That's nonsense. Craft breweries are businesses and they'll sell what makes money.
Also, IPAs are incredibly hard to brew, store, and distribute consistently. Hops are probably the most seasonal part of a mash bill, and high quality finishing hops are in heavy demand. And the hop acids are subject to spoilage by heat, light, or oxygen. If you want "smothering a beer's other flavors" then look no further than whiskey/rum/et al. barrel aging (and I'm not judging, whatever floats one's boat),
This isn't aimed necessarily at you, but some people taste things differently. Cilantro, infamously. But hops are another. Maybe you don't like hops (or maybe you haven't had very good ipas?)
> If you want "smothering a beer's other flavors" then look no further than whiskey/rum/et al. barrel aging (and I'm not judging, whatever floats one's boat),
That seems to be a current trend like the hyper-hops that everybody is complaining about.
I used to like barrel aged beers because they would take an actively good beer, drop it in a barrel for a bit, and that would add just an extra touch of something. About 5 years ago, I could order just about anything barrel-aged and I was going to like it.
Now, barrel-aged seems to be "massive amount of overpowering, cloying sweetness". <bleck> "Barrel-aged" is now a warning sign for me to request a taste first.
Sours are interesting. I've had some amazing ones, and some ... bad ones (to me at least). However I'm absolutely glad I've tried them out. Like drinking yogurt beer :)
Yup. But I also understand that some of them use hop oil extracts (could be wrong). Never tried it, but I have to think it loses some of the nuance of whole leaf or pellet in the process. Which is fine, they are optimizing for consistency and scaling. McDonalds vs Five Guys.
Also, IPAs are incredibly hard to brew, store, and distribute consistently. Hops are probably the most seasonal part of a mash bill, and high quality finishing hops are in heavy demand. And the hop acids are subject to spoilage by heat, light, or oxygen. If you want "smothering a beer's other flavors" then look no further than whiskey/rum/et al. barrel aging (and I'm not judging, whatever floats one's boat),
This isn't aimed necessarily at you, but some people taste things differently. Cilantro, infamously. But hops are another. Maybe you don't like hops (or maybe you haven't had very good ipas?)