This past weekend I had the chance to zip down to snowy Bend, and I seized it. On a chill Saturday following a festive brewers dinner, I strolled down a frosted Deschutes River, and thereafter retired to cozy pubs for warming pints. At Worthy, I discovered the beer list you see to the right (click to enlarge). If you scan through it, you'll notice a curious thing: nine of the twelve beers pouring were some version of hoppy American ale. I actually started with a slightly out-of-date menu with eleven items--and nine hoppy ales.
A little later we stopped in at Crux Fermentation Project, a brewery pretty famous for featuring lagers and saisons as well as supporting a robust barrel-aging program. They had 19 regular beer taps pouring (the 20th was devoted to cider)--and indeed, they had three lagers and a saison. But they were also pouring eleven hoppy ales (along with a fresh hop ale, which mystified me). Worthy, born four years ago during the IPA era, has always been plainly focused on hops. Even so, a balance of three-quarters (or more!) hoppy ale to one-quarter (or less!) of everything else is pretty shocking. Crux's list was even more surprising since the brewery is not known as an IPA house, but I think it may have been skewed by the hops conference that was recently in Bend.
The point of all this? Hoppy ales have taken over American brewing, and we're never going back. It's true that the large majority of beer sold in the US is pale lager and that will remain the case for some time. But of the beer that is not pale lager--call it "craft" if you like--the growing majority is IPA. I know this depresses those of us who don't like IPA or like something else too (of the five glasses [not all were pints] Sally and I drank, one was an IPA, a typical percentage), but the era of huge diversity is waning. People want IPAs, and they will continue to hog the handles at your local.
Get used to it. Americans are finding their palates, which is a sign of maturity. This is not a new point here at the blog, but it's becoming more pointed. When a country develops its own beer culture, diversity declines. This is why Belgian and British ales don't taste the same, nor Czech and German lagers. Americans have found their groove, and it is lined with the residue of sticky yellow lupulin.
Jeff having just been to Bend there was also a confluence of events which put IPAs front and center, including Bends high gravity brewfest and a hop growers convention. At Crux did you notice the number of IPAs brewed with experimental hops per chance?
ReplyDeleteObserved and noted in the text (with accompanying visual evidence). But even still Crux did not have to make IPAs to display hops. When I was at CBC two years ago, Germans brought beer to display their new-age hops and not a single one was a hoppy American ale. Hops do appear in other types of beers.
ReplyDeleteYeah but... IPAs highlight hops.
ReplyDeleteI've found this to be especially the case in Oregon and less so off the West Coast. In Colorado, for example, there's a bit more diversity of styles at your average brewery. Lately, I've been boycotting IPAs, as an ineffectual one-man protest against their ubiquity. Instead, I've had some lovely Vienna lagers, stouts, doppelbocks and ESBs. Viva la revolucion.
ReplyDeleteI've encountered this sort of thing on an anecdotal basis, but it rarely persists for long. Then again, I do keep hearing this from non beer dork friends of mine, so perhaps I'm self selecting differently? A quick look at some local breweries I go to reveals about a 20-30% presence of American style hoppy offerings, with the one exception of Tired Hands, which is around 50% and will be completely different every week (i.e. could be 80% hoppy next week and 20% the following week, etc... They only have two beers in their core lineup, the rest of the taps change frequently.) Bars also vary wildly, but are usually around the same 20-30%. Seems pretty balanced to me, maybe it would be different in summer. I feel like this deserves a more thorough study...
ReplyDeleteJesse,
ReplyDeleteThe Crux beers illustrate the limitations in this approach. There's a reason why you don't see Hallertauer or Saaz IPAs--the modern style we recognize emerged as a way of responding to local hops, which are intensely flavorful and aromatic. At Crux, I sampled the Pekko and Jarrylo IPAs, and neither one did a good job of showcasing those hops. The Pekko was creamy and herbal and would have worked better in a Belgian or German style. Jarrylo was even more European, and seemed like a lager-type hop. In any case, they didn't make very interesting IPAs.
When Germans make IPAs (which is starting to happen, if tentatively), they taste German--restrained, balanced. It does not serve the style well. When Americans try to demonstrate the qualities of certain hops, or of other styles or techniques, they often send them in an American direction--not always to the beer's benefit.
No real critique of Crux here, because you never really know what a hop will do until you brew with it. Now we know what Pekko and Jarrylo do.)
"When a country develops its own beer culture, diversity declines."
ReplyDeleteA thought occurs, if diversity declines when a country develops it's own beer culture then what we are actually seeing is the nascent conservatism of American beer. Was there ever a less diverse beer culture than pre-craft American beer? In this context, I am not sure this is a maturing of the beer culture, but rather American beer culture retreating into conservatism with a new champion style, and with the ever swinging pendulum of society who can say that in 30 years time American beer culture won't have become something different again, and once more retreating into style conservatism after an initial wave of anti-IPA beer production?
I'm not saying that every hop will be best used in an IPA. Just that for better or worse, most IPAs today are all about showcasing hops. I have been to a number of industry events where single hop beers were featured to showcase a new-to-market hop varietal, only to search in vain for much hop character beyond bitterness. Sadly, even some of those beers were called IPAs. Yes, most noble hops are probably better suited to a pils or helles, but when I am looking to learn about the characteristics of a new hop I am not necessarily looking for a balanced beer or even a very good one. I'd like one that prominently features the hop without too much meddling from the malt or yeast. As an aside, I've had some pretty good IPAs brewed with Saaz.
ReplyDeleteI was in Bend about 2 weeks ago during the hop convention. Crux had 13 IPAs on tap, all of them with experimental hops, 2 pale ales and a splash of other styles (saison, ect).
ReplyDeleteGonna quote that "never going back" in your later years when "American style IPAs" have waned back into obscurity, only beloved by a few greybeards in hospices
ReplyDeleteIf I'm still around, I'll brain message you with my geordi laforge goggles from my nursing home and laugh with glee as I poop myself and have to call the orderlies
Do we need to have the New York discussion again, Jeff? It's not "America," it's Oregon.
ReplyDeleteHrrrmmm, I wouldn't say that noble hops can't be used in aromatic, hop-forward beers. One of the best things I've brewed yet was a 6% ABV S.M.A.S.H.: Weyermann Pils malt, London Ale III yeast, and Yakima-grown Crystal hops (with a week of dry hopping in the keg). It didn't taste like a big bowl of tropical fruit, but the honeyish pils malt balanced the 45 or so IBUs perfectly and it was redolent of floral hop aromatics, orange zest and honeysuckle. Like Boak and Bailey say, it smelled and tasted of beer.
ReplyDeleteIt seems weird to me that a lot of these discussions equate American hops only with citrus, dank, or tropical fruit. America also bred Willamette, Mt Hood, Nugget, Sterling, Crystal, Galena, Cluster, etc. I bet most folks would consider Double Mountain's Vaporizer to be a hoppy American pale ale, but its single hop variety is Yakima-grown Challenger, one of the most popular English-bred varieties.
Daniel and Jason, I stand by it. Every time I've traveled beyond the state line, I've found the dominance of IPAs. Okay, I haven't been to South Carolina, which I'll admit may well have different, um, mores than the rest of the country. I have called my shot and we could all come back and look at this post in a decade if our old brains hadn't already forgotten it.
ReplyDeleteMotorbuffalo,
ReplyDeleteYakima Crystals are very American. When used in IPAs, they're bright, citrusy, and juicy. They're one of the few really good single-hop varieties, too.
I have had Saaz and Hallertau IPAs and they're just not appropriate for the style. Many non-American hops work nicely, though. As you mention, US-grown Challenger are great. But I'd caution against generalizing too much. Anything grown in Yakima is going to have a much more American character (even than those from Oregon). It's the terroir.
My bottom-line point is that IPAs require certain hops to work, just as all styles do. They do not have to be American, but they do have to be vibrant and expressive.