A Rant (with room for discussions)

[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/