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

[AnOldUR]

It's all good. Some I can only take a sip. Others I don't know when to stop.

 

[2drunk2]

I see a few pumpkin beers, etc, but my liquor store has a darn good selection of traditional styles. I can't complain.

If course, I don't keep up with my neighbors fashion or choice of furniture. For me to worry about the oddball corner of rogue donut beers at the liquor store would make me feel a bit like a busy-body.

 

[b-boy]

They'll make what they can sell. If they can't sell it, they'll eventually stop making it. Blame the publics' tastebuds.

 

[bolus14]

To me this comes down to a couple points, the first like the OP said breweries are in business to make money so if making something with spices, herbs, or fruit sells well then they'll do it, secondly every person has different tastes so what appeals to one person might completely turn off someone else. It's like food some like spicy some don't, even then what is spicy to one person might not be to another, so what's "hoppy" to one person might be "normal" for another and might be "overly hoppy" to the next person.

I like Belgians, some friends don't like them at all, I get lines from them like "it's like drinking old water," "it's too funky," "they're too sweet like a bunch of dried fruits," you get the idea. I also like porters and stouts that have a more pronounced roast character to them, while others want it too be subtle. Even if you're just talking classic styles the range can be very broad as to what "beer" should be. I think all the beers wiht fruit, spices, and herbs are out there now because they're selling.

My guess is that it'll be this way for a few years then some of it will go away, the "newness" will wear off and breweries will have to adapt to the "next big thing." In the end I think the breweries that thrive and succeed are those that can make the classic styles to keep "true beer fans" and can make the next thing on the horizon to satisfy those that are always looking for something new.

 

[worlddivides]

I'm very confused. How do you define "beer"? Some of my favorite beers are Belgian beers, in particular lambics, which oftentimes have cherries, raspberries, pear, apple, and many other fruits added to them and they've been like that for hundreds of years. Are those "not beers"? Are they not beers because you don't like them or do you have some other reason for believing they aren't "beer"?

I'm sorry, but this "narrow definition of beer" mindset sounds the same to me as the kind of person who won't drink anything other than Budweiser. If you don't like something, fine. Don't drink it. But don't hate other people for liking it or the companies for making it.

 

[Homercidal]

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.

 

[chato]

I'm pretty much a straight-up barley/hops/water/yeast guy too but I have to say there are some masterful examples of beers with fruit in them - the Alchemist Petite Mutant and some of Hill Farmstead's saisons with fruit come to mind.

 

[BarleyStanding]

I'm in the "live and let live" camp. Brewers will never stop making "beer", but as long as the more exotic stuff is selling, they will continue to experiment and expand these styles.

I try to keep three kegs on tap: always an IPA or pale ale, a more seasonal (wheat, ESB, saison, porter, etc.), and then something experimental. The experimental is usually one of these "other" beers, but it allows me to experiment with ingredients and processes, and hopefully improve my craft. I've found that the experimental beers are a good way to convert non-beer drinkers, and for some reason, women tend to gravitate toward them too.

Let's call them "Gateway Beers"!

 

[moti_mo]

If beers brewed with non-traditional ingredients are made well, they use one to several ingredients sparingly to create unique tastes that often can't be achieved with standard ingredients. And when these well-made spiced/flavored beers are handed to someone in a blind taste test, the taster often cannot tell what ingredient(s) have been added to produce the flavors and aromas they're getting from the beers. Sometimes they can, and that's fine too, but sometimes the subtlety is what makes these beers great. As long as they taste and smell delicious, why should I care if they weren't brewed to some antiquated purity law?

These types of beers can be wonderful achievements in selecting from the endless palette of ingredients available to our community, and can amplify the beer-making and beer-drinking experience for both brewers and drinkers. They've been made for centuries, so I find it hard to classify them as a "trend" or a "fad". Do some breweries do them well, while others don't? Yes, but that can be said of any style.

 

[moti_mo]

And lumping them into "gateway beers" is also short-sighted (no offense BarleyStanding, not just singling out your post). I've been drinking craft beer of all kinds for over twenty years, and I will always love innovative beers made with crazy ingredients...if they're made well and appeal to me.

Generalizing that brewers make these types of beers mainly "because they sell" is ignoring the vast amount of creativity that has fueled the US craft beer revolution. There's a reason why the US has become such a great place to make and drink beer in the past couple of decades, and its not because we've restricted ourselves to making a few different "accepted styles" strictly to style. Just my opinion.

Edit: Barleystanding, also wasn't trying to imply you were generalizing the "because they sell" point either. I think it comes across as a general feeling held by some in the thread though. I'm sure there are plenty of breweries out there that aren't that original that just try to come up with weird recipes because they know it will sell, but that kind of thing happens in every business.

 

[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.