Where Would Craft Beer Be Today...

Sort of similarly I was wondering if these have found a more solid niche with women than the hard sodas were ever likely to. My wife and her friends are also generally wine (with some tequila and bourbon here and there) drinkers but they buy these semi-frequently now. They have never drank ciders, or wine coolers, or hard sodas. It might be relevant that, like your wife, they are all regular seltzer water drinkers to begin with.

They specifically like the brand White Claw, which at least claims to consist of booze added to seltzer water rather than being a malt beverage from the ground up. I don't know whether they're just playing fast and loose with their descriptions though.

 

Yes, but where did the "craft beer" movement come from ? Other countries

 

Beer comes from where it's made and those other countries are now importing or copying the modern American styles.

 

Yes but the growth of what we called "micro breweries" began in the UK. Many US brewers came here first. It helped to have an intact infrastructure which had customers waiting.

 

@5thOhio

I think that the culinary-inspired beer movement got its largest exposure with Dogfish Head and Sam Caligione's raison d'etre (man, I miss that beer!) with thumbing his nose at the (arguably) nonsense that is the reinheitsgebot. It should come as no surprise that I am a fan of their beers and have immense respect for their leader (and miss many of their now, retired concoctions...especially the Ancient Ales series like Theobroma and Chateau Jiahu).

Although I have no problem with adjunct-laden beers (and enjoy them on frequent occasion), I still want them to be beer first and just simply enhanced by the additions. There are also certain styles, however, that I enjoy the most without any additional ingredients except the 'big four.'

I am probably the only person that prefers all his beers aged on wood...virgin, spirit, wine (whatever). Wood transforms beer and that method of fermentation/lagering existed well before Stainless Steel. Therefore, I don't think wood should even be considered an adjunct because that is how beer used to be stored.

...Palo Santo Marron? Don't mind if I do!

 

Ok... but people have also been throwing fruit and spices and herbs into beer since forever.

The whole notion of "beer that tastes like beer" is... questionable at best. People have always made beer with whatever was available and whatever would produce the most appealing product.

 

They must not have humor in the UK, either.

 

That's because wood's NOT AN ADJUNCT! It's an additive, at best. Also, the barrelage of yore was either spent/neutral or lined with something, like pitch, so wood flavor is only a very recent addition to beer.

 

If "whatever was available" means "whatever grains were available", then, sure, they made beer with whatever was available.

Fruit was expensive and brewing spices were taxed, thereby creating a reason to use the untaxed H. lupulus plant, so if you look into the literature regarding the history of beer, it certainly did not contain just whatever was laying around. In ancient times, there were often things like sugar dates or honey added to increase the alcohol content, but those beverages do not well resemble the modern beer that we are used to drinking.

 

Point taken. We have humour instead

 

@oldbean
Yeah, I agree...what I said was pretty infantile terminology. To specify, I'd rather have my beer taste like it was inspired with flavors from the culinary (or even cocktail) world as opposed to tasting like the liquid form of said foodstuff or libation.

@EvenMoreJesus
Yep, you too are correct...but what about all those IPA's going to India and that massive barrel program in and around Burton-On-Trent? Surly, some of that wood character infiltrated the beer? The old Ballantine brewery in Newark, NJ used wood to produce their IPA and legendary Burton Ale. I wonder what those tasted like when brewed back then...we now only have a facsimile since none of those original recipes were archived and are now (sadly) lost.

 

Thanks for bringing up the NYF Root Beer, I forgot about it already! Beer is like ice cream, there are people that want to try all sorts of crazy flavors.

 

Ha, I also forgot about the great Not Your Father's crazy of whatever the hell stupid year that was.

People can drink whatever alco-pop they want, but much like pre-cut fruit, I'm amazed at how many people will pay a premium to not go to the extremely minimal trouble of pouring a little vodka/rum/etc into their refreshing beverage of choice.

 

Sales would be pretty considerably lower I would think. Our host brewery depends pretty heavily on flavroed beers these days.

 

The the original IPAs were aged in pitch lined or neutral wood.

https://beerandbrewing.com/dictionary/h63PzW6oDQ/barrel-aging/

As were Ballantine's beers

http://allaboutbeer.com/ballantine-ipa/

The Burton Union System, to which you allude, is a system of primary fermentation only. No aging is done in it.

https://beerandbrewing.com/dictionary/IdBjsaZjWz/the-burton-union-system/

 

For sure. It took a long time for the US to catch up. I partially blame Prohibition.

 

I kinda like the hard seltzers, not for everyday drinking, but they work at the beach or pool. They're very light and very bubbly, I'd suppose they would be good with dinners too, kinda like Pelligrino with alcohol, and isnt weighed down with the artificial fruit flavorings.

 

How is a hard seltzer different than a wine cooler or other Flavored malt beverage? Isn't it pretty much the same thing, just packaged and marketed differently?

 

Umm, yeah.