• agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    IPAs are an acquired taste, but the longer you drink craft beers the more likely you are to acquire it. As your palate becomes more refined, you start to appreciate different hop characteristics. Hop varieties have a wide range of flavors: floral, grassy, piney, citrusy, tropical, skunky, etc. If you’re making a “proper” beer, a nuanced hop schedule is the easiest way to create a complex flavor. IPAs have probably the highest flavor variety of any style, and most of them are pretty good once you can appreciate hops.

    Except anything with Simcoe, that stuff tastes like cat piss.

    • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I’ve tried to enjoy IPAs, really. I’m not discounting the role of interesting terpenes and flavonoids here, but the raw in-your-face excessive bitterness of IPA-level hops pushes all that great stuff so far from the stage of my experience, that it’s all left waiting in the lobby to get seated. For me, it’s like someone mixed LaCroix, light beer, and a drop of dish soap in a glass. Every time.

      • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        Try some West Coast IPAs. Pacific hops have less of that soapy bitterness with some pleasant tropical fruit notes. Galaxy is a particularly “juicy” variety, common in IPAs with “Space”, “Cosmic”, and other similar words in the name.

        • Mayor Poopington@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Other way around. West coast IPAs tend to be more bitter and resiny. NE IPAs are the hazy ones. Tend to be much fruitier and juicier.

          • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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            2 months ago

            Both can be quite juicy, though you’re right. I should have focused on Pacific hops rather than West Coast styles, since they do feature resiny qualities in their fat hop schedules.

            Rather than look at style, look for specific hops: Galaxy, Amarillo, Azaca, etc.

      • tacosplease@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Drink IPA without letting any air into your mouth and keep your tongue somewhat pressed against the roof of your mouth. It seems to block off the taste buds on top of the tongue and lets the beer wash around the sides of the tongue instead. This reduces the in-your-face bitterness and allows the secondary flavors to be noticed. At least that’s how I started appreciating IPAs.

  • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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    2 months ago

    I’ll give you an unpopular opinion in the opposite direction. I think most sweets and desserts are cloying as fuck and can’t understand why people eat them, or at least want more than a bite or two. I pretty much only have taste buds for savory/bitter/salty tastes these days, and hot sauce and peppers are awesome.

    • don@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Different people having different tastes is hardly an unpopular opinion.

        • don@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          That could be, but I don’t think the average person would find your dislike of sweets to be unpopular. I’d think most would understand.

      • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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        2 months ago

        Did you comment this about the OP as well? We’re in shitpost and I was just trying to match the meme’s vibe

  • Codex@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I like these things but there are IPAs, peppers, and asses out there that I wouldn’t eat. I understand how it could be confusing though, when sometimes I say “this beer tastes like (bad) ass” or “this IPA is badass” or “eating this asshole is fire” or “this pepper is going to light my asshole on fire”.

    • don@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Agreed! It’s really good at removing thermal paste from heat sinks on CPUs and other IC packages.

      Unrelated to the OP, India Pale Ales are great-tasting beers

  • wjrii@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I used up all my taste acquisition credits coming around on coffee and tolerating alcohol at all. I have zero fucks left to give when it comes to training myself to like hops. The bitter little cancerous-asshole-looking motherfuckers may be necessary but I sure as hell don’t want the entire experience shaped by them.

    • Skua@kbin.earth
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      2 months ago

      They’re actually not even necessary, you can use things like heather or spruce instead. Personally I like those better

  • MeatPilot@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Fun fact: IPA stands for Indian Pale Ale. They were called that because they were shipped from England to India during the ole’ days (1800s). The purpose was to preserve the beer via it’s long journey to India. They would mellow out during the trip.

    Eventually some idiots locally decided the massively hoppy beer tasted good, so it became popular in England as well, but sold as “Pale Ales”. I’ll argue it was never meant for human consumption.

    There ARE craft beers that incorporate less hops and I hate that craft beer is now synonymous with hops or IPA. I hate heavy hops, but love hefeweizens, weiss, stouts, brown porters, Belgian dubble/tripels, lambics, wheats, bocks…

  • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
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    2 months ago

    I really shouldn’t be having beer at all anymore, but I actually came to like a number of fairly hoppy IPAs. I do have issues with certain bitter things, but not others; I love black coffee, but I can’t stand high-cacao dark chocolate and some herbs with bitter notes.