A Rant (with room for discussions)

[Pehlman17]

I feel like beer is in a weird place right now. Not just home brewing but craft beer in general. I don’t want go full old man (late 30’s) yells at cloud here so I’ll try and stay focused. I read something earlier today about Barleywine. In particular about “black Barleywine” and how it’s a new style/trend to look out for. In the intro of the article it mentioned something about Barleywine getting lost and/or forgotten lately. And it mentioned the reasons being something to the effect of the lack of innovation or lack of room for innovation in the style as it’s reason for seeing a relative decline in recent years. Then the article goes on to talk about “black Barleywine”. It’s some new take on a classic we should all look out for. One of the brewers of this styles saying it’s like a stout but without being roasty. Leaning on the malt bill of Schwartzbier over that of imperial stout. Dark, but not roasty and burnt, etc. And subsequently as if an “oh, by the way”, it’s also aged in whiskey barrels. Most if not all examples they mentioned were aged in whiskey barrels. The article of course mentions how, relative to Barleywine, stouts have exploded in popularity in recent years. Everything from BBL aged stouts, to BBL aged breakfast stouts, to BBL aged pastry stouts, to… you get it. Stouts haven’t become popular lately. BBL aged beer has become popular. It’s not special anymore. It seems to now be the spoonful of sugar that helps the dark beer go down. So for all the talk about how Barleywine has found some sort of new life in a darker form of itself (also ahem, aged in whiskey barrels), should we be that surprised?

Now don’t get me wrong. Innovation is not bad. Moving things forward is not bad. But I can’t help but feel a sense of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” sometimes. Hazy IPA didn’t “fix” anything wrong with IPA. It just created a new thing. But we unfortunately didn’t see it that way. We called it an “IPA”, and necessarily made it compete with what others knew as IPA.

Semantics can be important. I still remember when “session IPA” was becoming a thing, and how many people didn’t understand how it wasn’t just pale ale. Cold IPA is a thing now. And people still debate about what it means. It’s IPL but at ale temps, but tastes just like a west coast IPA? So how is it not just a WCIPA? I get both sides of the argument. Similarly with this whole black Barleywine thing. It sounds to me like an ale-fermented Baltic Porter, that also apparently had to be aged in whiskey barrels to be good.

Anyway, to make a long story longer. I think most of us that b*tch about change aren’t mad about new things. We get mad about the things we love being replaced by something else. Especially when we feel like the narrative becomes that the things we love are inherently bad, wrong, or boring. Classics are classics for a reason. There’s nothing wrong with that. But the nature of craft is to keep innovating. There’s nothing wrong with that either. This doesn’t have to be a zero sum game.

Craft beer and home brewing were at their best when there was a healthy balance between homage and innovation. Let’s not forget that. Don’t dismiss what’s new because it breaks the rules. But also, don’t dismiss what’s old because it’s “old”. Like it or not there is wisdom in what came before us.

If we want to “improve” upon IPA by making it soft and fruity, let’s call it it’s own thing. If we want to “improve” upon stout by making it sweet and sugary, let’s call it it’s own new thing. If you want to make “black Barleywine” let’s make room for it as it’s own thing. It’s not an improvement on something that was already great just because it wasn’t what you came up drinking. There’s plenty of room for both things to exist and to create space for each thing to occupy from now until forever.

 

[Brewsmith]

I think you’re right in ballpark. I’m with you on several things going on in the beer industry. I am all for pushing boundaries and trying new things. It also doesn’t mean I have to like it. I get why people like hazy/juicy ipas, or pastry stouts, or the latest trend in barrel aging Barleywine, but it doesn’t mean that I’m going to want to order multiple.

I’m just a couple years older than you, and I can see it happening right now. There is a younger group of brewers and brewery owners now that have grown up where beer style is irrelevant and are not beholden to any “traditional” way of doing things.

I do believe, however, that there will always be some rediscovery of classic beers and styles because they are classic for a reason. They are good. We can fuss and debate about the current trends of elite beers, but most beer is not pretentious but is pedestrian. There was a time where liking IPA was a minority view, and maybe still is in the big view of things, but plain IPA is not exciting anymore, and I’m ok with it as long as brewers are still making great ones that I can find and enjoy. But at least let me know that it is hazy/juicy/sweet/not-bitter ahead of time.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

I've only ever tried a couple of "Barley Wines", the first one ever was like 6 years ago -- a friend gave me a growler from a brewpub in Red Wing, MN and it was fantastic! The most recent barley wine I've tried was "Third Coast Old Ale" from Bells, and it's just a chore to drink, not at all enjoyable.

 

[Henbrew]

The longer I've been into homebrewing the less I know about craft beer anymore. I just have to remind myself that I'm not their audience. When I first started brewing I would find inspiration based on all the craft beers, now I walk into a shop and often leave empty handed because I don't know what the hell I'm looking at

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Henbrew, I feel the same, walking into a beer store I usually walk back out with nothing in hand. I look at the rows and rows of beer and all of the fancy non-discrip labels and feel sorry for anyone want to try a craft beer. I'm so glad I can walk away, come home and pull a tap handle and have a beer I brewed and I know what it is. Tart cherry wheat now with lunch

 

[mac_1103]

It's all because the hook brings you back...

 

[MaxStout]

The longer I've been into homebrewing the less I know about craft beer anymore. I just have to remind myself that I'm not their audience. When I first started brewing I would find inspiration based on all the craft beers, now I walk into a shop and often leave empty handed because I don't know what the hell I'm looking at

I get that same frustration sometimes, and am often disappointed. I don't go to as many breweries as I used to pre-pandemic. There are a few near me I concentrate on, as they have beers I like.

But too many breweries try too hard to be "innovative," and end up jumping the shark. I get it--craft beer is mainstream now and breweries are trying to set themselves apart. Seems like 2 extremes: either make ordinary beer, or go crazy and try weird, new stuff. Neither end of the spectrum really suits me, and I'm happy with a brewery that makes interesting styles and strives for quality.

I guess I just try a place and see what I like. It's the "can't define good beer, but know it when I taste it" routine. Every brewery has the obligatory 3 or 4 IPAs including a hazy or two, a couple dark beers, maybe a Kolsch or blonde for people who "don't like craft beer" but will try one anyway.

I'll try most anything. All I ask is that they make better beer than I make, which is a fairly low threshold. If the quality's not there, why would I go back? Give me a few true-to-form German, Belgian and British styles.

 

[Henbrew]

Henbrew, I feel the same, walking into a beer store I usually walk back out with nothing in hand. I look at the rows and rows of beer and all of the fancy non-discrip labels and feel sorry for anyone want to try a craft beer. I'm so glad I can walk away, come home and pull a tap handle and have a beer I brewed and I know what it is. Tart cherry wheat now with lunch

I often go for some of the classic Belgians because they're always a treat. Got some St. Bernardus Tripel last visit and wasn't disappointed.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Last week I did some day drinking with a buddy, stopping at two breweries I've been to before, but at least a couple years ago. Central Waters was just as great as I remember it. My only disappointment was not being able to stay longer. The other place, kind of a dud. I won't name it, others there were happily drink. Maybe just me. I buy CW on those rare trips to the beer store. I know what to look for with them.

 

[MaxStout]

Last week I did some day drinking with a buddy, stopping at two breweries I've been to before, but at least a couple years ago. Central Waters was just as great as I remember it. My only disappointment was not being able to stay longer. The other place, kind of a dud. I won't name it, others there were happily drink. Maybe just me. I buy CW on those rare trips to the beer store. I know what to look for with them.

They distribute here. What CW beers do you like?

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

They distribute here. What CW beers do you like?

Their brewer's reserve / barrel aged stuff is pretty fantastic.

 

[grampamark]

wrong thread

 

[Dland]

Can't say "don't get worked up about this isht, it's only beer", this is a beer forum, so rant on if you must.

What's trending in beer world or anywhere else has little meaning to those who know what they like.

Good news is if you can't find beers you like for sale, this is a homebrew forum. It is possible to brew better beer than what is for sale in most places. This is especially true if one happens to enjoy brews that are not in style

Probably always in style with those that appreciate good beer.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

They distribute here. What CW beers do you like?

I'm a huge fan of their bourbon barrel beers. If you get a chance to tour the place, their barrel room is what I describe as heaven. The ones I love, a bourbon barrel scotch ale, a BB imperial stout. I had two of the stouts there but it was their anniversary brew. Also one I thought was very good, an imperial red with cherries. It's labeled, "Call me Old-fashioned". Sort of like the old fashion mixed drink. A huge Wisconsin thing.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Max, if you can find Central Waters in your area, maybe you can find Founders too. They are out of Grand Rapids, lower Michigan. They have several bourbon barrel beers that are great. Backwoods Bastard is one I enjoy.

 

[SFC Rudy]

I’m 55 and was born with a Budweiser in my hand and I’ll probably die with a Budweiser in my hand.

I got stationed in Germany for 10 years where I fell in love with great beer, so much so I started brewing. I brew classic styles because I can rarely find a classic style beer without the American penchant of over hopping it.

I understand craft breweries have to stand out because of competition, but it’s not necessarily good beer just because it’s different.

 

[TomSellers]

There is a dynamic that fuels this revolution. You'll probably find, as I seem to have done, that the brewmaster at the heart of a new microbrewery graduated in a program from the local agricultural college. In our neck of the woods, the 2 year program at Olds College cost is about $20,000 for fees, books, and tuition:

 

[Pehlman17]

The longer I've been into homebrewing the less I know about craft beer anymore. I just have to remind myself that I'm not their audience. When I first started brewing I would find inspiration based on all the craft beers, now I walk into a shop and often leave empty handed because I don't know what the hell I'm looking at

Dude, I’ve done the same with some of my local breweries. I’ve walked in and looked at the menu only to walk right out. It’s always like eight IPAs with some combination of mosaic, Citra, and strata in each one. Plus about four or five stouts flavored with some kind of whiskey or breakfast cereal. And then a couple lagers. Typically an American lager, a Japanese rice lager, - a Mexican lager, and/or something they call Pilsner.

I know this isn’t something I should complain about. But I have a hard time dealing with trying to support a local spot but only having basically three kinds of beer to choose from.

I understand the logistical issues of trying to make a full array of styles, especially when it calls for multiple yeast strains. But I also feel like breweries aren’t calling the shots anymore and that bums me out. They all just make a million versions of the same beers they think everybody wants. They’ve gone from being the trend setters to the trend followers.

I feel like craft beer was about telling the consumer that “we’ll tell you what’s good. What you think of as beer is bland mass market swill. There’s such a rich history of styles and flavors that you can’t even imagine. There’s something for everyone and it’s so much more interesting than anything you’d think of as beer.”

Now it’s like, “We have beer that tastes like Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Or perhaps you prefer a mango vanilla milkshake? That’s sounds good, right? Please like me!!”

 

[Pehlman17]

Can't say "don't get worked up about this isht, it's only beer", this is a beer forum, so rant on if you must.

What's trending in beer world or anywhere else has little meaning to those who know what they like.

Good news is if you can't find beers you like for sale, this is a homebrew forum. It is possible to brew better beer than what is for sale in most places. This is especially true if one happens to enjoy brews that are not in style

Probably always in style with those that appreciate good beer.


View attachment 818223

I totally get what you mean. And perhaps I just came up in a different world of homebrew and craft brewing than other generations. For me homebrew has never been something I’ve had to rely on to in order to have styles of beer than I couldn’t otherwise find elsewhere. I sort of came up in the “clone brew” era where we always had something to compare our batches to, or where the goal was to try and recreate something we could easily pick up at the store or local brewery. Maybe we couldn’t always find a traditional Irish red, but certainly the locals breweries each made one. There was always a fresh red ale. There was always a stout, or a Porter, or a brown ale, or an amber…we could always judge our homebrew against something similar from right down the road. Or if we were lucky enough to have one near by, Total Wine or BevMo would certainly have something we could pick up to see how our brew compares to the real thing. At least near me, the European beer selection has all but dried up even at the big box stores. Breweries like Ommegang and Allagash are abandoning their Belgian-inspired roots. Fat Tire and Boston Lager are now advertising themselves as “lighter”.

I know I can just decide to make the things I can’t find, but that doesn’t make it any less sh*tty. Sometimes I don’t want to have to make every thing myself that I’d want to consume. I’d love to just be able to go to the store sometimes and grab a nice brown ale to drink during the week. Or a stout that doesn’t taste like doughnuts. Or an ipa that isn’t dry hopped at a rate of six thousand pounds per barrel in hopes that it tastes just like fresh spring time mangos after a rain.

Sometimes I just want hops that taste like hops. Or malt that tastes like malt. Can we please get back to making beer that tastes like beer and isn’t catered to the palates of six year olds?

 

[Pehlman17]

I totally get what you mean. And perhaps I just came up in a different world of homebrew and craft brewing than other generations. For me homebrew has never been something I’ve had to rely on to in order to have styles of beer than I couldn’t otherwise find elsewhere. I sort of came up in the “clone brew” era where we always had something to compare our batches to, or where the goal was to try and recreate something we could easily pick up at the store or local brewery. Maybe we couldn’t always find a traditional Irish red, but certainly the locals breweries each made one. There was always a fresh red ale. There was always a stout, or a Porter, or a brown ale, or an amber…we could always judge our homebrew against something similar from right down the road. Or if we were lucky enough to have one near by, Total Wine or BevMo would certainly have something we could pick up to see how our brew compares to the real thing. At least near me, the European beer selection has all but dried up even at the big box stores. Breweries like Ommegang and Allagash are abandoning their Belgian-inspired roots. Fat Tire and Boston Lager are now advertising themselves as “lighter”.

I know I can just decide to make the things I can’t find, but that doesn’t make it any less sh*tty. Sometimes I don’t want to have to make every thing myself that I want to consume. I’d love to just be able to go to the store sometimes and grab a nice brown ale to drink during the week. Or a stout that doesn’t taste like doughnuts. Or an ipa that isn’t dry hopped at a rate of six thousand pounds per barrel in hopes that it tastes just like fresh spring time mangos after a rain.

Sometimes I just want hops that taste like hops. Or malt that tastes like malt. Can we please get back to making beer that tastes like beer and isn’t catered to the palates of six year olds?

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Craft beer is money driven to what the the tastes/trends are for the moment, and rightfully so. There's not a lot of craft brewers out there with unlimited funds. I get that, I've been there, it's not an easy life.

I'm just glad that home brewing has evolved to this point and we have the craft brewers to thank for most of that.

I started home brewing around 1984, not much out there but a can of hopped extract and a white packet of yeast taped to the top. Now I can brew just about anything.

 

[madscientist451]

I read something earlier today about Barleywine. In particular about “black Barleywine” and how it’s a new style/trend to look out for.

That article was in my email this morning, but I'm not a paid subscriber. If you have access to the recipe, perhaps post it here?

 

[Bobby_M]

I do tend to go "get off my lawn" about beer "innovations" lately until I realize it's the primary reason I homebrew. While I do explore the commercial brewery scene more as an extension of the hobby, I don't get upset about what they're selling. I often wonder why people want it, but it's a curiosity that wanes by the time I get home.

Is it particularly weird right now? I don't think so. Dogfishhead has been trying and succeeding with the "watch this" attitude towards recipe creation for 30 years.

The contrary to all this weird stuff is that a lot of local breweries here are getting right on the classic styles. Czech and German Lagers, Altbier, etc. They are also all trying to survive so having a hard seltzer or hard kombucha is just a smart move so that more guys bring their dates.

 

[NeoBrew]

I just long for the days when I could order a pale ale and not get a glass of flaccid cloudy swill.

It is one thing to displace classic styles with “what sells”. It is entirely another to steal the style name from and sub something completely different.

Sadly everything hazy has even ruined beers that only have a little hop haze. Good luck finding a beer that actually has hop bitterness and malt fullness in any form. Seems like even the things advertised as west coast IPAs are watery fruity messes that don’t really even resemble beer.

IMHO.

 

[mac_1103]

I guess I'm just lucky. Most of the breweries around here are actually pretty good and don't just chase the latest invented trend. Sure, there are way too many hazies and sours for my tastes, but there's always a nice enough Kolsch, lager, WCIPA, etc. and I can always find something I'm happy to drink when friends want to go out for a few brews instead of just drinking mine.

There is one place that opened maybe three years ago or so that is just plain weird though. I'm not really sure what they're trying to accomplish, unless it actually is making weird tasting beer. Don't really get exactly how they're still in business, but they do have a great building (former firehouse) in a great location, and they certainly are unique.

 

[Bobby_M]

I just long for the days when I could order a pale ale and not get a glass of flaccid cloudy swill.

It is one thing to displace classic styles with “what sells”. It is entirely another to steal the style name from and sub something completely different.

Sadly everything hazy has even ruined beers that only have a little hop haze. Good luck finding a beer that actually has hop bitterness and malt fullness in any form. Seems like even the things advertised as west coast IPAs are watery fruity messes that don’t really even resemble beer.

IMHO.

It's easy enough to ask the brewery if their pale ale is classic or hazy and even ask for a quick taste. If it's not your cup of tea, try a different brewery. I mean, it's not like there aren't enough to chose from.

 

[Drewch]

I guess I'm just lucky. Most of the breweries around here are actually pretty good and don't just chase the latest invented trend. ...

I must be lucky, too. Here's a randomly selected local tap list: Taproom | Lively Beerworks Brewery | Oklahoma City, OK

Sure IPAs dominate, but there's plenty other stuff.

Or another one from my previous state: What's on Draft | Yellowhammer Brewing

Only two of 7 year-round brews are IPAs.

To the OP, semantic drift is inevitable. Especially in marketing. New products have to be anchored to something customers already understand. IPA still dominates the craft market; so it behoves brewers to tie new products to that label even when they have previous little connection to strongly hopped beers for the British colonial market in India. But such is the nature of things. Stout used to be Stout Porter. Mild used to be the contrastive for young ales — as opposed to keeping or stale ales — and told you nothing about the strength of the ale.

(Edit - can I propose Cold Imperial Schwarzbier for a black barleywine brewed with lager yeast at ale temps?)

Someone once said, “Language does what it does because it does.” So RDWHAHB.

 

[MrClint]

I feel like beer is in a weird place right now. Not just home brewing but craft beer in general.

New small-batch home brewer and beer explorer here. I walk into just about any store from Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, to taprooms around town, and can always find something good, interesting and different to drink. I brew an APA & ABA that my wife and I like a lot. Feels like the golden age of beer to me.

 

[NeoBrew]

It's easy enough to ask the brewery if their pale ale is classic or hazy and even ask for a quick taste. If it's not your cup of tea, try a different brewery. I mean, it's not like there aren't enough to chose from.

I'm rarely at the brewery when I drink beer. The majority of the time when I ask a bartender they look at me with a blank stare and say, "What do you mean, it's an IPA?"

The only way to successfully navigate this is to ask for a sample. That can be a real pain, especially if there is wait staff in between me and the bartender. Sadly this results in me not trying new beers as much as I'd like.

 

[DBhomebrew]

Out of the same publication as the 'black barleywine', here's Weikert on the reawakening of the classic, well-balanced American Pale Ale.

"Things on the wheel of beer history tend to swing ’round again—usually done better than they were before—and the time for balanced pale ale is now, again."

https://beerandbrewing.com/american-pale-ale-the-comeback-of-the-classic/

 

[Pehlman17]

Out of the same publication as the 'black barleywine', here's Weikert on the reawakening of the classic, well-balanced American Pale Ale.

"Things on the wheel of beer history tend to swing ’round again—usually done better than they were before—and the time for balanced pale ale is now, again."

https://beerandbrewing.com/american-pale-ale-the-comeback-of-the-classic/

I like Josh Weikert's stuff a lot. He has a really nice way of paying homage to traditional styles but also leaving a little wiggle room for personal creativity. Which is ultimately what I was trying to say in my original post. (Although I let frustrations get the better of me at points... . I blame my 4-pack of Old Rasputin.) For example, I like that he might recommend a hefty dose of Maris Otter in an Oktoberfest or perhaps suggest one could make a perfectly fine Pilsner with something other than "Pilsner" malt. Those are the sort of things that I feel should actually be encouraged when it comes to brewing. Those changes while perhaps not capital T "Traditional", still land the plane at at least the right airport. Whereas the things I was complaining about, to me, feel as if they've landed the plane in the river next to the airport, and just because nobody died, still call it a success.

 

[Pehlman17]

I do tend to go "get off my lawn" about beer "innovations" lately until I realize it's the primary reason I homebrew. While I do explore the commercial brewery scene more as an extension of the hobby, I don't get upset about what they're selling. I often wonder why people want it, but it's a curiosity that wanes by the time I get home.

Is it particularly weird right now? I don't think so. Dogfishhead has been trying and succeeding with the "watch this" attitude towards recipe creation for 30 years.

The contrary to all this weird stuff is that a lot of local breweries here are getting right on the classic styles. Czech and German Lagers, Altbier, etc. They are also all trying to survive so having a hard seltzer or hard kombucha is just a smart move so that more guys bring their dates.

I totally agree with you. My point wasn't trying to say that having a seltzer or cider on at a brewery is a bad thing. I think it's great in fact to have something for everybody. And Dogfishhead is a great example as well, and I have always been a fan of theirs and what they've aimed to do from day one.

I have a couple breweries near me that I was a huge fan of for a long time. Whom I used to in fact praise for having "something for everybody". They'd have some light stuff, some hoppy stuff, some dark stuff, and would occasionally do something really special like a big bbl-aged stout, or barleywine, or triple IPA as a little treat for the fans. But in recent years that all sort of got flipped on its head. I would walk in and look at the menu (still to this day on their website) as see the menu now divided into two main chunks. One such chunk being seven or eight stouts. Literally every single one aged in bourbon barrels, all but one with some sort of sweet pastry adjunct, and not a single one under 11% abv. Another chunk of the menu is all IPA. Only one of which is under 7% abv, and three of which are over 9% abv. Between these two chunks that make up the majority of their menu, the calculated average abv is around 10%. I'll give them credit for making a couple of lite (spelling intentional) lagers I suppose, but when 90% if your beer menu is composed of just iterations on two styles, that to boot are also going to get people sh*tfaced after just a couple beers, Im sorry, but I just can't jibe with that, and I can't help but say it's objectively moving in the wrong direction.

And the brewery I'm talking about isn't the only one like this that I've been to. That model of having two or three general categories in which all your beers are grouped seems to be gaining in popularity. And it seems (to me at least) that it just hits all the extremes.

It's always some combination of these four things: 1) Super-high-abv barrel aged pastry stouts. 2) IPA. 3) Sour & Fruity. 4) Lite Lager.
If you're not looking for one of these four things than you're SOL.

Everything in between is lost. Where are the Marzens, the porters, the american stouts, the amber ales, the Irish reds, the hefeweizens, the brown ales, the altbiers, the dubbels, the tripels, the quads, the doppelbocks, the weizenbocks... and on and on and on.

I understand of course, that one brewery can't make one of every style of beer. And that's not what I would ever expect either. But if you have 20 draft handles composed of 7 pastry stouts, 10 IPAs, 2 fruited sours, and a lite lager.... I can't help but feel like something is certainly off or has been outright lost. And it's only exacerbated further by this seemingly being the case nearly everywhere I go now.

 

[mac_1103]

Where are the Marzens, the porters, the american stouts, the amber ales, the Irish reds, the hefeweizens, the brown ales, the altbiers, the dubbels, the tripels, the quads, the doppelbocks, the weizenbocks...

Hefes and browns (and witbiers) are pretty standard fare at almost all of the breweries around here. Had a barrel aged witbier at one last summer that really knocked my socks off. Some of them do a Belgian or two and a doppelbock now and again. I'm not sure they'd sell a keg of any of those others in a month.

Maybe you just need to move to someplace with better breweries.

 

[MaxStout]

I'm rarely at the brewery when I drink beer. The majority of the time when I ask a bartender they look at me with a blank stare and say, "What do you mean, it's an IPA?"

The only way to successfully navigate this is to ask for a sample. That can be a real pain, especially if there is wait staff in between me and the bartender. Sadly this results in me not trying new beers as much as I'd like.

There are still some bars that are not (yet) on board with a diverse selection of beers. Perhaps some don't need to be, as many customers still like their BMC and the occasional Blue Moon and Guinness. But a LOT of bars are offering better selections of beers. If your local watering hole doesn't cut it, find another.

You're in New Brighton, MN, not far from me. Have you checked out Forgotten Star brewing? It's just a few miles from you. They seem to hit the nail on the head with most of their beers.

 

[Pehlman17]

I think a lot of my frustration with all this comes from some pent up annoyance with the industry. I worked in off-premise sales for a decent sized craft brewery that also had a lot of other great breweries in its distribution catalog. I worked in this position from 2012 through 2015, pretty much right at the peak of growth, and also right around when the hype train really started rolling. When folks started referring to certain rare beers as “whales” and this newfangled murky IPA from Vermont was suddenly the only thing anyone could talk about.

All kidding as aside, I think it stems from changes on the sales side of things. Customers of mine suddenly started only wanting “special” beers. The first thing they’d ask me when I stopped into their store was “what’s new?”. And not in the “what’s new with you?” sort of greeting, but more “what new beer do you have this week?”. They began showing very little interest in what felt like a large swath of our catalog. If I didn’t have something brand new every week they were disappointed. Some even would assume I was lying to them if I said I didn’t have anything new or special. Then there was also this dynamic of special beers only going to certain stores. Customers of ours that bought a lot of beer from us would be the ones to get rewarded when something special came along and we had to allocate the few cases we’d get. However since suddenly every liquor store had a Facebook, Twitter or Instagram page where they posted new arrivals, all of my stores that didn’t get the new release were calling me pissed off. I was constantly having to explain to stores that they can’t just only order special release beers. They had to keep buying the core beers as well or they’d lose out.

But then I was coming to realize that it wasn’t just greedy store owners wanting the flashy new thing. It was their customer base as well. People were coming in to their stores asking for something rare just because they heard about it online, and if the store said no they’d often walk out empty handed.

It just became what felt like this cycle of new beers being the only things that sold. The idea of flagship or core lineups started to go away for a lot of smaller brands. I started to see a lot of great beers sort of die on the vine (or bine) because they weren’t shiny and new. Much like we still see today with Fat Tire and Boston Lager, the brewery I worked for tried to revamp and modernize the recipes for a few of the core beers. Some worked but most didn’t and eventually just went away. Which happens all the time when any brand or company fails.

But there was something about the homogenization of what was still selling that bugged me I guess. Cooler doors that used to be filled with six packs of great beers of all sorts of styles suddenly began turning into doors just full of IPA, most of which were one-offs. I’ll give this movement some credit for making fresh beer and cold storage something important to consider. But again, it was still a bummer to see so many great things go away so quickly only to be replaced by what felt like every brewery now just trying to make their version of essentially same beer. To me that’s exactly the model and stereotype of beer that craft breweries were trying to break out from in the first place.

 

[NeoBrew]

You're in New Brighton, MN, not far from me. Have you checked out Forgotten Star brewing? It's just a few miles from you. They seem to hit the nail on the head with most of their beers.

Thanks for the tip, I'll check them out.

 

[Bobby_M]

I think a lot of it is chicken or the egg (who drives product variety)? Good breweries are set up with a pilot system and use the hell out of it to explore new styles and variations that get vetted in the tap room. Measurements of how long it takes to sell out of a half barrel would be a good indicator of whether it would work scaled up to 15 BBLs. The hitch is that what you call it on the menu board is almost as important as what's in the tank. Even using the word "ale" on the board is extremely divisive because most of the beer drinking public would strike out on even the most basic definition.

The other side of it is observing how often your customer base chooses to delve into styles they aren't familiar with vs. sticking to whatever 3 hazies are on tap. It's easy to understand why some breweries start with one hazy beer and based on crushing demand, expand them to 90% of their taps. If you're selling out of your one trick beer style every week, what motivation would you have to put an amazingly accurate Altbier on tap that no one will order (other than gaining the respect of the snobbiest 1% of your customer base)?

 

[grampamark]

I guess I’m lucky to live in Montana because the most popular craft beers in this state (which has approx. 100 breweries and a population of just over 1MM) are darker, maltier, brews. Every brewpub has an IPA, or 2, in their lineup, but that’s about the extent of hoppiness in this part of the world.

I live part time in Billings, MT, a metro area of just under 200K. There are 10 brewpubs in the area, 5 of them within walking distance in downtown. One of my favorites is Angry Hank’s. Note that, out of 18 beers in their rotation, only 2 are IPAs. I haven’t tried them all, but the Street Fight Irish Red and Dirty Girl Dunkelweizen are two of the best beers I’ve ever had.

All of that said, it’s worth noting that the signs at the state line here read “Welcome To Montana. Set Your Clocks Back 50 Years”. We’re a bit behind the trendy curve here.

 

[Bassman2003]

I hear your point (OP). It is tough to watch something you love go trendy which will lead to an ultimate demise. Not that new is bad. Sign of the times I guess. Many things seem overdone, rung out and tossed for the next shiny object. It will cycle though. But this is why I started homebrewing in a way - to make my beer(s). I don't care much about the fate of the craft beer industry, but it is sad to see many of the imports go away to make room for the crazy labels. But I do not buy much beer anyway. So keep improving in your own brewing so your beer is the best choice!

 

[DBhomebrew]

Another reimagining of a classic American craft ale, this one by Jeff Alworth.

https://beerandbrewing.com/style-school-the-reinvention-of-american-amber-ale/