Upcoming Craft Beer Trends

Doubt it. Most markets are nowhere near saturation. The UK population is 62 million and they have close to half the number of breweries the USA has with a population of 311 million.

 

Triple IPAs

 

Quadruple IPAs

 

Think it may be more than half now. Picked up the 2013 Good Beer Guide today, fresh off the press, and the figure mentioned in the front pages was that of 1,008 UK breweries. Has the US broken the 2,000 barrier yet? Last time I read a total it was 1,800 or so.

 

Could be more. Paging Jesskidden I suppose. I guess that furthers my point. By those numbers, the US should have something like 4,500 breweries.

 

Is it fair to compare the statistics? Just based on this site, common stereotypes and Ding's blog - two very different beer cultures.

I'll revise my original comment to the trend of mediocre breweries closing. Too many homebrewers jumping in with the wrong intentions.

 

At the end of July the Brewers Association had it at 2,142 open with 1303 in the planning stage.

 

I predict "PAIN"

 

Take a look at the newest category of brewery: Brewery-In-Planning.

At this rate my guess is that we'll see that magical 4,500 number before too long.

 

You need to also say that many, if not most, of the current successful breweries were started by homebrewers that jumped in with the right intentions, stuck with it through lean times, and had the eye on producing quality beer. The only good reason to open a brewry is to make money. That takes some time, and a little luck.

 

I definitely agree with the Sours, although I think we are in that peak now and it will start to slow down eventually.

I think there will be more beers aged in non bourbon barrels, (Rum, White, Tequila, ect.)

I could see more fruit beers as well (there seem to be way more pumpkins the season than in the past).

Also I think there will be an increase in Very big beers (barleywines, stouts, IIIIIIPAs) 15%+ ABV from some of the smaller craft breweries that need to do something different to "standout" in the sea of microbreweries.

 

I predict more good beer.

 

True...or combining the two and "can aging" beers. Like an imperial porter aged in Mountain dew cans...I just threw up in my mouth a little.

 

Duh, your supposed to use PBR cans.

 

Heavily hopped Pilseners.

Prima Pils will find itself with many competitors in a couple years.

 

Which I'm great with, so long as the label does a good job describing what's in the bottle even without a clear style designation. Stillwater, in particular, drives me crazy by calling almost everything a saison, regardless of the ABV, malts, and hops used. Yeast is an important ingredient, but it's not the only one!

 

Don't base your American beer outlook on that old fucker's blog or stereotypes. We love our beer in America and we love the pubs with tons of unique taps.

Regarding mediocre breweries closing - plenty of those that have been thriving for years. The beer still sells in spite of ineptitude.

 

I agree, I too think that there will be buyouts of craft breweries, but there are enough of them today that there will be enough left to satisfy the quality most of us want. We may lose some of our favorite beers, in terms of their quality, depending on which breweries get bought out. I'm one of those that acknowledges that there are enough good craft brews from lots of different breweries to buy even when the limited, special release, seasonal, whales etc. are gone from the shelves. Same concept, x amount of breweries are acquired by the BMC's (i.e. Goose Island, and their quality hasn't waned yet) but there will still be some left over and start-ups that should be able to produce enough quality beer for those who want it. How this might affect pricing is another matter, but I'm hoping there's still good beer out there should this happen.

 

This is because there are just as many inept beer drinkers as there are inept brewers.

As to the OP, I predict that some of the larger craft breweries (SN, BBC, New Belgium etc.) will eventually gain enough market share to be able to afford to buy out some of the smaller, struggling macro breweries—promptly shutting down production of the swill the latter breweries produce and expanding their own production and distrubution. A guy can dream right?

 

I like a lot of positive trends being predicted here, but ^^^ this and fruited berliners would be fantastic. Long live full flavored session beers that can take my attention away from Zombie Dust and Gumballhead, for a least a fleeting second.