Day 194 – Hey! Maybe it's me.

From the very beginning I knew I was the odd man out. In comparison to other ratebeerians, my scoring differed vastly from theirs, as in polar opposites. What they raved about was unpalatable to my way of thinking. What I loved they thought was passable. Are we even drinking the same stuff, I wondered?

In my last blog I waxed unpoetically about the hopheads and the breweries that fed their passion. I claimed that it didn't take any skill to over-hop a beer any more than it would be to over-sweeten your coffee - just add a bunch more. I still believe that a true brewmaster knows how to add just enough hops to balance out the sweetness of the malt.

But hey! Maybe it's just me. After all, I'm not a brewmaster any more than I am a master chef. Do I criticize Emeril Lagasse for adding too much garlic? Certainly not. So why am I so hard on brewmasters for over-hopping their brews?

Before I answer the question, I wonder if brewmasters follow Emeril's lead by shouting "BAM!" as they throw another handful of hops into the wort. It's something to think about. Now back to the question.

I'm critical of brewmasters because, in my humble opinion, style is based on the malt and brewing technique. The hops are there merely to provide balance to the sweetness of the malt. Overdoing any element isn't difficult and, in most cases, ruins the taste.

Yet the other day I read an article about a beer tasting contest for IPAs, the bitterest of brews. Apparently IPAs are the fastest growing segment of microbrews in this country. Sad. Even sadder is that, according to this article, our palates are growing more sophisticated. (Really? Maybe they're just dying off due to the overhoppiness of beer.)

The saddest news of all is that IPA drinkers were compared to red wine drinkers as far as sophistication goes. Folks like me were compared to white wine drinkers. The message was that a "real" beer drinker appreciates the bitterness of an IPA whereas anyone who likes a beer that isn't overhopped hasn't fully developed the palate necessary to be included in the "expert" category.

Are you (insert crude variation of "fricking" here) serious?

I'm paraphrasing what the gentleman said, of course, but what a moronic thing to say. For one thing it is self-serving. If I bottled fermented donkey pee, what better way to get people to drink it than by criticizing them for not having a sophisticated enough palate.

It's a ridiculous statement. Sophistication has nothing to do with differences in styles. Sophistication has everything to do with differences in the same style. Can I detect the subtle nuances between amber ales? If not, if any amber ale will do, then I haven't developed my palate sufficiently. But to claim superiority of one style over another as a matter of sophistication is idiotic.

But hey! Maybe it's just me.

I made the argument last time (and still make it) that a pint of bitter in England is not bitter at all. It is more so than a pint of stout, but it is still delicious and pleasing to the palate. Now the English have been brewing beer for centuries, way longer than we have been a country. They invented the style, though not in the bitterest of examples. Apparently, however, those hicks haven't developed a sophisticated enough palate to know they are drinking the equivalent of white wine.

I'm sorry, but I don't understand the appeal of hops. It covers up the taste of the malt just like too much garlic masks the flavor of a dish (sorry, Emeril!). You need enough hops to balance the sweetness, but that is it. I don't get why people like hoppy beer.

So, yeah, it is me, I guess. I prefer a beer that is smooth and balanced and flavorful. If that is the equivalent of drinking white wine, then break out the chardonnay. I make no apologies for my preferences and I don't accept the argument that I'm unsophisticated as a beer drinker. Over the past forty years I have sampled more than four hundred different brands of beers of all styles. I may not be an expert, but I'm not exactly a newbie, either.

I'll get off my high horse now. You can have your IPAs and over-hopped pale ales and I'll stick to my hefeweizens and witbiers, my red and brown ales, and my porters and stouts. Life is too short to worry about the bittering of brews.

By the way, I have less than 200 beers to go. In the beginning, I had to drink 1.43 beers per day. Now I only have to drink 1.19 beers a day. Piece of cake.

Life is good and so is (balanced) beer.

"Kassutta" which is Greenlandic for "Let our glasses meet."


Goal...............524.....365
Progress.........329.....201
Remaining......195.....164