Good luck! I studied in Muenster way back as a university student. Thankfully Pinkus Mueller is much more available these days in the US and I don't need to negotiate with a distributor to get a case or two. Koestrizer is still hard to come by though. Hard to find a really good beer in the US. The big name brewers produce corn-flavoured water, the micro-brewers produce over hopped barley soda pop (ok, I exaggerate a little, I know they are all trying to produce interesting products).

The overhopped style drives me nuts because there is so much variety out there that offer more flavors than stereotypical hop and bitterness. Then you have crazy yeasts like they use at Bells that give beers like Oberon the flavor of a spiced or fruited beer without any spice or fruit.

There are good west coast breweries but the culture created a style and has stuck to it like gospel. Variety is what makes beer fun.

Broadly* speaking it's an east coast/west coast thing. East Coast imperial IPAs barely qualify as pale ales on the Best Coast.

*very broadly, no you don't need to tell me about DFH 120 minute or what have you.

I think you're greatly exaggerating the difference, unless you want to name any highly rated East Coast "Imperial IPA" that isn't as hoppy as, say, Stone Pale.

Heady Topper, for example, is pure hop madness.

Hoppy flavors are the distinctive feature of west coast beers. A matter of taste, of course, but that's like complaining that there is too much stout in Dublin.

Yeah, there actually is too much stout in Dublin...