End of 2nd wave?

Yep I generally agree with you. Most of my beer money goes to localish brewers that provide reasonably fresh beer at a good price. Retailers seem to perceive a desire for lots of choice though, and that seems to be the root of the old beer problem. Too much beer for the store to move through it in a timely manner. And I can certainly imagine that situation adjusting itself somewhat abruptly in the next few years, especially in relatively small markets like my own.
Should be an interesting couple of years for the US brewing community anyway

 

Agreed, this mirrors my take when I go back to visit the ranch. Don't forget CO distro, as I tend to get my Odell fix when I'm back there. In addition to Surly, Fair State, Central Waters and Toppling Goliath.

 

Yes, but you have access to excellent West Coast beers which producers fly over Chicago to reach. So jealous of what your top bars are able to offer on a regular basis in Philadelphia. It truly is always sunny.

Agreed, I believe we are on the 7th wave and I am loving it. You can find so many great beers today, hundreds if not thousands more than a few years earlier.

I mostly purchase from breweries directly, or off-site where beers are kept at proper conditions and with proper package date disclosures (or on drop off week when I know a local beer is released). I stick with favorite core local, regional, and a couple of national brewers, checking out new breweries on site or special release events.

I do agree there is too much stale stock out there, you need to be careful and make sure the beer you purchase is fresh as intended.

 

You must not have been beer drinking in the early 80's before the complete collapse of small independent AAL breweries and prior to the 1st wave of new legit breweries. ie Goose, Bells, Sierra Nevada, etc. Not much worse than $.99 cent six packs of BEER.

 

Having gone from precisely zero breweries in forever to the amount you have now in how many years? But, honestly. Maple Bacon Porter sounds like a hell of a thing to want to think of drinking, and not an easy thing to pull off so... Maybe try something with four ingredients instead of something that probably shouldn't be brewed in the first place.

 

This is probably really telling about the beer scene in general, but I read maple bacon porter and thought;
That sounds like a nice simple beer...

I mean it doesn't contain any fully.cooked desserts or off the shelf candy, and its just bacon not, like, prosciutto wrapped dates with goat cheese and almonds(clear evidence that the Sioux Falls, SD beer scene isn't very evolved)

 

It's not the quantity, it's the quality. And...

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/31805/62761/

It seems that others think that particular beer was a good idea.

 

This is a great time for craft beer, so much good stuff is available, beers that people waited in lines for just a few years ago, are now becoming "shelf turds". We have a new local liquor store that opened last week in , my beck of the woods, KBS, CBS and several varieties of Budweiser's BCBS are on sale.

 

That is a very good point. When it comes to draft beer the Philly area is indeed a wealth of riches. Now, when it comes to packaged (i.e., canned/bottled) beer it is a good news/bad news story. There are lots of beer brands from all over (e.g., high quality breweries) but too frequently those beers on the shelves (and floors) are old product. A beer from a high quality brewery that is old is not a high quality beer IMO.

Cheers!

 

You have to think of this stuff in percentages. Right now, there’s an upper echelon of craft breweries that consistently put out good-great beer... Maybe 10% of them (I think the number is probably less than that in reality)? Then there’s another tier of almost always good breweries... maybe 30%? Then there’s “sometimes good and rarely awful” probably 40%. Then the bottom tier of breweries that we all have in every state where customers wonder how they can continue to operate. I don’t think that’s any different from when I started commercially brewing back in 2011 but now there’s so many more breweries that there’s more bad beer being produced... But there’s also more good beer now than there was back then.

 

ISO breast milkshake IPA

 

extra trade value for the DDH version.

 

Oh my God, I almost spat out my beer.

 

I almost spat out my breastmilk

 

. You mean providing greater supply quality of DIPAs to compete with Hopslam? That is the sign of an improving and maturing beer culture. But there is now too much supply to maintain freshness, and some retraction (at least from retail stores) is inevitable and will be a good thing.

 

Yep hopefully this next wave involves us consumers recognizing that its not realistic to have fresh beer from every distributing brewery around the country all the time. Luckily most regions have a couple quality options that should be able to provide ample options for daily drinking and we can very reasonably expect our retailers to maintain fresh stocks of a more limited supply (although I wouldn't hold my breath for the end of old stock)

 

I think you and I may be thinking the same thing here (towards the next stage in American craft beer industry maturity and evolution). I think we just look to Portland OR and Vermont (who is about 10 years ahead of most of the US). They are closer to what I would envision is more like classic Bavarian brewers (lots of local stuff/not widely distributed/very good quality of bee rmaking across the board). I think rest of US is improving and catching up on the general quality, but the whole "putting cans/bottles from every brewery in retail stores is where things went a bit astray here in US in recent years. Lessons learned and shift gears to Plan B (i.e. retract back to the taproom only model).

 

I rate any beer, including SN Oktobeferst, according to the palate, not the calendar.

Cheers!

 

... $19 four packs.

 

I like beer