A trend I’m not hoppy about …

So, I like hops as much as the next guy. Indeed, my favorite Pilsner style beer, Jever, is renowned for its high hop content, I’m a big fan of Victory’s HopDevil, and as I’ve mentioned before one of my favorite beers of late has been Dogfish Head’s hoppy 60 cent IPA. Hell, I like hops so much that’s what was thrown at our wedding in lieu of the traditional rice or the more modern bird seed. It’s true, I’m not kidding.
That said, there are limits to everything, and it seems to me that the current trend is to simply hop the crap out of beers until the liquid simply won’t take in any more hop flavor, call it “KillerHopMadnessPlusHops,” and call it a beer. The latest one of these overhopped beers I’ve tasted was from Clipper City Brewing, and appears to be called Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale, although there was also a reference to Heavy Seas, so I’m not really sure what’s the name and what’s not. Apparently there are some three pounds of hops in this beer, but overall the taste was simply overwhelming, without a whole lot of body to back it up. Now, it’s perhaps unfair to single that beer out, but it seems to me that a little more balance is called for in some of these heavily hopped beers.
That said, Max of the soon-to-be-introduced MaxFactor (another periodic guest on this busy beer blog) may well have loved this hop extravaganza, so I guess it’s all just a matter of taste.

Photo source: www.midwestsupplies.com