Upcoming Craft Beer Trends

I agree with session beers becoming more and more apparent ( Utah is ahead of the curve ) . I also see more lagers from craft brewers ( Shift from New Belgium being one).

 

Session IPA are, what I think, are the next hotness. Works out great for the consumer, the seller, and the brewer.

 

I think In a sense you are right. That the BMC of the world will try to gobble up as much as possible to eliminate any and all competition, but there is one problem with that.......Sites like this!
Information is too redily available and the educated consumer is way too savy. As they take over craft breweries and prostitute their product BAs of the world will find a new brewery. There are brewers out there (Sam Adams, DFH, Anderson valley.) that will demand a very steep price for a buyout. One that BMCs will not be able to make their money back from once they prostitute their end product and they know that. As the Craft trend continues there will be more educated consumers and thats where I see Craft going in the near future. Hole in the wall bars will stock a list of Crafts on tap. Your typical BMC drinker will also like a craft beer variety. All good things (in some opinions) must come to an end. This is the begining of that end for BMC.

 

I don't think a "milder trend" is happening now, though I agree about the potential benefits.

 

In Michigan there are beers like Shorts Prolonged Enjoyment, Founders All Day IPA, and North Peak The Wanderer. All <5% ABV IPAs. These are all recent.

 

Loving the session IPA/hoppy pale trend, not loving the price points. I feel they should be a dollar or two cheaper as they have to be cheaper to produce then their regular IPAs. Also if a beer is advertised as a session beer please put it into six packs. Terrapin Easy Rider is the worst offender at this, it makes no sense. Props to bitter american however, love that brew.

 

I think you will see a classic history repeat. More and more will open breweries. After that I can only give a wild ass guess. Possibilities are many and interesting speculation. I sure wish I knew the future.
1. the one I hope happens: craft/micros/whatever the name expand and put inbev out of biz.
2. inbev figures out that 1 is going to happen and does something
3. it equals out at a equilibrium point.

if the question was brewing trends, have they not done it all by now?

 

What format would you select from the drop-down menu when you review this?

 

Well, "most people" prefer those styles, as I understand it. And there may not really not too much you can do to keep your APA/Amber/Blonde desirable for "most people." This means that breweries have to start competing on other fronts, like branding/marketing and price.

 

more beers going dong.
more beer geeks complaining about above.

 

Sales of many iconic flagships will wane and brewers will have to come up with something with a little more modern flavor to replace it. Writing is already on the wall for Widmer Hefeweizen and SA Boston Lager and Lagunitas seems to be in the restructuring phase as well.

 

How many dongs of any consequence are there really? I know there are a few BA's that would do anything to get a taste of every dong possible but I'm pretty sure they're just a vocal minority.

 

'of consequence' being the key phrase, my answer is "none." the fact that there is any whining at all is pretty amusing to me. reminds me a little of my nephew throwing a tantrum. "BUT I WANT IT"

 

Beer in a plastic bag!?!

 

Coming from the great state of Colorado where a lot of trends are formed, here are some I see:

1. More canned beer, particularly 16oz. tallboys for flagship/special releases (see Upslope/Oskar Blues/Renegade/New Belgium Shift)
2. Special taprooms for barrel-aged beers (see Breckenridge Co. Craft/Denver Beer Co.)
3. Breweries specializing in niche styles or processes (Black Shirt specializing in variations of Red Ale, Prost specializing in German Lagers, Hogshead specializing in English-styles, OMB specializing in malting their own barley, etc)
4. More sour (& barrel) pilot programs (see Great Divide, Odell, NB, Avery)
5. More reserve societies (see Crooked Stave)
6. Growler clubs, selling a fixed price (~$50) growler for discounted fills for a year, similar to reserve society concept of raising funds. (see TRVE, CAUTION)
7. More nano-local-neighborhood breweries. (see BSB, OMB, TRVE)
8. Session craft beer becoming more popular (see Avery/Dry Dock)
9. As for fruited berliner weisse, again see Crabtree, or Imperial berliner weisse like Grand Teton from Idaho.
10. And increased prices.... <sigh>

 

Who says that's beer?

 

People have been saying that session beers will be "the next big thing" for quite a while now. It hasn't happened yet and I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. Sure, we all like a well crafted brown ale or an English bitter every now and then, but to think that these types of beers these beers are going to be a "trend," at least in this community, is just preposterous.

 

Session beers are more typically blond ales. And yes it's picking up steam, but not terribly fast. I don't know why people have said it "for quite a while now" because it's just recently that breweries like Avery said they were going to brew them vs. mere speculation.

 

I predict more hightech beer = Simply + Cheaper+Najoristo (chem. additive)

 

I predict people with 2011 & 2012 join dates on popular beer websites will ruin all the fun in trade forums with ridiculous trade offers.