It's always a big day when Eric Asimov writes a beer article for The New York Times. Being Canadian, a culture with a deep seam of neediness running through it¹, you glow when you feel like you are noticed just as when the beer nerd's nerdiness gets the MSM treatment. But in today's article all was not nice - there was a bit of push back from him and the panel against the extreme hoppiness in beer that have marked a certain sector of the nerd herd:
"The hoppiest beer?" Garrett asked. "It’s a fairly idiotic pursuit, like a chef saying, ‘This is the saltiest dish.’ Anyone can toss hops in a pot, but can you make it beautiful?" Phil likened the appeal of these beers to the macho allure of hot sauces, which almost dare enthusiasts to try the hottest ones.I like the comparison to saltiness and it reminds me of the idea that the search for the strongest beer, an earlier extreme beer obsession, is as dumb as hunting for the strongest Scotch. One thing I noticed was that the beers chosen that I was familiar with were not the most hop-ridden out there by any stretch. Dogfish Head 90 looks up to their 120, I found Simcoe Double IPA balanced (something I could not say for the brewer's bigger Eleven) and only Un*earthly broke the now standard 10% alcohol limit that now sort of divides extreme between really strong from insanely strong.
Stan notes at his blog that some in craft beer are not so prudent or concerned with beauty when he shares this update from Avery about their 2008 version of New World Porter:
While some observers may posit that the hop shortage is a good thing, forcing brewers to become more efficient and prudent with their use of hops, we at Avery tend to disagree. Hops are the heart and soul of our beers and we refuse to compromise our recipes or our flavors. Even more, as if to scoff in the face of common sense and basic brewery economics, we decided to increase the hops that were added to this years New World Porter. The 2008 batch is truly a black IPA.Something tells me that this could well just not be a beer for me. After a few of years of these big brews I am starting to think that I have a natural limit of around 8.5 percent beyond which beers start to have a diminishing return unless there is something else to particularly attract my attention. I also have a limit as to hop acid and that is defined by the need not worry about the state of my tooth enamel...unless, say, there are those arugula hops from Ithaca in there. This is no different than my sour beer studies leading to my limit for acidity being far closer to Kriek De Ranke than to Bruocsella 1990.
Is it wrong to say that you can't go all the way or at least as far as others go? Old farts call this a sign of maturing. The immature call it the sign of an old fart. To my mind, Asimov's NYT article leaned towards old fart territory without explicitly saying so. The other end of the pendulum's swing can be found at this busy forum filled with unimpressed lame-'cusatory BAers. It's like everyone is unhappy with everyone else and, frankly, Pete Brown is pretty much fed up with the lot of you.
Yet these things only go so far. Can someone else tell us what to think, to taste? There is nothing more odd than sitting over the same bottle with experienced fans and hearing differing comments, different experiences of pleasure. In many ways, beer has an audience of one and that is you. So what have you learned about yourself? Which path would a brewer have you walk but you won't follow? Is it and overly Burtoned mineralized brew? Too still, too hopped, too smoked or just too much goddamn yeasty floaties? Or is it the milds, lights and other table beers that bore you or, worse, wear you out from trips to the can? Remember this: we each have to make our old way in this wicked world and there is no better example of that than the love of beer. What thing about beer have you learned not to repeat?
¹Think Sally Field saying "They like me! They really like me!!" and add snow.
Comments
Thomas - January 10, 2008 1:22 am
I took it more like someone trying to show up fashionably late to a party, but the party is ending as they arrive. It's great that NYTimes is covering the beer, but let's be honest the hoppy bomb party is over or on it's way out. Doing more with less, finding new grains and spices to play with through the shortages that is where the fun will be.
Evan Rail - January 10, 2008 9:44 am
Quiet is the new loud, man. Just as there's been a turn from buttery, over-oaked New World chardonnays to more austere, Chablis-style wines, things are going to swing back soon. I think it's clear that an advance party is preparing the ground for the return of unextreme beers. Look at Lew's session beer project, which just got written up in Imbibe, and Ron has been recently writing about mild (mmm, mild!).
In the Czech Republic, there are a few interesting unextreme brews: cult fave Bernard is one of the first popular brewers to bring back lehké pivo, or "light beer," with 2.2% ABV, as well as an amber version of its very good non-alcohol beer. Opat offered an "extra-hopped" beer last year, but it was hardly very hoppy by Double IPA standards (maybe 38 or 40 IBU?), and it had just 4% ABV. In many cases, bigger is still better here, but I think I can feel the ground shifting.
Wilson - January 10, 2008 10:35 am
Great post. I'm all over the place with my tastes, and evolve constantly. I'm only now coming back to hops after burning myself out on them a few years ago.
I like the salt comparison as well. The pissing contest will continue to evolve, and always there will be something new to try, as well as something tried and true, whatever the season.
Cheers!
Alan - January 10, 2008 11:36 am
It will be interesting to see if the hops shortage will combine with what we may call "hop fatigue" to reduce the ever present call to the extreme. Have some invested too heavily in the concept of extreme as part of their branding to let this happen without a fight?
Paul of Kingston - January 10, 2008 12:45 pm
Again - it's a matter of personal taste right? I do enjoy a force 10 blast of citrusy boquet with a medium level of bittering. So all in all I tend to think more hops are better than less. A massive Thomas Hardy Ale at just under 12% has a time and place for me too.
However, and this is the real beauty of the beer experience, I was recently amazed at the fullness of of a semi-local mild ale weighing in at a miniature 3.5%ABV. I want more of this end of the spectrum.
I suppose my point here is that there is room for all and more on my fridge shelf and I think that it would be a bad thing if the craft brewing industry eroded the independance of their art by trend chasing.
Evan Rail - January 10, 2008 1:11 pm
Hear hear! I vote for Paul to have all these beers and more on his fridge shelf!
Ron Patinson - January 10, 2008 3:10 pm
The year has started well. Loads of really nasty arguments on beer forums. Must be the hangover after christmas. I think I'll stay at home with my Brewers' Almanack. That never insults anyone.
Buttle - January 11, 2008 12:11 am
It's all well and good to damn the debate and say to each his own, but I don't think anyone is truly arguing against this. With beer as with art, people are going to argue strongly for their tastes, and on internet forums, they will do so nastily.
The more beer you drink, the more you appreciate subtleties. Or is it the opposite: the more you drink, the more you need big hops to taste them (sort of like with spicy food)?
Alan - January 11, 2008 8:23 am
Hemingway in the introduction to <i>Death in the Afternoon</i> said something like the second, something about that the things you love destroy your capacity to love them. That may be a bit dramatic. One of my favorite excess obsession moments was about 15 years ago in an interview on Morningside, a CBC radio show, Leonard Cohen admitted he ended a tour as he could not afford the wine as he needed to buy more and more expensive wine if he was going to be able to drink two or three bottles a day. He was up to a $3,000 a day habit.<p>It isn't the nastiness of the debate. It is the lack of understanding that the debate is an impossibility given, as you say, to each his own or as I would more put it - each is lost in his own.
Lew Bryson - January 12, 2008 12:42 am
"In many ways, beer has an audience of one and that is you."
Lew Bryson - January 12, 2008 12:44 am
Oh, hell, I got so worried about whether I could read your feckin' spam trap that I forgot to finish my post. Really, Alan, that thing's more a pain in the ass than most!
So..."In many ways, beer has an audience of one and that is you."
Great line, great thought, and a reason why I'm doing fewer tasting notes. I just don't know why people care if I taste nutmeg and orange zest and earthy notes. Isn't it enough that I enjoyed the beer, all by myself? Is that selfish, or existential, or solipsistic, or just confused?
Alan - January 12, 2008 8:20 am
The real irony is that the reCAPTCHA has attracted an extra 537 Romanian spams a day.
Unless I am working in a thought (or misapprehension) about the brewery or a trend, I really only post the notes for me so that I can keep track when I am on the road.
Chris - January 12, 2008 6:38 pm
http://www.thesharkbook.com/blog/labels/Beer%20cozy.html
Here's something nearly as asinine as perfecting the 'hoppiest' beer...
A remote-controlled 'beer cozy'...Yikes...
Steve - January 15, 2008 9:33 pm
Hmmm... I think that Lew had it right... its all about what *you* enjoy in a beer... not everyone looks for the same thing in a beer and not everyone enjoys the same kind of beer. What *you* enjoy in a beer should not be wrong in the eyes of others. Personally, I enjoy many types of beer, but I do have some favorites... some of those are on the "extreme" side of hoppy and many are not. RELAX... have a beer (and enjoy it)!
Ryan - January 20, 2008 1:23 pm
I agree that it is all up the the person with the beer in hand. But I also think that with these extreme beers, we need to think about them differently. Why do they need to be served in pint or even half pint glasses. It is either due to historical reasons or testosterone. I do not believe that scotch is served in such small portions only because of the alcohol content, but rather due to the flavor profile. Strip the part that gets you drunk and could you really see yourself drinking a pint of scotch? I don't think so. It is hard to truly enjoy something when your taste buds have been destroyed by the drink in hand. I wrote all about this issue in this post on my blog:
http://7000years.blogspot.com/2007/02/aiii-its-hopzilla.html
Enjoy!
ALan - January 20, 2008 2:26 pm
Very good point. We need more beer bottled like Anchor Steam.