Every video starts the same.
"Hi, my name is Emma, and I hate IPAs. Let's review one."
On camera, she pours the beer, takes a sniff of the notoriously hoppy brew, describes the smell, "You know the smell of a litterbox?" then takes a sip. The face Emma makes after that first sip says it all, but she still gives a score.
It's one thing to avoid a beer you hate. But Emma Lewis, from Shoreview, has amassed a following on TikTok trying IPAs from all over the country. All because she hates them.
She's in a mixed relationship because her boyfriend, Colin Meidl, loves them. His step-dad, also an IPA afficionado, encouraged them to start a she-hates-he-loves blog.
Instead, Emma decided to start a TikTok account. Colin, who films the videos, weighs in with his own rating, as well, because no IPA goes to waste when he's around.
We sat down with Emma to try to get inside her twisted psyche and figure out why she's gone as far as vomiting — on camera — for the sake of her anti-IPA beer reviews. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Q: How did you get into the IPA hating business?
A: It started out as a joke between my partner's stepdad and I. I would review them for his stepdad, because these are just my genuine reactions to these drinks that his stepdad loves. His stepdad said we should start a blog, and I didn't think anybody would read a blog, so we started on TikTok. Randomly, people started following us and all of a sudden, we have 26,000 followers.