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The Bitterness Problem

It used to seem so simple—know your hops and when you add them to the boil, and you’ll know how bitter your beer will be. Now, thanks to IPA’s evolution and lots of new research, bitterness is getting … complicated. Here are key takeaways to help you dial it in.

Joe Stange Sep 10, 2023 - 19 min read

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Photo: Matt Graves

IPAs have gotten soft. Whether that’s a good thing depends on your taste, or—if you’re running a brewery—whether that softness sells.

At the same time, IPAs have gotten harsh in seemingly new ways. Granted, when you have a really great hazy IPA—bright, juicy, smooth, without the cloy—you get what it’s all about. But how many great ones are there, really, compared to those that kick your tongue in the end with some astringent, rubbery hop bite?

Sorry for painting with a broad brush; among 10,000-plus breweries in North America, there are always exceptions, and here at the magazine we’re lucky to taste some of the very best. Yet it shouldn’t take a ream of quantitative data to convince you that bitterness has changed. All we need to do is observe the ongoing popularity of hazy IPAs and to see that even many so-called West Coast–style IPAs are soft in profile, lacking crispness and sharp edges—many taste like hazies without the haze. We can see it in recipes we’ve published over the past nine years, and we hear it from brewers on the podcast—fewer IBUs, little to no hops in the kettle, more hops in the whirlpool, and many more in the tank.

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