What the hell, Beer people?

[Sandwich]

So I'm getting a little frustrated in my beer explorations recently. Maybe it's the lack of variety in these parts (harpoon ipa, ufo, cheap stuff, guinness, sam seasonal, maybe one or two others) but why do american beer makers seem to love smashing my face in with hops? I feel like every small brewery makes and IPA and maybe a wheat beer, and that's it. Is it like a chicken wing thing, as mentioned in another thread, where people see how hoppy they can make the beer to challenge people to drink it?

I understand that hops gives beer flavor, and I'm not necessarily asking for super-bland beer, but why kill any semblance of taste with massive quantities of bitterness? Why don't any american makers make a decent lager beer? Am I looking in the wrong places? Something like a spaten, lowenbrau, beck's, or other middle of the road not too bland not too dry lager? Am i just a hops-less pussy?

I feel like an idiot when I walk into a bar and the only thing that looks appealing is the lawn mower beers, since everything else is either super-dark, super-bitter, or super-sweet.

Is it the competition?

[dan-o]

I hear you, IMO 90% of micro/artisan beers are overwrought crap. It really makes me miss the kick-ass beer options I had living in EU.

[SkaredShtles]

You need to move.... 'cause just about every brewer out here has a full line of brews from lagers & pilsners right up to IPAs and stouts.

[skatetokil]

you are indeed a pussy. however, try to get a hold of some dominion brewing co beers. they make a great lager. just about the only one i can stomach in fact.

[Silver]

The whole super hoppy west coast IPA thing is a vestigal part of the US microbrew industry, because that's one of the things that helped to launch the industry in the first place. I'd imagine if you're a mediocre brewer, it's easy to just dump a bunch of hops into an ale recipe and call it a day.

I think brewers will get more subtle as they get older. It's already happening out west and with breweries like Dogfish Head on the east coast.

And to answer your question: Yes, you're a hops pussy. Why in the world would you want a Beck's clone?

edit: There's a reason that there aren't too many great lagers. They tend to be boring beers. I haven't tried the Dominion one, but Victory make a great one called Prima Pils.

[BikeGeek]

Too many people equate lack of hops with lack of flavor. I'll take a beer with complex layers of malt over a hoppy beer any day. Anyone can dump hops in to the kettle, but to work the malt bill, mash time/temp, and sparge to get a great flavor is an art. Sure, hops are very important, but it's not everything.

Why aren't there many truly great lagers out there? Lagers are a pain in the ass to make. Ales can be mashed through different temperatures to convert starch to sugar quite easily. Some lager styles actually require a "decoction mash" where a certain amount of grain is physically removed from the mash to bring to a boil before returning it to the mash tun to raise the temp to the next rest.

Also, an ale can be fermented out and bottled in 2-3 weeks. A lager takes months. Many micros just don't have the $ to let a beer sit lagering in the tank for 3 months or longer.

That said, look for these to try:
Dominion lager is a decent example of a Dortmunder-style
Stoudt's Gold lager is a pretty decent Munich-Helles
Harpoon does a nice Munich dunkel
Weeping Radish has a Schwarzbier called Black Radish that's very good
Rogue Dead Guy Ale is actually a maibock that they ferment with an ale yeast at lager temperature, so it's kind of a lager, but not really. Victory St. Boisterous is another maibock to try for comparison
Southampton Eisbock

There's good lager out there, don't give up. :)

[stinkyboy]

http://perkoff.com/fatchad.jpg

[Sandwich]

that's bikegeek, you sure dropped some science on my ass....


I do love me some rogue dead guy. That stuff is great. I'll look into the others. I'm just confounded by things like 90 minute ipa and hop monster types. Ok, that's a lot of hops, but to me they lack complexity and are rather one dimensional. As for the beck's clone...sorry, I was trying to come up with german lagers...and drew a blank.

Also, I need to find weeping radish. My dad took me there when I was like 8 and it was the first (NA) beer I ever really drank. It was freaking good!

[Sandwich]

also, i didn't know harpoon did anything besides ipa, wheat beers, and the occasional hibernian, which i did actually like.

[BikeGeek]

SB's Miller pic made me laugh. I used to always wonder how beers like that could win all the beer competition medals they do. Hell, "won top honors at the Great American Beer Festival ® competing with over 1,800 other beer brands" is lifted right from the Old Milwaukee page. I recently found that in the world of beer competition, they created the "American Lager" and "American Light Lager" categories, among others, specifically for these brands because they don't fit anywhere else. So, the only beers they are really competing against are the other crap beers. :) I guess Miller's gold medal just means they're the least stinky turd in the pile. :D

[Dartman]

SB's Miller pic made me laugh.

I wonder if he had the lazy eye before drinking Miller?

[Toshi]

So I'm getting a little frustrated in my beer explorations recently. Maybe it's the lack of variety in these parts (harpoon ipa, ufo, cheap stuff, guinness, sam seasonal, maybe one or two others) but why do american beer makers seem to love smashing my face in with hops? I feel like every small brewery makes and IPA and maybe a wheat beer, and that's it. Is it like a chicken wing thing, as mentioned in another thread, where people see how hoppy they can make the beer to challenge people to drink it?
i'm totally with you on this one. double bastard, or whatever it was called... yeah, it was more than i can handle, in that it tasted straight up bad.

:lighten:

[Silver]

SB's Miller pic made me laugh. I used to always wonder how beers like that could win all the beer competition medals they do. Hell, "won top honors at the Great American Beer Festival ® competing with over 1,800 other beer brands" is lifted right from the Old Milwaukee page. I recently found that in the world of beer competition, they created the "American Lager" and "American Light Lager" categories, among others, specifically for these brands because they don't fit anywhere else. So, the only beers they are really competing against are the other crap beers. :) I guess Miller's gold medal just means they're the least stinky turd in the pile. :D

It's like N8 winning the special Olympics checkers competition. It's a gold medal, but...

[berkshire_rider]

also, i didn't know harpoon did anything besides ipa, wheat beers, and the occasional hibernian, which i did actually like.

Try some of the harpoon 100 barrel series if you get a chance.

A few others to try:

Allagash (http://www.allagash.com/beer.htm)
Seadog (http://www.seadogbrewing.com/seadogbrews.php)
Tuckerman's (http://www.tuckermanbrewing.com/thebrews.htm)

Definitely stop HERE (http://www.norwichinn.com/NIBrwry.html) if you get a chance.

[I Are Baboon]

Try some of the harpoon 100 barrel series if you get a chance.


The last three of those I've had have been great. I need to score some more Smoked Porter before the supply runs out.