Originally Posted by
gfunkdave
Too many IPAs are just indiscriminate hop bombs. I like the east coast IPA style much better, because they tend to have lots of tropical fruit overtones as well.
New England IPAs, particularly ones from Vermont, are absolutely delicious. They're almost always 8% ABV (so closer to imperial IPAs) and taste magnificent.
That said, as my beer drinking has become more discriminating, it is certainly the case that many craft breweries simply do every style beer for the sake of it (or for giving things a name). This was quite prevalent when I visited Vancouver this past week for a long weekend...I was really disappointed in the local beer scene. The concept of hoppiness does not exist...an IPA with 60 IBUs is hardly an IPA at all! Every pale ale was quite weak. The only interesting beer I had was a 14% ABV imperial sour that I really liked, even though I usually despise sour ales.
The only brewery I can think of that does a lot of different styles really well is Stone Brewing out of San Diego (and only their CA-brewed beers...their VA-brewed beers are terrible). Most other breweries don't cut it when they go broadly.