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"The days when one could get away with marketing something like Shiner Bock as a bock are long gone." Can I look forward to the days when one can't get away wi

"The days when one could get away with marketing something like Shiner Bock as a bock are long gone." Can I look forward to the days when one can't get away with marketing American IPAs as IPAs? Because they're nothing like the British originals. I was also a homebrewer and a beer judge for a short time. That was back in the day (the 80s) when Pilsner Urquell was still the most bitter beer in the world. There was a stereotypical homebrewer who used to dump loads of hops in his beers as a sort of "hot sauce penis waver" to express his manliness. These guys paid no attention to beer style or brewing history. This mindset went on to have the dominant influence on the American microbrew industry, which has included varying degrees of misapplication of beer style claims. I've long given up on trying beer from American brewers as only a few of them use any degree of real creativity and understanding that malt does more than just provide color and something for yeast to create alcohol with. Unfortunately, the rise of microbrews inevitably brought the demise of imports, relatively speaking. I could get on board with the canned beer fad if the labels were even remotely readable, but like their overhopped beer, art and nuance is something that is wielded like a sledgehammer to clobber us over our heads.

mumblemumble 7y ago
No, and there's not a strong historical basis for making the distinction, either - in the UK, the hop and grain bills for beers sold as IPAs have been in a constant state of flux for centuries now, and it wasn't all that long ago that an IPA coming from a London brewery could have been more bitter than a standard American IPA nowadays. If it's any consolation, at least in the classification system used by the BJCP style guidelines, they aren't even in the same general category. But one could argue that the names used in a beer judging rubric and the names used for the purposes of marketing beer are not, despite the use of some common language, the same thing. It's also, I think, not quite correct to blame the development of American IPA solely on machismo. That's undeniably a big part of it nowadays, but, when the style developed, it was much more about adapting the basic idea of an English IPA to taste good using the grain and hops that were being grown in North America. For a good (mostly British-focused) blog that covers some of this history in excruciating details, see Shut Up About Barclay Perkins.
- padraic7a 7y ago
  It's an excellent blog, and from reading it it's quite clear that categories have been ever shifting; sometimes because of supply or government restrictions (esp war) and sometimes just for commerical reasons (increasing profit, changing customer tastes etc).
- Cougher 7y ago
  "it wasn't all that long ago that an IPA coming from a London brewery could have been more bitter than a standard American IPA nowadays." This is a very loose implication that I won't bother addressing, nor your use of the word "solely".

mumblemumble 7y ago

No, and there's not a strong historical basis for making the distinction, either - in the UK, the hop and grain bills for beers sold as IPAs have been in a constant state of flux for centuries now, and it wasn't all that long ago that an IPA coming from a London brewery could have been more bitter than a standard American IPA nowadays. If it's any consolation, at least in the classification system used by the BJCP style guidelines, they aren't even in the same general category. But one could argue that the names used in a beer judging rubric and the names used for the purposes of marketing beer are not, despite the use of some common language, the same thing. It's also, I think, not quite correct to blame the development of American IPA solely on machismo. That's undeniably a big part of it nowadays, but, when the style developed, it was much more about adapting the basic idea of an English IPA to taste good using the grain and hops that were being grown in North America. For a good (mostly British-focused) blog that covers some of this history in excruciating details, see Shut Up About Barclay Perkins.

padraic7a 7y ago
It's an excellent blog, and from reading it it's quite clear that categories have been ever shifting; sometimes because of supply or government restrictions (esp war) and sometimes just for commerical reasons (increasing profit, changing customer tastes etc).
Cougher 7y ago
"it wasn't all that long ago that an IPA coming from a London brewery could have been more bitter than a standard American IPA nowadays." This is a very loose implication that I won't bother addressing, nor your use of the word "solely".