Quote: Originally Posted by Preedatore I don't get this IPA rage that's popped up over the past 5 or so years. I feel like it's fueled by twenty-something beer snobs trying to one up their friends with who can find the shittiest and most obscure beer and pretend to like it.

IPAs are hardly obscure. Most any brewery will do one, including various small and unknown places, but they are not, as a style, obscure. Obscure would be something like a Gose or a Gratzer. (Two old German styles done by only a handful of breweries even in Germany.)

They're also sort of the equivalent to a big red in the wine world. The flavors are bold and in your face. There's no need to develop a palate to find and appreciate a wide range of subtle flavors. They are easy to understand. As such, they tend to be very popular with people relatively new to craft beer. Craft beer has been on a big upswing with a more casual crowd, and those are the people drinking a ton of IPAs at craft bars instead of the Bass or Stella they might have been drinking five years ago.