Shovel_Head
Reged: 09/24/09
Posts: 162
Loc: A Duck Park Near You....
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Ozark
member
Reged: 12/14/05
Posts: 4012
Loc: out in the woods
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Hops produce the bitterness in beer, and malt produces the body and sweetness. Since the basic recipe is water + malt + hops, all beers strike some kind of balance between malt and hops. That balance is different for each beer style.
Mainstream American Lager doesn't have much of either ingredient, but the balance is just a little on the hoppy side.
Myself, I like malty beers like Oktoberfest and Bock a lot - and those are more on the sweet, full-bodied side of the balance with less hop bitterness.
British Pale Ale, also called English Bitter, along with its relatives Porter and Stout, has always been the traditional "hoppy" beer style - but it's been surpassed in the last 30 years or so by a new style, American Pale Ale.
American Pale Ale is the creation of U.S. microbrewers, coke-bottle lensed college geeks competing to see who can shovel the most hops into a vat. It's 'way more hoppy, or bitter, than other styles. Examples would be Boulder, Anchor, Sierra Nevada, and lots of others. That Torpedo Ale favored by griffin and them is about as "hoppy" as beer gets.
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3s
Reged: 01/27/06
Posts: 1197
Loc: SE IL
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Ozark, Have ya tried the Bell's Hopslam yet??? I think it was a little more hoppy than the torpedo but my memory is still kinda fuzzy.
Edited by 3s (10/07/09 07:37 AM)
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Shovel_Head
Reged: 09/24/09
Posts: 162
Loc: A Duck Park Near You....
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Tried a Sam Adams Octoberfest for the first time the other day and was impressed....
Although my mother-in-law always gets me those holiday beer gift sets every year for Christmas... Those beers are waaay too hoppy/bitter for my likeness.. Best Pale Ale I ever had was in Sante Fe, NM.. Beer was really smooth...
It was a Sante Fe Pale Ale..
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Paul Dallas
member
Reged: 12/14/05
Posts: 1189
Loc: the corner of Bedlam & Squalor
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I will concede that some of the ultra-hopped beers go too far, just as some of the malty beers go too far -- for instance, Sam Adams Imperial Double-Bock - blechhh!
Good Hoppy Beers: Boulevard Single Wide IPA, O'Fallon 5-day IPA, Charleville Hoptimistic, Schlafly Dry-Hopped APA, Laguanitas IPA, Bells Two-Hearted Ale, Sierra Nevada Torpedo Ale, Sam Adams Hallertau Imperial Pilsner --- all are excellent.
Hoppy Beers that I'm not as big a fan of: Schlafly Pale Ale, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Sierra Nevada Hop Harvest, Boulevard Double-Wide IPA, O'Dells Double IPA, Arcadia IPA, Rogue has a pretty good one that passable, Red Hook -not so good, all are drinkable, just not my favorites.
Its kinda interesting that Miller Lite is advertised as being triple-hopped for more flavor, but chit I can't taste ANY hops in that water.
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HAUS
member for now
Reged: 12/14/05
Posts: 4053
Loc: Paradise
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triple hopped as in 3 hops per batch... 
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Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day..
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