Has brewing finally jumped the shark?

[seabrew8]

Personally, i think homebrewing will always be a niche market so to speak. It takes a lot of patience and practice to get good at homebrew. Most people don't have the patience to get good at beer making.

 

[alha]

Do you think that with the ongoing retirement of the baby boomers, this may add to the ranks of home brewers? Often times, but certainly not always, with age comes wisdom, and patience, which are both good attributes to have as a brewer I'd think.

 

[BigMack]

we have a local chain brew restaurant around here, called Sweetwater Tavern. yes, they have troubles with the name, so at GABF or other pro competitions, they're entered as Great American Restaurants. decent beer, they only sell on premise and don't distribute

and the nearest brewery to my house, Beltway Brewing, is a contract brewery. They're making the core beers for several smaller local breweries, so the smaller breweries can concentrate on seasonal and one-offs. plus they're making the house beer for Buffalo Wing Factory (a local chain)

Sweet lord I forgot how much I missed the Buffalo Wing Factory. Used to live in Ashburn. I stop there every time I'm even close to that area now. Why do you have to bring up such a sore spot? Now I must drink...

 

[beernutz]

I live in a city with a population of just under 200,000 which has zero breweries or brewpubs currently. The only brewpub that has ever existed here since prohibition first started up over a decade ago but has changed hands and names about 4 times and is currently not operating. A local coffee house owner has had plans to open a brewery for well over a year but still hasn't even started preparing the property he plans to use and according to some insiders I know the brewery has only a 50-50 shot of ever opening.

The metropolitan area I live in has a population of over 400,000 and there is currently 1 brewery and zero brewpubs in it. As far as I know there are only two homebrew stores serving that area as well.

Brewing may have jumped the shark in some parts of the US but in the south where I live I think there is plenty of room for Fonzie to try that jump again.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Brewing may have jumped the shark in some parts of the US but in the south where I live I think there is plenty of room for Fonzie to try that jump again.

Meanwhile, in areas I frequent there have never been any breweries...until everyone decided they'd open one in the same calendar year. So we go from having 2 corner pubs with no craft beers to having 4 breweries opening within a 10 min drive of each other...a little excessive for a village.

That's more of what I'm interested in seeing in about 3 years: these places that all couldn't wait to open and rushed into it without concern of competitors coming into a small market at the same time. Can they last? Will their beer actually be any good?

I've found plenty of micro's that serve absolutely horrible beer...but people still go there, just like people still continue to buy Bud, Miller, Rolling Rock, etc. Sometimes people will drink it, even if it's crap.

I think it's going to be more and more about having enough people to drink it.

 

[alha]

...I think it's going to be more and more about having enough people to drink it.

Yeah, that's pretty much the gist of the problem.

 

[Arttu]

My view from across the globe is probably different, but I definitely see homebrewing gaining more and more popularity, and I doubt it's a bubble. Homebrewing in Finland is nowhere near as popular as the states, but it's definately growing. We have 3 online stores that sell homebrew stuff, and no good walk-in stores. 5 years ago there weren't any stores with a good stock of ingredients.

Finland's strict alcohol laws make starting a brewery pretty hard, but still there are quite a lot of good breweries popping up. The problem is that for drinks over 4.7%, you can only buy them in government ran liquor stores that have a pretty **** selection when it comes to beer. I recently ran into this when I was trying to find sour beers for dregs. The above-mentioned store only had a few sours and they were Rodenbach (pasteurized). Fortunately we have a local pub with a very good selection of lambics, so I guess I'll just have to go there with a small sanitized jar and steal the dregs from a few beers.

 

[unionrdr]

Do you think that with the ongoing retirement of the baby boomers, this may add to the ranks of home brewers? Often times, but certainly not always, with age comes wisdom, and patience, which are both good attributes to have as a brewer I'd think.

My wife & I are two of them, being born in the mid-50's. Those attributes are in evidence, compounded by aging pains. Ohio is considering dropping the legally drunk level to .5. I can see this not only getting more folks to drink at home, but more taking a 2nd or 3rd look at home brewing. It's certainly possible anyway. And being retired means not having all that extra money for tuner car bling, boats, etc. So home brewing is one of, if not the, most rewarding hobby.

 

[broadbill]

My wife & I are two of them, being born in the mid-50's. Those attributes are in evidence, compounded by aging pains. Ohio is considering dropping the legally drunk level to .5. I can see this not only getting more folks to drink at home, but more taking a 2nd or 3rd look at home brewing. It's certainly possible anyway. And being retired means not having all that extra money for tuner car bling, boats, etc. So home brewing is one of, if not the, most rewarding hobby.

not related; but that level is .05 not .5...most people will be dead at 0.4!

 

[GHBWNY]

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven:..."

Ecclesiastes 3:1

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

"to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven:..."

the birds, turn turn turn, 1965

ftfy.

 

[Sailingeric]

The good thing about home brewing is you can do is much as you want with the fancy SS fermentors, big Blichmann pots, pumps and kegging or do as little as you want without much real investment for the casual brewer who wants to do a few gallons now and then. What is the minimum you need?- a bucket and bottling wand and few recycled bottles? All under $30?? Unlike some other hobbies where you spend thousands to just get into the hobby- sailing/ boating, flying, model trains, r/c planes, restoring old cars, the list can go on. I think the low entry point will keep people interested and then they can expand at their comfort level/ budget allows.

 

[unionrdr]

Well said!

 

[specharka]

I'd say that saisons are the new craft beer trend.

Hipsters love 'em because the name is french... So fashionable! So exotic! Bonus points if you throw in the word "Farmhouse" somewhere; it's so rustic!

I agree that they are in bloom, but I disagree wholeheartedly with that sentiment.

Saisons and farmhouse ales are just about the only commercial beer styles that i find consistently appealing. They are extremely accessible, appeal to a wide range of palates, and vary incredibly. Additionally, there's no other aesthetically pleasing way to describe "farmhouse" ales...somehow "sweaty horse blanket" isn't amenable to the general populace.

And anyone with a basic understanding of French knows how meaningless "saison" is.