Simplicity; or, What America Has Done to Beer

[z987k]

The only thing I have against session beers is they are usually priced the same as their stronger brethren... until you get really stronger.

$4 for a Bitter or $4 for a melt you face IIPA or a massive RIS. Um.... not that I don't like bitter, but.

 

[mojotele]

Why can't we do both?

If you don't like one or the other, don't drink it.

 

[motobrewer]

The only thing I have against session beers is they are usually priced the same as their stronger brethren... until you get really stronger.

$4 for a Bitter or $4 for a melt you face IIPA or a massive RIS. Um.... not that I don't like bitter, but.

I agree with that.

if you're gonna charge me $12 for a 4-pack of barleywine/strong ale, don't charge me $8 for a 6-er of 4% bitter

 

[dogbar]

I agree with that.

if you're gonna charge me $12 for a 4-pack of barleywine/strong ale, don't charge me $8 for a 6-er of 4% bitter

Someone with some actual knowledge could probably chime in here, but I'd bet the profit margins on the small beers are what keep the prices more reasonable on the big ones.

 

[Synovia]

The American craft beer umbrella contains the best and worst beers I've ever had. Extremeness probably has a lot to do with that. My biggest bone to pick is with shifting definitions. Today's Pale Ale is what an IPA used to be. And today's IPAs make the old Sister Star of the Sun recipe took tame. Many stouts are stouter than their old imperial brethren. And you certainly can't trust fruit to be subtle anymore. I love trying new beers but the noise to signal ratio in American craft brewing is huge and only getting larger. For every great craft beer I find, there are 5 or 6 others that are decent at best, and 3 or 4 that make me wish I had just bought a 6er of Coors instead.

I'm all for being as simple or extreme as you'd like. This is America, right? But what I don't like is pushing the boundaries and not being clear about that on the packaging. Dogfish does a great job of letting me know right from the start that they're a little extreme. Dale's Pale Ale? That should be labeled an IPA before someone puts their eye out.

Completely agree with this. American craft brew has kind of jumped the style shark.

When I buy a brown ale, I want a brown ale, not an IPA with some chocolate malt in it. If you want to brew an IPA with some chocolate malt in it, great, but don't tell me its a Brown Ale.

 

[Steelers77]

I think the price has alot to do with storage and brewing capacity. The $8 six pack is only $1.33 per bottle, and the $12 four pack is $3 bucks a bottle. Looking at it from their point of view the barley wine is more malt, but more importantly is also more time in a storage tank not allowing them to brew more beer so there is a bottleneck. Also they have to make a decent profit on the smaller stuff so they have the ability to make and sell the special beers. Sam Calagione said in the documentry Beer Wars, that if it came down to it he would get rid of his biggest beers first because of the price to make them. So pay a little extra for the "normal brews" and still get teh pleasure of drinking the special ones. IMHO

 

[homebrewer_99]

people were making crazy herb/chocolate/spruce beers well before the germans started telling people how to make "beer"

look up Midas Touch from dogfish head. reinheitsgebot is like the american union; originally set up to protect the drinker, now used to hinder the drinker (in some respects)

i pity the german brewer who can't explore his creativity because some a$$hats in the 15th century tried ripping people off.

True, but look what they perfected in those years since then...

 

[the_bird]

people were making crazy herb/chocolate/spruce beers well before the germans started telling people how to make "beer"

look up Midas Touch from dogfish head. reinheitsgebot is like the american union; originally set up to protect the drinker, now used to hinder the drinker (in some respects)

i pity the german brewer who can't explore his creativity because some a$$hats in the 15th century tried ripping people off.

Reinheitsgebot hasn't been in place for a long time. If German brewers are still sticking with it, it's because of tradition (not necessarily a bad thing).

 

[motobrewer]

wasn't it only removed in the late 80's?

but yeah, it's not there anymore. but when you get sworn in, you're sworn in for life. so it's more "sticking to their word" kind of thing.

also note, i generally despise chocolate/fruit/herb/wtf beers in general. malt+hops is good enough for me

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

Tradition. hmmmmm

I have nothing against all the hop bombs and malt monsters out there, each to their own. However, apart from a few exceptions such as SNPA there seems to be a lot of missing links between traditional brews and extreme brews. I think it would be nice if there were more "inbetweenys" out there.