Can you buy nothing but IPAs these days? An empirical investigation
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Two rather obvious facts about the world of craft brewing are that 1)IPAs are extremely popular and 2)the selection of craft beers available is more diverse than ever, so if you don’t like IPAs you have plenty of choices. Among the minority of people who not only don’t like IPAs but see not liking IPAs as a major personality trait, however, online discussions tend go through some epic goalpost-shifting to deny point #2.
Since it never takes long for someone to assert that this is true in Seattle, I thought I would provide some actual data. Let’s consider some prominent local taprooms. The Chuck’s in the Central District currently has 25 taps, 5 of which (20%) are devoted to IPAs. The Greenwood location, despite needing to accommodate djw’s preferences, has 28 taps, only 8 of which (28.5%) are IPAs. The Taproom at Pike Place has 16 taps, 5 of which 31%) are IPAs. TeKu Tavern has 23 taps, 5 of which (21.7%) are IPAs. My neighborhood taproom has 23 taps, 5 of which (21.7%) are IPAs. I’m sensing a trend here.
How about some of our beloved local craft brewers? Reuben’s is famous for its IPAs, and yet if you visit their taproom you can find rye fruit sour, a Belgian farmhouse, 3 hard seltzers, two pilsners, a pale, two porters, a barleywine, and an English summer ale. At Holy Mountain 4 of the 6 beers currently being canned aren’t IPAs, and zero of the five beers currently being bottled are IPAs. (I believe based on the standards of the “I can’t buy anything but IPAs” set I now have dispositive evidence that you can’t buy IPAs anymore because they’ve been crowded out by Belgian hipsters.) Georgetown offers 4 IPAs out of 13 taps. Stoup finally gives us a majority-IPA taproom, but still 7 out of 18 taps aren’t. Urban Family has 7 IPAs/hoppy pales out of 19 taps. Even Cloudburst, which used to be an IPA specialist, has 3 IPAs out of 8 taps and 3 IPAs out of 7 cans to go at its Ballard taproom.
What about grovery stores? Well, I invite you to type “amber” or “porter” or “stout” or whatever into the search engine of our local Kroger’s subsidiary; I guarantee you’ll find plenty of choices.
The idea that IPAs have pushed everything out of the market is, how shall I put this, utter bullshit. The problem is that some people are offended that the market is offering a popular form of craft beer they don’t like at all. Enjoy the beer of your choice this Independence Day!