what's missing in the commercial beer market?

Is there anything that you guys think is missing in the commercial beer market?

I don't mean a specific brewery's product that you wish was sold in your area.


I'm talking more about a style of beer that is underdeveloped in the US market or a format of beer packaging or just something beer related that has untapped potential.




David

I think there should be more Belgians specifically Siasons.

some of these maybe geography dependant (maybe I just dont have them around here)
flavorful lagers, brown ales, belgian dark strong ale. siasons too as Mike said.
most of the commercial stuff even smaller craft breweries seem to focus on stuff like strong IPAs and fruit wheat beers too much.

fruit wheat beers too much

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Chicks man- Chicks

I think we lack any true lagers. You can't find any decent helles, pilsner or dunkels in America whatsoever. The "Great American Lager" is swill.

Klainmeister said:

I think we lack any true lagers. You can't find any decent helles, pilsner or dunkels in America whatsoever. The "Great American Lager" is swill.

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Yeah, I agree for the most part. Victory's Prima Pils though is the best American made Pilsner I have ever tasted. It's just like it came from Germany.

EdWort said:

Yeah, I agree for the most part. Victory's Prima Pils though is the best American made Pilsner I have ever tasted. It's just like it came from Germany.

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Hmm interesting. Never heard of it, where's it brewed? I might have to pick some up when i get back stateside. Here in Hessen the primary beer is a pilsner, so I'm growing awfully fond of em'.

I'd love to see some American breweries making some beers along the lines of bitters and milds. There are a decent number of ESB, but fewer good American session ales. I don't think Ive ever seen a mild for sale commercially. Guess I'll keep brewing my own.

EdWort said:

Yeah, I agree for the most part. Victory's Prima Pils though is the best American made Pilsner I have ever tasted. It's just like it came from Germany.

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The Prima Pils is the only Pilsner that I really like. I always thought that I don't really like Pilsners. Maybe I just don't like what they try to pass off as Pilsners here.

I will always have a soft spot for Victory. Their Hopdevil was the first beer that really made me appreciate that there is more than just the same BMC swill out there. Set me on the road to beer appreciation.

EdWort said:

Yeah, I agree for the most part. Victory's Prima Pils though is the best American made Pilsner I have ever tasted. It's just like it came from Germany.

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I picked up a sixer of that a few weeks ago; really nice. It's weird, the only thing I didn't like was that it was a little hazy, which really would ONLY bother me with a Pilsner. Really good, hoppy-but-balanced, clean, crisp... just a real nice beer.

There's a handful of styles that are close to dead that I wish would be distributed in the states (Gose, Berliner Weisse). Sour beers, in general, I think are under-distributed; with some clever marketing, something like DFH's Festina Pêche could fill the "chick beer" role of most fruited American wheats, while still being a very good beer in its own right.

elkdog said:

I'd love to see some American breweries making some beers along the lines of bitters and milds. There are a decent number of ESB, but fewer good American session ales. I don't think Ive ever seen a mild for sale commercially. Guess I'll keep brewing my own.

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I agree -- more true session ales. I mean, just because I drink 6 or 8 Two Hearted's at a time doesn't make it a session beer, y'know?

Slightly
Yesterday I stopped in at Goose Island, and asked what was on cask. Waitress says "it's a Belgian Table Beer -- 2% ABV" I tried it...quaffable (as you might expect), but not boring. A little on the watery side, but a noticeable maltiness and just a hint of hop bitterness to balance.

Never hear of such a thing before. Found it on Wikipedia (of course):

Table beer is a low-alcohol (typically not over 1.5%) brew sold in large bottles to be drunk with meals. The last decade it has gradually lost popularity due to the growing consumption of soft drinks and bottled water. It comes in blonde or brown versions. Table beer used to be served in school refectories until the 1970s; in the early 21st century, several organizations made proposals to reinstate this custom as the table beer is considered more healthy than soft drinks.

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Can you imagine proposing to serve beer in US schools
Can't find a commercial example in the states. Nodding Head in Philly calls one of their beers a table beer, but it's 5% ABV and so not really representative of the style as described.

Session beers are completely dominated by BMC. I'd like to see some decent British style session beers (Milds and bitters).

Sour beers are very difficult to find in many parts of the US. Around here I havn't found a Berliner weisse and gueze and flanders are rare. The only "sour" beer regularly available is Lindenmann's fruit Lambic which are over sweetened.

I like the mini kegs like Heineken's but nothing is distributed in them. I know Two-hearted is distributed in a mini-keg but that style of keg allows the beer to go flat if you don't drink it within a few days of opening. A party pig or sealed mini-keg is a nice size and allows a keg like system in a standard fridge.

Victory is a Pennsylvania brewery and is distributed primarily in the Mid-Atlantic region. I havn't had their Pils though.
Great Lakes has a seasonal beer called Pre-prohibition Pilsner that was quite good. I'm not usually a fan of pale lagers but this one went well with the fried Walleye I had. I havn't seen it in bottles but some restaurants had it on tap.

Craig

CBBaron said:

Session beers are completely dominated by BMC. I'd like to see some decent British style session beers (Milds and bitters).

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What about Pale Ales, Hefe's, Wits, Browns, etc? I have always considered these styles session beers, and BMC's stake in this market is minuscule at best.

PseudoChef said:

What about Pale Ales, Hefe's, Wits, Browns, etc? I have always considered these styles session beers, and BMC's stake in this market is minuscule at best.

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I don't consider the question to be specific to BMC at all (which really miss about 98% of styles). There's obviously a lot of commercial examples in this space; if I want a wit this afternoon, I've got a good number to choose from at most decent packies.

Milds are a good thought; there really aren't very many around at all. Is there a pretty strong consensus that what's missing is mostly SMALLER, quaffable beers? The American craft beer industry has been so focused on BIG beers - IIPAs, barleywines, etc - that the other end of the spectum, stuff that's tasty that you can drink all night - has been woefully neglected.

BMC's stake in this market is minuscule at best.

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Not really- Most of the people I know would rather buy a case of Corona or Budlight then fork out an extra 5$ for good beer

How about some ambers?

On the subject of good pilsners, I think that Troegs Sunshine Pils is a great one as well.

On the subject of what is missing, I am having the hardest time trying to find a Roggenbier. Of my planned beers over the next 2 months, I plan on brewing one, as well as an American Rye example. Problem really is that the only examples I can find of Rye are in IPA's and its hard for me to pick up on the Rye characteristics.

the_bird said:

Milds are a good thought; there really aren't very many around at all. Is there a pretty strong consensus that what's missing is mostly SMALLER, quaffable beers? The American craft beer industry has been so focused on BIG beers - IIPAs, barleywines, etc - that the other end of the spectum, stuff that's tasty that you can drink all night - has been woefully neglected.

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This is where I come down, and where I brew. There are lots of excellent big IPA's, IIPA's, RIS's, etc., and I love to drink those, but a lot of my brewing has focused mostly on the smaller, easy-drinkers that still have a ton of flavor- stuff I can't easily buy. I'm not sure how commercially viable they'd be, but I love a good Mild or Ordinary/Special Bitter, and I think it would be really cool to see what American breweries would do with the styles, given the great things they've done with APA's and IPA's.

I'd like to see a Classic American Pilsner. While Prima-Pils is very good it's not a CAP. The corn is missing.
I think that would be the perfect beer for A-B to get into the craft brew business.

MikeFlynn74 said:

Not really- Most of the people I know would rather buy a case of Corona or Budlight then fork out an extra 5$ for good beer

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I believe he was referring to the market for "Pale Ales, Hefe's, Wits, Browns, etc." and not beer in general.

ahhh- Im as you say in your countries..... slow

Not much missing around here. Haven't seen many Milds either, but the Golden style is much the same thing. Biggest problem in the PNW is people dumping in too many hops and trying to turn everything into an IPA, instead of letting a style be itself. A recently opened microbrewery near here has a killer stout & six hoppy whatevers.

hops = the new black?

Roggenbier...Can anyone give a commercial example? I'm interested in brewing this and an Alt. I like rye beer but I don't like wheat beer so I would like to try one first.

It's less obvious in Cincy than it was when I was living in Montana, but there are a LOT of beers catering to hopheads. I would rather get a few more Belgian styles, like saisons and sour ales, than all the hoppy ones. Hops really are the new black, which is cool because I know a lot of people love them (hey, I love HopDevil too), but I'd like greater variety of some older, less-American styles.

I'd have to say that Flying Dog's In-Heat Wheat is the only mass-distributed wheat brewed in this country that I like - Bell's Oberon is only mediocre, and Yellowstone brewing makes Wapiti Wheat which is exceptional but not mass-distributed. Looks like we'll be brewing more German-style wheats...

I'm also getting sick of the fruity beers too, in general. There are very few good ones.

Generally, malt flavor is missing. We have super hopped IPAs, IIPAs, and barleywines. We have roasty or smoky porters and deep stouts. We even have a few attempts at wheat/wit beers that are almost good. But where are the middle of the road, malty beers? Some mild ales or brown ales would be nice...maybe an English pale. An American made Märzen that's actually drinkable (i.e., better than SA's Oktoberfest) would do well.

On a different note, there are few, if any, American hefeweizens that actually showcase the hefe. They're all WAY too clean. Gimme some esters!!!

BrewWench said:

Bell's Oberon is only mediocre,

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I agree, I know its a favorite of many, but I don't care for it. I really like the Two-Hearted ale and his stouts are good, though.

SWMBO really likes the Leinenkugel's summer wheat, but she's also a big fan of Froot Loops.


As far as the Hops overload goes, I recently had Dogfishhead's Indain Brown and was surprised to find it not overly hopped--in fact it is well balanced.

Get a good english bitter coming out of a mini-keg-like device. If it comes out tasting like hand-pulled cask ale I would love that. I have so much trouble finding real cask ale, and definitely no way to have it at home conveniently.

You can find a few good Pilsners out there in particular Trumer Pils. Which now can be found out west. New Glarus's Home Town Blond was really good too. Too bad they went back to their Edel Pils this year.

I agree there are too little sour beers in the US market. But people are kind of scared to try sour beers.

You can find a few good Pilsners out there in particular Trumer Pils

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Midnight Sun brews an Imprerial Pils. It was damn tasty!

Yuri_Rage said:

Generally, malt flavor is missing. We have super hopped IPAs, IIPAs, and barleywines. We have roasty or smoky porters and deep stouts. We even have a few attempts at wheat/wit beers that are almost good. But where are the middle of the road, malty beers?

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+1 You can get hop extract in a glass these days, but ask for something malty and they think you want a dessert.