Specialty ingredients and additions: Do people even like "beer" anymore?

[Scele]

I tend to dislike a lack of diversification more than I dislike specialty ingredients and additions. I'm fine if my liquor store stocks cherry bear, pumpkin ale, cranberry nutchrunch ****in' ale, or whatever else as long as they maintain a good selection of other things as well.

I went to a bar the other night that had 3 taps, the Norwegian equivalent to Bud, Coors and Miller, on all 3, that bothered me. If they had one lager, one good non-lager and one lite, it wouldn't have bothered me.

It's the same thing with hard liquor, if you want to stock 14 variants on fruit snaps, 3 vanilla vodkas and 8 chocolate liqueurs, but I will expect to find at least 1 highland, one Speyside, one Islay, one non-Jameson Irish whiskey and at least 1 non-fruitified form of clear liquor.

 

[Talgrath]

Every time I head into a nice bottle shop or head down to the local brewery or pub I see the new beers coming out, "Pineapple IPA or Rhubarb Hibiscus Saison or, for me especially, spiced beers like pumpkin beers with no pumpkin at all." Who do these beer appeal to? Are brewers and breweries trying to appeal to a wider audience that enjoys wine coolers and jello shots? Do people even like beer anymore? Whatever happened to a nice hoppy pale ale, or does everything need the bourbon barrel/oak/chocolate/vanilla/nut extract/fruit/honey/you know the secret I dump a bottle of hotdamn/schnapps into my beer and now it's world class?

Sorry to rant, but it's getting close to Halloween and all I can see on the horizon is spiced pumpkin this and that. To me it is gimmicky. I truly despise most spiced beers of any sort. Anyone else have any similar sentiments or need to rant about something they don't like about some beers, feel free to let me know here.

As a beer history nerd, I'd like to point out that really, beer started as a fermented grain, vegetable and fruit soup so if anything people adding fruits and veggies are just harking back to the origins of beer itself. However, your larger point I'd say depends a lot on taste. Personally, I'm not a big pale ale or IPA guy, it's just not what I enjoy the most, I like my hops balanced with other flavors; I like them and will drink them fairly regularly, but they aren't my preferred beer. From my personal perspective, I love what people are doing with unique ingredients, pushing the envelope of beer and seeing what works; I don't want to drink the fruit and experimental beers all the time, sometimes I just want a nice hefeweizen or amber to drink while I watch a match (Go Sounders!) but I eagerly await a lot of Black Raven and Elysian's seasonal beers, which often involve some sort of barrel or fruit. I think the key is that the beer has to be done well overall and still taste like a beer and not just be a vehicle for whatever flavor extract you want to stick in your beer.

 

[AnOldUR]

This thread should be renamed,"Why doesn't everybody else like what I like?"
:cross:

 

[dkevinb]

This thread should be renamed,"Why doesn't everybody else like what I like?"
:cross:

 

[troy2000]

I'm all for it! Why NOT try to brew up something unique and interesting? It's not like there is a shortage of boring, BJCP, Reinheits-whatever beer to choose from at the store or bar. So someone goes out on a limb to try to find the secret awesome ingredient that makes a beer a big seller. So what?

For the record, I don't even like most of that crap, but I very much appreciate the efforts, and I always aim to try something new on the off chance I actually like it.

I like hoppy beers, lighter beers, stouts, porters, some Belgians. I had a Lavender beer from Blackrocks the other day that I thought was very good. Lighter, a bit sweet, and probably made for girls, but I thought it was refreshing and an interesting diversion from the same old.

What he said....

 

[W0GWT]

Every time I head into a nice bottle shop or head down to the local brewery or pub I see the new beers coming out, "Pineapple IPA or Rhubarb Hibiscus Saison or, for me especially, spiced beers like pumpkin beers with no pumpkin at all." Who do these beer appeal to? Are brewers and breweries trying to appeal to a wider audience that enjoys wine coolers and jello shots? Do people even like beer anymore? Whatever happened to a nice hoppy pale ale, or does everything need the bourbon barrel/oak/chocolate/vanilla/nut extract/fruit/honey/you know the secret I dump a bottle of hotdamn/schnapps into my beer and now it's world class?



Sorry to rant, but it's getting close to Halloween and all I can see on the horizon is spiced pumpkin this and that. To me it is gimmicky. I truly despise most spiced beers of any sort. Anyone else have any similar sentiments or need to rant about something they don't like about some beers, feel free to let me know here.

I hate pumpkin beer. I hate O'fallon Weach.

However, I have a very close coworker, who loves all of these things. She is useful to me in that she and her hubby will drink whatever I give them and provide feedback. At first I thought it'd be useless $hit feedback because they have the tongues of dogs (as a Thai roommate in college used to say). However, I discovered that they actually had discerning palates (as proved by 20+ other beers). They just happened to like a few things I think are total $hit. I try to remember that when approached by anyone who has peculiar tastes.