Extreme Beers - some for, some against

The extreme beer phenomenon is pretty much an American invention.  After all, why have a balanced, 5% alcohol ale when you can go over the top and blow the palate with any combination of bitterness, sweetness, and more alcohol ?

I subscribe to the monthly Beeradvocate magazine (http://beeradvocate.com/mag/), which can be frustrating at times as it is very biased towards US content and beers.  But it's published in the US, primarily for US market, so no surprise there.

What's interesting is watching the various opinions on extreme beer (EB).  The majority of opinion to date has been pro-EB, with occasional noise from the anti-EB lobby.

This month's issue (#40) has a good letter from a Mark Broe who writes, in part "...you asked for suggestions on how to get more folks drinking craft beer....... Stop making and promoting extreme beer......make it more drinkable...... More alcohol, more hops, fewer customers" he goes on.

I must admit I do agree, although it should be pointed out that the American Craft brewing industry is growing quite well, at the expense of the big guys, so somebody's doing something right.

In the same magazine, there is a beer recipe "The Audacity of Hops". It has a theoretical IBU (international bitterness units) of 221.  That's right, 221. IPAs come in at around 60, Russian Imperial Stouts at around 90.  In fact, it has been suggested that the human palate stops recognising hop bitterness at above 100 or so IBUs.

This "monster DIPA" recipe has 11 separate hop additions to the boil, plus a dry hop. Centennial, Amarillo, Warrior, Simcoe, Columbus, Newport, Palisade all get a gurnsey at one stage or other. This includes hopping the mash and the first wort run-off.

Original gravity is 1.098, which roughly ends up around the 9% mark.  The malt bill is mostly pale malt, with a touch of cara and chocolate, and there aren't instructions for high mash temp for a higher final gravity.  So one expects they want this to fully attenuate and hit the highest ABV possible.  9-10%, of course, is not "extreme".... but I think the IBUs most definitely are.

My opinion ? Well, I won't get to taste this hop monster, but it does seem a bit indulgent.  I do like a nice hoppy IPA that is bitter, but balanced with some good malt. The Murray's Icon IPA springs to mind as a good Australian example.

On the one hand, it's perfectly OK to brew anything you want. On the other hand, when trying to increase the universal perception & acceptance of craft beer, it's probably better not to scare the horses.....