Anyone else hate the way craft breweries are destroying perfectly good beer styles by adding so many hops they taste no different than an IPA? I’m talking brown ales, red ales, amber ales, bocks, lagers, etc. These beer recipes are hundreds of years old and there’s a reason for it - they’ve always had a perfect balance of hops and malt to give the perfect taste profile. Adding more of either doesn’t make it better - kinda like adding more salt to something because a little makes it taste great.
Just tried an Octoberfest Marzen from a local craft brewery. Lots of advertisements on social media talking about how they did it in the traditional way - brewed in March, aged through the summer, then released on Sept. 1. I was hoping for the best, even though all their other beers are over-hopped. Shouldn’t have bothered - tasted like an IPA with just a little more malt thrown in in deference to the Marzen recipe.
luckily I bought a 6-pack of Sam Adams Octoberfest at the same time. At least they follow the tradional recipe and it tastes like a Marzen.
and don’t get me started on craft whiskey distillers that sell a 2-year-old single “small barrel” bourbon for 2 to 3 times the price of a bottle of Wild Turkey 101. Yeah, Wild Turkey isn’t “craft”, it uses a blend of barrels, but they’ve used the same recipe for nearly 100 years and those barrels are aged in Kentucky for 6-8 years and even longer.
rant over
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