> It's why eight out of every ten craft beers are incredibly bitter IPAs.
I always saw this is a US West Coast phenomenon. Stone, in San Diego, sort of popularized the trend and then people started rolling with it to extremes.
I have a similar issue with barrel aging. I love Victory at Sea from Ballast Point (since bought out by Constellation Brands) and similarly dark "toxic sewage" as my friends so happily classify it. Barrel aging spread around very nicely through the craft brewers and always added a mellowness. That was true up until recently, where now I find "barrel aged" seems to be imparting a cloying sweetness (which I do NOT like) to everything.
I guess it is the fate of anything that gets popular to eventually go too far.
San Diegan reporting in! It's gotten absolutely ridiculous. They have tapped out the "like eating a cone of pure hops" quintuple imperial IPA market, and now the trend is additives. Ballast Point and Modern Times are the worst about this. We are at the "add some truffle oil it" stage.
The original Ballast Point was walking distance from my office. They had at most 6 taps. They started doing the additives much later, but it really got out of control when they got bought out.
I always saw this is a US West Coast phenomenon. Stone, in San Diego, sort of popularized the trend and then people started rolling with it to extremes.
I have a similar issue with barrel aging. I love Victory at Sea from Ballast Point (since bought out by Constellation Brands) and similarly dark "toxic sewage" as my friends so happily classify it. Barrel aging spread around very nicely through the craft brewers and always added a mellowness. That was true up until recently, where now I find "barrel aged" seems to be imparting a cloying sweetness (which I do NOT like) to everything.
I guess it is the fate of anything that gets popular to eventually go too far.