Is this the Extreme Era?

There's always going to be gimmicky junk around. New brewerie or old favorite. At the end of the day though, things are good right now and hopefully it sticks.

 

I think we were at the extreme era like a year or so ago. now I see alot of breweries cranking out hoppy pales or session beers alongside their big huge BA Stouts. Another thing, alot of the NC breweries are putting out seasonal IPAs, summer saison, and spring pales. None of those are extreme by any means.

If you looked at the overall production volume of the brewery compared to the volume of extreme beers, its way off. Like kzoobrew said, the moneymakers are their year round staple beers like IPAs, Pales, Browns, and Porters. Without those beers, the brew kettles wouldnt even fire up. Once the brewery makes enough money from their year rounds, they can go off and do something weird.

Maybe the better way to put it would be "The Age of Experimentation."

 

Guava Guano. Make it happen.

 

I'll throw this out there, it's almost like comparing apples to oranges (sorry for the corny cliche'). Usually the extreme beers are done in such limited quantities anyways and it would be interesting, if all the extreme beer releases were brewed all year around would they outsell the IPA's? Or, would our palates be trashed, or would we all be a small colony of perpetual drunks?

 

I'm sure Mikkel has it in the secondary as we speak.

 

Experimentation is what American craft beer is all about. Experimentation always leads to a lot of extreme results.

 

That's why I said, "I would have to say that yes, there are more extreme beers being released, beers with high ABV, beers with heavy hopping, beers with unusual ingredients, etc"

 

I don't think they would outsell the IPAs. It might cut down on people wanting to trade for stuff because it's more available. But a lot of people who are adventurous beer drinkers (like my brother) just flat out don't like that stuff. And, while I like to try everything, there's some stuff that I'm just never going to touch again, even though it was interesting.

I would probably go broke, though, because my wife can't resist anything that even implies that it's full of hops. Hop Burn? We need that. It's 950 IBU? Yep, have to buy one of those... And I, of course, can't seem to resist anything that's been chucked into a liquor barrel of some sort.

 

The standard against which U.S. craft beers are measured in the current era would seem to be the American IPA (in the 90s it was the APA). American IPAs have average IBUs of 40-70 and ABVs of 5.5-7.5%. To my mind, that is at the extreme end for a "standard" beer (esp. compared to standard UK, Belgian, German, and Czech styles). So yes, IMO American craft beer is in an extreme era.

 

Don't confuse what beers people talk about on BA with the majority of beers being produced by craft breweries. The vast majority of beer produced by craft breweries are relatively "un-extreme" - their moneymakers.

 

I'd almost the opposite - that the 'extreme' era is past. Of course, this is all dependant on your terminology, (the ol' "depends on what your definition of 'is' is") arguement.
IMO, in general, the era of 'extreme' as being more alcohol, more hops, bigger bigger bigger is generally not as prevalent as it was a few years ago. Yes, there are plenty of brewers doing that, barrel aging everything, freeze distilling a beer up to 62%, etc, but not as many as before.
What I'm seeing, especially in the newer breweries, is a trend towards LESS alcohol, less heavy, but still flavorful beers - the 'session beer' movement. Brews you can have several of without needing a DD to get home.

 

Absolutely agree, especially your point of going broke, I'm right there with 'ya!

 

Bat poop beer huh? Probably be better than a certain bacon maple beer I've tried.

 

"Beer Geek Breakfast Bat Poop"......anyone??

 

I mean they already do weasel poop beer.

 

You said it. I can remember when Bigfoot, at 9.6%abv, was considered an extreme beer. These days, its abv is kind of in the run of the mill range though...the brew itself still stands tall and proud as a leader of the style.

I WANT to see more beers in the 4% and less range so I can session on them and by golly, the future for my want looks promising.

 

I just had Smuttynose Strawberry Short Weiss, and it was freaking tasty at 3.7%. Theyre even making beer BELOW 4%!