Are We Killing Beer?

I'm with you. I am all for creativity, but prices keep me from trying different beers. It's almost as if I'm afraid to try them because I'm afraid I'll like them and want more. I won't be able to afford the beer I like and then I'll be stuck drinking beers that I now know are less than by comparison.

I prefer to purchase by the case, anyway. So a $30 four pack isn't going to cut it. If the case runs above $80, I don't want it.

 

Great points and as we get further along with so many new breweries, those that continue to make consistently good beer and distinguish themselves with a good product and in many cases a good experience have a better chance to survive. Some of the newest paces seem to empasize endless NEIPAs and your examples show some that have done well without doing so. Haw River and OMB remains gems in an increasing portfolio of fools gold.

 

Sometimes I think some of you have never had a good NEIPA. Most of the quality ones are bitter. As a matter of fact, I had one from Aslin the other week that was 148 ibu’s. In what world is 148 ibu’s not bitter?

 

In my world that's far beyond bitter.

 

I see you're new here. Folks on BA don't have to have a lot of experience (or any at all) with things to have expert opinions about them

Like you, I enjoy best the NEIPA that are balanced by tasty bitter.

 

Five pages in, it is safe to say that we are not killing beer.

It isn't just all the absolutely persuasive arguments made against the idea that convince me the premise is wrong. It is the excessive amount of angst displayed by some, of the nature of using the perfect as a standard to judge the excellent. The existence of this kind of picayune critic among us is a sure sign of an avocation that is doing just fine.

 

Which is strange, when you consider those styles were what inspired our earliest scene(s). You'd think we would have perfected them by now, and they'd become synonymous with America, but they're still quite overlooked and not always as easy to find as some others...

 

Are we killing beer? DEFINITELY NOT!! It is a great time for a beer lover to be alive - drink what you love - there is more of everything and it is better than ever before!

 

But, an artist doesn't paint what he see's people buying, just what interests him and sells it to make a living. Same with brewers I think, they are artists and are creating, if we dig it we buy it from them.

 

The starving artist paints for himself, and when he does he starves alone. A brewer can starve and when he does the employees starve with him.

Paint and canvas cost little and don't require loans from banks.

If the brewer doesn't sell any of his singular vision "paintings" the bank comes and takes away the $500,000+ "paints, canvas, and artist's garret"

 

There's a more fundamental question you guys are dancing around, and it's "who are your customers." The market is segmented, and it's important to know what part will be your primary base before making any other decisions.

 

Aslin is stupid for advertising that, as that number's pretty much impossible to achieve. If you want to know why, here's some reading on it:

https://sommbeer.com/the-myth-of-the-100-ibu-ipa/

 

I like the artist / brewer comparison tho.

 

The beer they brew decides who their customers will be, not , hey there is a large group here liking lagers right now so i will brew that, even tho my forte is stouts. Let the large brewers with more tank space do that.

 

Sam Calagione suggests the most important and first thing a brewer should do when planning a brewery is to find what niche he hopes to fill. This involves learning two things, what do the beer drinkers want to drink, and is there already enough/too much of that beer being made.

I suggest folks can be free spirits and consider nothing but their whims in what they brew in their probably-costs-more-than-a-million-dollars brewery, and I suggest the failure rate of these will be so high that the word stupid wouldn't be out of place to describe such folks who go that route.

 

If you make it they will come is not true with beer. Oh they'll show up once but if the customers don't share the vision they don't come back and my small brewery starts getting smaller. Frankly I would start out by canvasing the local restaurants asking what their customers wanted and use that as my launch pad. Once I got a foothold locally I could open a taproom serving established favorites along with my artisanal brews.

Leonardo and Michelangelo didn't start out doing their finest creations, rather they scuffed along doing what they were paid for while building a reputation that eventually allowed them freedom of expression.

 

Its romantic to paint a brewer as an artist but its not realistic. Once you become a commercial brewer you are brewing primarily to make money. There is certainly artistry in brewing but your main goal is to make money which taints the art. Your goal may to make enough money so that you can brew what you want but I doubt anyone successful in brewing is really brewing only what they want to brew rather than what their customers want.

 

Okay i see your point here. I guess my artist theory doesnt hold water.

 

I think we're conflating "brewer" with "brewery owner". There's certainly a lot of overlap when we're talking about small breweries, but in bigger ones they are separate and distinct positions.

Herein lies the issue with that. The company should have a mission statement and the brewery owner is responsible for seeing that mission carried out. The brewer is simply a cog in the wheel of accomplishing that mission. Each brewery's mission is different, but the brewer's contribution to that mission rarely is.

 

Point well taken