That's true, but if I go to a restaurant and they only have a couple "craft" beers, the odds are extremely high that they're all IPAs, which is kind of a bummer if you're into beer but don't really like IPAs.
Before quitting alcohol, I also came round on IPAs to the point that it was the only beer I'd drink. But there's also a tendency for many breweries to out-hop each other. That's when it becomes over the top.
Or, perhaps, people simply have different tastes. IPAs make up nearly 1/3rd of the dollar share of craft beer in the US - they're hardly some ultra-acquired taste that you could use to signal that you are part of the beer elite.
Or it could be that people who don't get IPAs are rather like the people who don't get authentic Indian food. Yes, at first, you may only taste hops or chilis, but as your palette matures, you begin to realize that that there's more to these drinks or foods and that they are in the end more interesting than the bland steaks or weissbiers one once liked.
Increasingly, there are! Where I live (Switzerland) there is a roaring trade in non alcoholic or very low alcohol drinks. I admit none are yet as tasty to me as a good IPA, but the market clearly wants what you do. If my beer of choice was more toward lager I might even be happier.
I'm so sick of IPAs altogether. I'm a big fan of sours, which I guess some people find intolerable, but overall I'd just like more choices instead of everything either being mass-market (I mean like Bud or Coors by that) or else an IPA most places you go.
The perception from the UK is despite what seems like a growing trend in microbreweries, Americans still don't venture out much further than IPAs
Edit: And as a lover of belgian beers I can only agree. I wonder why people even drink so many IPAs when there's so many different and delicious varieties of beers around.
Might be because there's a lot of people like me that only like that style of beer. I don't dislike other types of beer, but I'd rather drink something else than a lager, stout, porter, pilsner, etc. I've found that there aren't a lot of diehards for any other style, but IPA diehards are a dime a dozen.
Ah that's not true about beer in the US at all. I also don't particularly like IPAs and have no problem at the local breweries.
I'll grant that there was a time when a lot of places were IPA heavy but they basically always had a few other styles.
Now every brewery around me is really varied. They might have a couple types of IPAs but all have another 6 or 10 + styles. A sour or two, such as a Belgian or American type. Often a berlinerweisse. Some brown/stout/porter types. Not just oatmeal stout. And even different lager types besides "lager". I see Helles and bock, Vienna, pilsner, everywhere. A rauchbier at one place.
I've never really had to look at the IPAs in years.
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