Quote:
Originally Posted by Reaper16
There are a lot of people that prefer the East Coast style of IPA to the abundantly-hoppy West Coast style IPA. It's fine to flat-out dislike the super-hoppy, unbalanced IPAs. But to say that they are one-note is indicative of one of two things: 1.) your palate specifically can't handle the hop bitterness at those high levels, so the nuances are lost to you (I know a few beer drinkers that I respect who have this particular palate sensitivity) or 2.) your palate just needs time to adjust.
The most complex IPAs are the ones that you might describe as "one-note." Some of the west coast IPAs do amazingly intricate things with lupulin. No one is going to say that Pliny the Elder or Alpine Nelson (or Hell, even Midwest IPAs like Bell's Two Hearted Ale) are one-note.
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Oh, I realize that there are intricacies of the hops, however, there are more brewers than not that simply "over hop" their IPA's in an effort for the effect versus an intrinsically better beer of that style. And yes, I'm generalizing, but it's typical of the style to simply let the hops overwhelm the ale to the point where it's very hard to discern anything other than the hops. A good IPA reflects a real dedication by the brewmaster and a real knowledge of the craft. Most tend to end up in an amalgamated pile.