I think IPAs have made for peak craft beer and it is going down.
You are right about IPAs being easy to cover up poor brews. I brew, and people are really surprised when I tell them one of the hardest possible beers to brew would be a Budweiser clone, and one of the easiest is an IPA. Most IPA's have a very simple single malt and mash cycle, and it is essentially a hot tea made with hops. Then most of them are fermented. with some Safale high attenuation pretty bland US-05 yeast derivative. Any error or not even error with a pale lager like Budweiser would be exposed. It also takes a long time to make lagers due to the lagering progress and fermentation needing refrigeration.
The problem with people drinking these fresh dank double IPAs all the time is that every other style then seems bland as your taste buds are completely destroyed from drinking 100 IBU triple dry hopped beer. Then eventually you get sick of it, and every hazy juicy IPA starts becoming the same. There are way too many breweries now making generic silver cans filled with double IPA with some interesting art sticker. I'd short the craft beer industry if it were a stock.
Oddly this doesn't surprise me at all - I figured IPA's were popular because it was a relatively easy way to make a consistent small batch product.
I'm not really a beer person, but when I am its usually Coors Banquet or Pacifico, both of which I find tasty and refreshing (particularly on a hot day, with BBQ or Mexican). I also love Yuengling when I'm in the area for it, its the only beer I've gone out of my way to order.
Do people honestly enjoy a 100 IBU beer? I never understood the hype around strong IPAs. What percentage of consumers honestly enjoy it and what percentage are riding the bandwagon. I have often heard "ah this isn't bitter enough" when someone is drinking a high IBU beer.. is this some way of flexing on others? I enjoy beer but not these crazy IPAs. To each their own I suppose.
It is known that 100+ IBU is no longer perceptible as 100 is the max bitterness we can discern. Even regular IPAs weigh in at 50-60 IBU so they are also extremely bitter in the scheme of beers. Most styles of beer are 10-30 IBU. In general IPAs turn the hops component up to 11 in beers. And I do think IPA drinkers enjoy it. It isn't just flexing I think (although I am sure there are some that do), because I see in beer distributors that other styles I enjoy like Belgians and stouts are cleared out for more IPA space. And I think due to the intensity of the taste, that they get more and more conditioned to find other beers not bitter enough and not floral enough in notes. It is market demand now but I think it is self limiting because once people are in the category of "IPA drinker" I find many of them drink nothing but IPAs and then eventually get sick of them.
I personally will drink an IPA from time to time, but will gladly drink any style really and particularly like stouts, German/Belgian beers. I also agree with the other child comment and will crack open a Budweiser gladly on a summer day on the beach. It is actually a very well executed beer, it is designed to be smooth and mild. I think the aversion to lagers is some amount of snobbery. I don't drink beers for image so don't care!
Whenever I pick from a beer menu that shows IBU for each beer, I pick one of the 3 with the lowest IBU number. I don't care at all for the competition where people yell "Oh your beer has 100 IBU? Well mine has 110!"
You are right about IPAs being easy to cover up poor brews. I brew, and people are really surprised when I tell them one of the hardest possible beers to brew would be a Budweiser clone, and one of the easiest is an IPA. Most IPA's have a very simple single malt and mash cycle, and it is essentially a hot tea made with hops. Then most of them are fermented. with some Safale high attenuation pretty bland US-05 yeast derivative. Any error or not even error with a pale lager like Budweiser would be exposed. It also takes a long time to make lagers due to the lagering progress and fermentation needing refrigeration.
The problem with people drinking these fresh dank double IPAs all the time is that every other style then seems bland as your taste buds are completely destroyed from drinking 100 IBU triple dry hopped beer. Then eventually you get sick of it, and every hazy juicy IPA starts becoming the same. There are way too many breweries now making generic silver cans filled with double IPA with some interesting art sticker. I'd short the craft beer industry if it were a stock.