Quote Originally Posted by maks View Post
how do you feel about american ales? most of the microbrews around here have a good one though I'm more partial to bourbon barrel stouts
american ales encompass such a broad spectrum, but i know you mean like relatively, very hoppy, higher alcohol and pale-amber ales. in my mind i call all american hops "C-hops" which was the label several years ago to present for a whole bunch of high-strength(AA%) citrusy/piney/dank hops that dominated shit from 2008-the late 2010s. i basically got sick of them, because when you compare them to noble hops and english after only having careful dosages of those for years (im isolated from new beer basically) they seem harsh as fuck and 1 dimensional.

im probably going to get back into them as the low AA in the hops im using now require me to use a lot of them in grams, which ends up making me waste a lot of potential beer wort from the brewing kettle.

so basically american ales are defined by these hops im saying, and brewers use them because you can use less of them, which costs less up front, and ends up in slightly less wastage of potential beer. $$$$ it can also trick amateur to intermediate beer drinkers into thinking "woah this beer is something new". when basically its basic af beer with a new breed of hops, which are released at a rate of litrally 1 new species per day in newzealand and america.

i will always have a place in my heart for the early and trailblazing mid 00s beers like arrogant bastard and shit. and hell im pretty easy. but these days im testing how long i can go without making my beer unbearably sweet. an exception is stouts, i do like bitter stouts