Just to clarify: IPAs Are Awesome
My post about hazy IPAs sparked a lot of conversation, which was my intention (blogs can still be relevant—yay!). However, as is often the case when I think out loud, I may have implied a few things I didn’t intend. Let’s start here: IPAs are awesome. This is the most exciting time to be a beer fan in a loooooong time. Breweries are proliferating, good beer is available everywhere, and new beers pop up like mushrooms after an autumn rain.
At the center of all that, uh, ferment (apologies), are these hoppy ales Americans developed. The last time a beer was so exciting it traveled from its home to circle the globe was the 1840s, when Central European pale lagers captured the international zeitgeist. There’s a reason for that. These beers are phenomenal, whether they’re delicate and low in alcohol, spiky with West Coast citrus, or saturated hazy fruit grenades. Of course, breweries make poor examples in every category, but good ones are triumphs whatever their shape and size. When Patrick and I judged IPAs this summer, two of our top three were hazy. If I’m at a pub sampling beers, I almost always devote one of my slots to an IPA, and lately, usually to a hazy. I’m an American through and through, and if you cut me I’ll bleed Citra.
In Wednesday’s post, I was really trying to come to terms with evaluation, not appreciation. I still struggle to determine what critical framework to apply. For a person paid to write about beer, that’s a troubling place to be. Pointing to King Julius was a way of highlighting my quandary. I did not mean to suggest hazy IPAs are inferior generally.
Another important comment, and one I should make more often: shame has no place in beer. People like what they like, and I celebrate them for it. Beer should be fun and social, not a place of judgment or stress. We may have a hierarchy of preference in beer personally, but no style of beer is objectively superior to another. At least on this site I hope to create a space where people of all tastes and preferences feel welcomed and not judged. Whatever beer style you like, I would happily share a pint of it with you.
It was heartening to see the back-and-forth, though. The last couple years have been numbing, and we haven’t engaged in that kind of passionate exchange about something as trivial—but joyful!—as beer. It’s good to see. With Omicron on the horizon, we may have a tough winter coming, but I hope we still debate silly things like hazy IPAs. Thanks for the chat—I loved it.