Old Dogs and New Tricks

Another example is Stone Brewing. For 2017 they seemed to ‘double down’ on hoppy beers. The 2017 portfolio of Stone beers are predominantly beers that feature hops. Given the present day popularity of IPAs I suppose this is understandable?

One of the Stone brands that I like(d) is their Imperial Russian Stout but this beer was not produced this year. It will be interesting to see if this beer makes a return for 2018 or if this beer will be permanently discontinued.

Cheers!

 

The large regionals are also suffering from this locavore trend. Here in MN, Summit has retrenched their distribution map. They are fighting back with the introduction of several new beers in the last 18 months, such as Keller Pils and a Belgian-Style Pale Ale. They've also done a few taproom-only releases.

 

New Belgium has made a splash with its 4.8 percent ABV Dayblazer golden ale . . the beer sells in 15-packs for a few bucks less than its standard offerings, roiling some of its peers.

An important detail left out of this bit is that Dayblazer sells in cans. ONLY in cans, IIRC. That's something that is helping Big Craft survive the storm, as new products alone can only get you so far.

Boston Beer has embarked on a whole new market of insipidness with its alcoholic seltzer brands.

BBC has had it's hat in the "insipid" (alcopop, etc.) market for quite some time now. This is nothing new.

 

The market changed. As craft beer consumption has grown, the growth is coming from the new products to market from the up and coming breweries. I see the big craft has gotten its market share and now is in the model to retain that customer. That leads to less innovative new beers but more of the challenges of accessibility, inventory turns, and maintaining relationships. None of that is particularly easy when there are many new options competing for tap handles.

 

Depends on how you read it - while BBC has brewed produced Twisted Tea since the early 2000s, the Truly Spiked & Sparkling Hard Seltzer could be seen as a "...whole new market of insipidness..."

 

With this in mind, Big Craft's "job", as I see it, is to attract non-craft drinkers to craft beer. They will serve as the introduction to something new with more non-polarizing options than niche producers who are operating under the old craft flag of "our beer is great, but it's not for everyone."

 

It seems to me that BIG CRAFT has been producing ‘gateway’ craft beers for quite some time:

· Sam Adams Boston Lager (since 1984)

· New Belgium Fat Tire (since 1991)

· Yuengling Traditional Lager (since 1987)

From Andy’s article:

“Today’s generation of beer drinkers has little connection to the legacy brewers. Sam Adams Boston Lager? That’s grandpa’s beer. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale? Solid, but who drinks it? Fat Tire? My uncle drank that in college. Ouch.”

It would seem that younger beer drinkers can’t ‘connect’ with these heritage ‘gateway’ beers?

Maybe Boston Beer Company, New Belgium, etc. should take something from the BIG BEER playbooks and create faux brewery names (like MillerCoors is doing with the creation of Two Hats)? With the introduction of a ‘new’ brewery maybe the younger beer drinkers will buy these beers?

I personally hate these sorts of ‘tricks’ but perhaps this is the sort of stuff that needs to be done to appeal to a new generation of beer drinkers?

Cheers!

 

That used to be true, but I know many people that had a Harpoon IPA a decade ago, hated it and swore off the style (and in many cases craft beer altogether), but will now buy Heady Topper or drink at the Trillium Beer Garden. I think more people are jumping straight into local breweries and flat out skipping big craft.

 

While that might be true, it's more for the "culture" than it is for the beer. What do you think those people buy when they're out to dinner or on the way over to a friend's house for a cookout, if they haven't stopped by their local brewery first?

A lot of new craft beer drinkers are drinking locally, sure, but a lot of them are inundating themselves in craft beer, as a whole, and not just their local breweries. That means that they want to drink good beer and want to be able to know it when they see it. This is the future of craft beer, as I see it. An informed consumer, who drinks craft because it's good, not just because it's local or hand-made or artisanal or ____ . After people get over the "drink local" movement, which many will, where will their loyalties lie? I, for one, hope that those loyalties support good beer, no matter where it's made.

 

I would suppose that this theory should be fairly easy to prove out via marketing & sales data. There should be a decline in craft beer sales across the board by beer retailers (liquor stores, supermarkets, convenience stores, etc.).

Cheers!

@RobH @Sixpoint @sierranevadabill @KOP_Beer_OUtlet

 

Honestly, around here, if people are going to a party and stop at the corner liquor store, they buy Lord Hobo or Castle Island. It's still local, an IPA, and in a 4-pack format, so it's basically the same thing for a lot of people, but easier to find.

 

Guess it's a bit different depending upon where you are located. Here in Pittsburgh, there is little, if any, great (truly) local beer in the stores. There's certainly stuff from Eastern PA and from Ohio, but not a lot of packaged local stuff to be had here.

 

Maybe we will more of this 'stuff' but personally I hope not. This crap comes off as obfuscation to me.

Cheers!

 

The problem I have with the local craze is there's actually less variety in terms of styles. All of these hip breweries brew mainly IPA/Stouts because that's what people go crazy for. Forget about brown ales, ESBs, etc. In the "old days" (10-15 years ago) I could go to a brewery/brewpub and have my pick of several styles.

 

Agreed 100%. We have one here in Pittsburgh that basically only brews hazy hoppy beer and an occasional porter or stout. They make terrific hoppy beer, but that doesn't really give people a lot of wiggle room when they go to choose a beer nor does it let them expand their horizons if they are new to craft beer. Obviously a lot of breweries are creating a business around said hazy hoppy beers, but that's not the whole craft beer enchilada. I just hope the people that are new to the scene know this.

 

I think this is true. My son is always buying Boom Sauce now for different things he attends that one brings beer to <where the hell is the confused emoji> It is a good beer, reasonably priced for tall boys, and you can find it damn near anywhere. He used to buy SNPA or Torpedo all the time, now it's Boom Sauce. The over-riding point is he's not going to a brewery to stand in line and pick up a half case or growler to bring to the disc golf cookout. I'd say a Lord Hobo (or Jack's Abby or Castle Island, etc) lies somewhere in between - they aren't so exclusive that you have to do the Easter egg hunt to find 'em, but they are still below the scale of even some regional breweries and remain reasonably priced. Nobody is going to turn up their nose at a Jack's Abby House Lager - this beer exists, I think, for just that reason. Caters to a wider audience, reasonably priced, easy to find, and upholds at least the "image" of craft/localish.

My personal opinion with nothing to back it up shows my cynical side. I think some percentage of people jump headlong into craft for the experience, which includes the whole seen and being seen thing. It's an "in" thing to do, and it's just another way for people to show how connected they are with whatever is deemed cool - yet another selfie-inducing "look at me" moment. I think of the people who get onto any bandwagon - artisan bread, tea, Starbuck's (when they got here, not so much now), etc. Whatever they can hitch their wagon to that creates that whole social sense of belonging thing. (yeah - we just had a review of some consumer testing data...I guess that is coloring my outlook at the moment).

 

This mentality certainly dominates the "drink local" scene, however it can certainly be seen across the board. I remember walking into Blind Tiger a couple years ago with my wife and laughing with her that most of the people in the bar were just there to be there, didn't care what was going on around them, and couldn't take their eyes off of their phones. We drank a couple beers and left, but it's funny to see the inhabitants of a World Class beer bar only really being concerned about telling and showing people that they were there and not making the best of the experience.

 

Wow I think the local craze has ushered in just the opposite around here. I can regularly get at least ten styles that aren't IPA's pretty regularly, all fresh and world class, and that is as good as it has ever been here.

Then again I'm old and remember when you could get any style of beer at the neighborhood bar, so long as it was an AAL.