when I can get or make a 7.5% Pliney like beer that is as good if not better then any of them and doesn't taste of hot alcohol.

Basically I don't see any need to go "extreme" just for the sake of it. I like to make weird seeming reconstructionist beer, but that's because I'm interested in the history of brewing and Medieval and Elizabethan things. It may seem "weird" in the modern sense, but it's not, it's just beer as it was done before.

One thing that I know is different about me then the Hipsters around here is that I don't drink to get drunk. Hipsters do, at least around here. When I go to a club to watch a show and it's full of hipsters, I can say that the amount of PBR they pound down between "fancy" beer is ridiculous. I don't know how they don't all die in car wrecks.

I like me a big Belgian or the Pliney like beer on occasion, but I will take one and just sip on it for 2 hours and drink some water on the side. But a well done big Belgian or IPA like that is not like the 9.5%+ DIPAs I'm talking about, as in I don't taste the alcohol as hot, and that's a big part of being a properly executed big Belgian or IPA in my view (or big beer of any type).

If it tastes like hot alcohol, it's just not good beer IMHO. I'd just get me some 151 if I wanted that.

As far as fruited sours, I'd personally rather just take a fresh plain sour like a Berliner, and then pour it over some fruit syrup, IE the way it's been done forever across the pond. That way I can add fruit flavor to my taste. I like it to be subtle.

[Pudge]

Traveled yesterday a bit for my daughters cross country regional meet. Found a burger joint that just happened to have a nice Dunkelweizen on tap. Both exotic and classic at the same time although not what the cool kids drink.

[John Sand]

I do think our views overlap pretty well. I'm not opposed to interesting, creative or historical beers. If brewers did not experiment, we wouldn't have many of the beers we love. While I haven't brewed any, historical styles interest me too. I just see that some brewers and many drinkers have fallen into the mystique of finding the rarest or strangest beer, better if it's both.
I'd rather drink a great pale ale.

[FedoraDave]

John, my thoughts exactly. I'm not opposed to a rare or unusual beer. I've had a few that I liked. My problem is with the notion, as the article points out, that because a beer is rare or unusual, that automatically makes it better.

I went out to Shelter Island for a weekend this summer, and they have their own micro-brewery there. I tried a flight of their beers, and of the four, only two were really something I thought was good beer. The other two were average, at best, kind of puny at worst. Well, but Dave, it's such a small brewery, and you have to really work to get to it, and they don't market their stuff; you have to go to them, so that makes it good, doesn't it? Well, no, frankly, especially when you realize that there are two or three micros nearby that do market their quite good pale ales and such right there on The Island, too. An unusual beer experience is not a measure of the quality of the beer.

[Gizmo]

Well shoot. I guess my Hopwork Orange should be pretty high up that list. Only 25 bottles were produced this year, and only 2 remain as of this writing, exclusively at my house, where only 1 person has been known to crack them open.

[John Sand]

Don't let that get out. You'll have no peace.

[ScrewyBrewer]

"Hipsters are always looking for new ways to spend their money." ~Don't judge me.

[FedoraDave]

Well shoot. I guess my Hopwork Orange should be pretty high up that list. Only 25 bottles were produced this year, and only 2 remain as of this writing, exclusively at my house, where only 1 person has been known to crack them open.

Yeah, that's it precisely. I'm sure your beer is good, though.

As far as unusual historic beers, such as Mashani was talking about, that's a different matter, too. It's an undertaking of an arcane method or recipe, which, while somewhat rare, has a place in the current brewing scene. It's more relevant to the craft than a 9.8% Double DIPA, which only exists to be over-the-top.

[John Sand]

I enjoy a good IIPA, I've made some. (Not 9.8% abv, but 8+)
But I like them because I love big hoppy beers, not because it's hip. I've never been stylish, it's too late to start now.