The Bearded Brewer put up a provocative post today - Hop Madness. Or at least provocative out here in hop heaven. It’s a short step from heresy out here in Oregon! 
He’s taking issue with some of the extremely hopped IPAs and over the top “imperials” (stouts, IPAs, etc.) Personally, I enjoy a well hopped beer, but I understand where’s he coming from. I think our tendency as Americans to take everything to excess is getting out of control. Bigger is not necessarily better. We also don’t tend to be very good subtlety.
My last several beers have been pretty big and malty and I’m very interested in trying something a little more…sensitive. We’ll see how it goes. Anyway, it was good post and a worthwhile read.
Brian,
Thanks for the mention. It was nice to see people respond and feel comfortable having a discussion of such a controversial:) topic.
The posting came out of a discussion a friend and I had regarding the excessiveness in beers, and in particuluar my reaction to a large amount of Imperial Stouts and Imperial IPAs in Beer Advocate’s top 25 beers of the year.
But as Bob’s Woodshed pointed out, I think some of it has to do with regionalism. In the West, you love your hops and your beers reflect that. In the midwest, we have a lot of German traditions in brewing, and so there’s a lot of malty beers and lagers. But good beer is good beer and my main thing is that I don’t think that necessarily “bigger is better” and thats what I felt like Beer Advocate was saying by their overabundance of “big” beers on their top 25.
Cheers!
The Bearded Brewer