Is beer getting too bitter? YES.
- Thursday, May 16 2013 @ 07:20 AM CST
- Contributed by: filbert
- Views: 5,504
I stumbled across an article in Slate which makes the point: beer makers, especially the trendy micro brewers, are addicted to hops:
The problem is endemic. And I think the last sentence reveals the problem: suds-heads have become desensitized to the bitterness of hops.
We can see the problem of desensitization everywhere in society, actually. We see it in the currently flourishing IRS scandal, where a corrosive Democrat-Media complex demonized Tea Party groups and people whose only crime is to actually think that the Constitution should perhaps be read for comprehension rather than "interpreted as a living document," and that progressive (pun intended) desensitization soaked into the fertile ground of the IRS.
This doesn't excuse the oppression coming from the IRS. Far from it. It simply highlights once again that this kind of political power is just too dangerous to hand to anybody.
Anybody.
Because it's far, FAR too easy to go down the path of thinking you're the "good guy" while you're happily suppressing your neighbors and friends. For their own good, you see.
So when a homebrewer friend recently decided to visit my husband and me from Tennessee, I was excited to spend time with a kindred spirit, someone with whom I could share my favorite brews without having to make a hard sell. The first brewery I took him to was Hopworks Urban Brewery, where I ordered us a pitcher of the Velvet English session beer.
After a few sips, I noticed that he had pushed away his glass. “I’m sorry, guys,” he said when he noticed our puzzled expressions. “This is just way too hoppy for me.”
I was floored. Session beer is light and drinkable—it’s called session beer because you’re supposed to be able to drink several over the course of a drinking session without ruining your palate. If one of my favorite session beers was too hoppy and bitter for an avid beer drinker—for a homebrewer who is currently brewing beer to serve at his own wedding—what would he think of the famed Pacific Northwest IPAs? Do friends let friends drink only pilsners?
That’s when I realized that I had a problem. In fact, everyone I know in the craft beer industry has a problem: We’re so addicted to hops that we don’t even notice them anymore.
The problem is endemic. And I think the last sentence reveals the problem: suds-heads have become desensitized to the bitterness of hops.
We can see the problem of desensitization everywhere in society, actually. We see it in the currently flourishing IRS scandal, where a corrosive Democrat-Media complex demonized Tea Party groups and people whose only crime is to actually think that the Constitution should perhaps be read for comprehension rather than "interpreted as a living document," and that progressive (pun intended) desensitization soaked into the fertile ground of the IRS.
This doesn't excuse the oppression coming from the IRS. Far from it. It simply highlights once again that this kind of political power is just too dangerous to hand to anybody.
Anybody.
Because it's far, FAR too easy to go down the path of thinking you're the "good guy" while you're happily suppressing your neighbors and friends. For their own good, you see.