Depends where you live. Areas with a smaller craft brew scene do end up with the “nothing but IPA” problem. But where I live in the PNW there’s simply so damn many that even with 50% of them being IPA’s, you still get a huge selection of other pilsners, stouts, amber ales, hefenweizens… its pretty nice.
About 10 years ago it was probably closer to 80% IPAs. It was a big joke here that IPA stands for I Pretend (I’m not an) Alcoholic.
The only reason there is more on the market now is because we all stopped pretending the taste of motor oil with grapefruit gave us a better buzz.
Even now, most breweries will only seem to offer 4 varieties of IPAs, a pilsner/lager and a stout. Maybe an Amber but I feel the Mac & Jack’s copycat scene has mostly died out now.
I work for a brewery in Portland, and we’d like to make over varieties, but hazys and IPAs are what sell.
Nailed it.
“Welcome! We have 30 beers on tap.”
And dark beers?
“We have this single India pale ale.”
What do you mean it’s only IPAs here?
Why there’s also Double IPAs, triple IPAs, quad IPAs, Imperial IPAs, every kind of fruit-infused IPAs, hazy IPAs, seasonal IPAs, limited edition IPAs, New England style IPA, West Coast Style IPAs, wheat IPAs, rye IPAs, oat IPAs, Session IPAs, red IPAs, and non-alcoholic IPAs.
And if none of that appeals to you we also have a limited edition seasonal dry-hopped pils that according to the menu tastes like an IPA.
You forgot Black IPA’s, which I unironically love and have an extremely difficult time finding compared to 5-10 years ago.
Most probably none of those are proper IPAs. The ‘I’ in IPA stands for India. IPA is only half-done, if it did not travel on a sailboat around the Africa from England to India.
You from the states? Over here in Germany I can get (in a 5 km radius):
- Pilsener
- Hefeweizen
- Schwarzbier
- Porter
- Kölsch
- Lager
- Export
- Bock
- Helles
- Alt
- Kellerbier
- Landbier
- IPA
- Stout
- Red Ale
- Brown Ale
- dubbel/trippel/quadruppel
- …
