Can an AFWE wine lover like strong IPAs?

My taste in wine tends toward the AFWE – higher acid, not heavily extracted, less oak, blah, blah, blah.

I also like robust IPAs. But these days there’s a great deal of shaming of people who like hoppy, fruity IPAs.

Should I be embarrassed about liking them? Will this undermine my reputation for being a man of refined tastes?

(I’m intrigued by people’s seemingly incongruous flavor preferences. I have a good friend who consumes large quantities of Sancerre and turned up his nose at a Ramey chardonnay I served him, which I quite liked. Yet he bought a case of Apothic Inferno, and generally drinks reds I consider over-the-top plonk. How can this be?)

Interesting post, John. I would say my wine tastes are similar to yours and all I drink are New England style IPAs and DIPAS. I’ve never really thought about the connection, or lack thereof. I feel like both serve a different and unique purpose for me. I usually don’t drink a lot of beer with a meal or over the course of the night like I would with different wines over dinner. I rarely have more than one or two in a night.

I also think there is something to appreciating quality in all things. I go through the effort to be able to drink some of the best IPAS (Treehouse, Monkish, Trillium), and while they are bigger, fruit-laden beers, there is fine craftsmanship in those beers that is akin to crafting great wine. I feel there is room for both in my life.

Not sure if I am contributing anything to your inquiry, other than to say, I align with your tastes and I am not embarrassed at all!

In the same boat – I drink mainly burgundy and other leaner, acid-driven wines (mostly French). I love hazy DDH IPAs from the likes of Treehouse, Other Half and Singlecut when I drink beer.

yes?

Not a beer drinker at all. Sorry.

My question was not whether one can like wine and beer. I see no problem there. I just wondered if, as a man of refined tastes, I’m vulnerable to shaming for liking full-throttled IPAs. Some people out there seem to view these as the ale equivalent of Mollydooker. (FYI, as with wine, I’m generally not keen on high alcohol beers and ales.)

As my wine tastes have moved more afwe/eurocentric my beer tastes have moved away from the super-hoppy stuff and more towards slightly-hoppy American ales, porters, and sours. But…as to the original question…drink what you like!

Why not? The AFWE comment was aimed at people who disliked sweet red and black fruit, the emphasis on sweet. IPAs taste like super bitter citrus fruits, so like a bitter white wine, so the total opposite of Parker’s purported tastes.

If we were to indulgent in stereotypes, the stereotypical “Parkerized” beer would be the beer I drank tonight: a coffee, chocolate, vanilla stout, with 11.5% alcohol (excellent, by the way). The thick texture the fake flavors, the high alcohol, the great taste… it practically begs to be abused by the “in” crowd. The fact that Parker extolled New England IPAs would be an inconvenient fact in the AFWE beer shouting match.

In any event, the real AFWE beer equivalent would be Coors Light.

Shame! Shame! Shame! How can you possibly drink IPAs? There are too many cult New England breweries making overpriced and over done beers (with alcohol too high)! Shame! [neener.gif] [neener.gif]

In reality, I think IPAs are ~10 years or so behind Cali Cult Cab on the popularity journey. They went from existing but not special, to obscure and trendy, and are now slipping into the backlash/uncool phase of their cycle. Give it 5 more years and no one will care because the beer world will be onto the next trend.

Also - let the record state that I trend toward AWFE with wine but prefer Belgium double and triples to IPAs (although I wouldn’t ever turn down an IPA placed in front of me)

It’s an interesting question, and not unlike one I posted a while back on the relationship between wine and coffee tastes. I do kind of see the similarity between strong IPAs and cult California wines - they are flavor bombs, high in alcohol and often quite limited in release. Despite my AFWE tastes in wine I do enjoy fruity IPAs from time to time, but can’t really drink them over 7% abv, and have to mix it up with more moderate non-hoppy styles like low-ABV lagers or Belgians. Sometimes I’m really in the mood, and other times I go a couple months without having any. Like with Napa wines, though, there are some people who can’t seem to drink anything else, and that is what I find difficult to understand.

in French, we say, “Tout les goûts sont dans la nature” - meaning “all the tastes can be found in nature” - so I guess fine wine and full-throttled IPAs are not incompatible. And in nature there is no shame, is it?

Well, I don’t know if what i like is considered “strong” IPA - but i won’t bother with a beer unless it’s an IPA. My current fave is RAR Nanticoke Nectar. Ooh, i guess that name makes it sound like a mollydooker. But i only like beer with edge. So i think of IPA as the beer equivalent of red burg and german riesling.

I struggle with them. The trending to scale beers up and some with crazy high ABV is OTT.

I learned, after much trial, that I preferred DIPAs because the higher alcohol balanced out the hoppiness.

BTW, by “strong” IPAs, did you mean extra-hoppy or high alcohol? Those are two different, and, in my experience, contradictory things.

My tastes in wine is similar to yours John and I like craft beer a lot but I can’t stand hoppy IPA’s. Moonlight Brewing Death and Taxes a SF Black Lager is more my style.

Tom
PS: You have way too much time on your hands :slight_smile:

This! I’m a burgundy guy and an IPA only guy. If beer isn’t IPA or DIPA, I’d rather drink water.

No shame. Also, I don’t know who’s shaming you but the beer geeks are still going nuts for top tier IPA.
I get the feeling lots of IPA haters also developed their doctrine a generation ago. Many of today’s finer hoppy beers, especially those made in NEIPA style, bear almost no resemblance to the more aggressively bitter IPAs of yore. To use an imperfect analogy, saying you hate IPA today is like saying you hate Chardonnay. You can have that opinion, but man, there’s a lot of really good Chardonnay/IPA out there made in every style under the rainbow. [cheers.gif]

I like AFWE style wines, but I also enjoy fruitier Cali cabs sometimes. When it comes to beer, I love New England style IPAs over all else. I used to love stouts, then it went to anything Belgian, and now it is IPAs. As long as I am happy drinking it, I will feel no shame.

Me neither, is the thinking these strong IPA’s are the ‘Caymus of beers’?