Has anyone else completely stopped reading cans/bottles that they don't recognize?

I was going to take a picture of all the new cans at the liquor store yesterday -- just because they were all so unrecognizable and, honestly, hard to look at.

 

Jesse, I hit that point a couple of years ago. Maybe I am judging unfairly but it seems to me that a brewery that feels compelled to create 'razzle dazzle' labeling (and it seems like the can artwork is the worst) is concentrating too much on packaging and perhaps should be more concerned about the product inside the can (or bottle).

I much prefer a labeling scheme like that of Maine Brewing Co. I immediately know what brand and style the beer is without spending several minutes trying to figure whazzup.

Cheers to Maine Brewing Co. for their labels (but boo to the prices)!

 

I suck in each and everyone of the NA beers in the store. New always means excitement. Is there a single new? Or is it the same 40 as last week? So guess I don't share your problem, fight on

 

Yes. Happened to me as well, I have almost stopped craving new all together. Unless it’s a brewery/style I know and respect.

I spent about 30 minutes the other day in a store, it’s huge so it’s not hard. I spend about 20 minutes looking at the import stuff (they probably do the best around with them). Then I went to the big walk in fridge that is full of sticker can beers. It was like being in a maze and they were almost all some sort of hoppy beer.

But diving into imports is new to me and it’s a lot of fun. The stuff B United is bringing in and canning is exciting to me cause this store I mentioned stocks their stuff.

 

I 1000% Agree On This. I have a soft place in my heart for all things Maine Beer Co. but like you I wish they would lower their MSRP just a bit. Down here in TN their beers sell for $7-$10 and we don't see Dinner or Second Dinner (not sure if that makes it out of the state or at least out of NE). I can only imagine those would be $10+. I wish they would go the way of Hill Farmstead and begin to can with subtle/understated labeling.

 

Yep. I'm with you.

After 10 years of exploring, I'm just.....out of shit to try. The styles I don't care for I REALLY don't care for, so they're DQ'd immediately when I see them.

I have maybe a half dozen IPA's I rotate plus a couple of browns and stouts. Then maybe 5-7 seasonals I'll seek out, plus the occasional BBA release. But I wore myself out on big barrel aged stouts in general.

Hell I even stopped cellaring for the most part. I had 100 bottles two years ago (an amount I maintained for several years) Now I have 10-15 total.

I see less and less new stuff on shelves. Just the mainstays that sell and the same goofy, micro company's cans that never move.

 

My local shop has all the beer sorted so if I want an ipa I know where to look and if I want a stout I know where to look.

I mostly shop by breweries I know and trust. I follow my bottle shop on IG as well as the breweries so I know mostly what the beers are. I usually go beer shopping with specific beers in mind.

rarely do I try a beer that I am not familiar with the brewery unless it’s recommended to me from a person I trust.

 

I get a sense nowadays that brands with consistent, core branding tend to be the ones with better product. Other than Maine as in your example, Anchorage and Beachwood spring to mind for me personally. They found one thing that works well for them and then applied that to all or most of their product line. Might be they then have more time to spend on the actual beer and less time worrying about how they're going to make their next can look cool.


I still like and will buy beer based on cool can art...

 

I recently moved from Brooklyn where the closest places to get beer happened to be breweries; Other Half was the closest, followed by Finback (BK) and Threes. That coupled with the fact that Whole Foods (the other local place where historically you could get good beer) seemed to have been walking back their beer selection meant it had been a long time since I'd shopped at any big store (there were a couple of boutique local beer stores, but with a very small/curated selection)

Anyway now I live more in the suburbs. The local grocery store is renowned for its awesome selection. And it really does have tons of beer. But yeah I sort of felt like an 80 year old being handed a PS4 controller. There is just so much beer, and with the shift to 16oz cans combined with the labeling style - it's impossible to identify stuff at a glance. I feel like when things were more bottle-oriented, the bottle size, shape, label shape and label design meant you could quite quickly figure out what's what. Now it's just a sea of aluminium

 

What I have found is pretty useful is just to glance at the new beer feeds that Todd and team implemented a while back. I go to beers click on the Local tab and just scroll thru to see what others around me have been drinking. I find that helps get an idea of what is new out there and what are the general impressions.

 

I glance at new stuff on the shelf at my store, not so much because I'm looking to try something new, but because I want to see a brewery name to determine if a new brewery has started distributing in Michigan.

I picked up a can the other day and couldn't find a brewery name! I also couldn't decipher the beer's name because it was built into the psychedelic graphics and I didn't want to take the time to figure it out. The beer's style must have been buried in there too. I suppose the brewer expects to sell that beer based on artwork alone.

 

My friend brought me a 4 pack of Lupulin "Fashion Mullet" and the label is funny and stylish, but it doesn't list the beer type or abv or literally anything besides "Fashion Mullet." The beer was decent though, so we lucked out I guess. It was a Hazy IPA.

 

I see this as an advantage, when I see a can that looks like a modern art nightmare I know it's an IPA although there are exceptions.

Cheers.

 

Back when I used to visit liquor stores in person, after a bit of trying to figure out what these beers are, I simplified life.

Artsy unreadable labels are, by definition, locally- brewed NEIPAs or some other locally-brewed mess of a beer. I stopped wasting my time.

Now, I order online using the actual beer name.

 

This past vacation is the first time since 2015 that I passed on filling a mix-six to take home and review. Lots of loud artwork cans with price tags showing high prices for a single 16oz can. Even outside of that, their descriptions just don't sound remotely interesting. Only reason I bothered to look at styles is because I was in a new market.

My beer trips around home are much more streamlined now. I go to the cooler with Bell's or Sierra Nevada's 12 packs, occasionally stopping by to check the date on Odell's Mountain Standard. I go with the freshest of the three, unless one of them is on sale. Then for local, I order through my favorite breweries website. All other funding has been shuffled to whiskey. I no longer bother with the singles aisle nor do I pay attention to the cartons of 4-packs on the end-caps. I've pumped a lot of money into craft beer, but haven't seen value on that return, and so I'm forgoing the gambles.

I'd love to hit 2,500 reviews, and more beyond that, but lately I've found much of the new beer not worth my time or money. I'll just save up that money and spend it at tasty breweries when I travel.

 

just an aside, that sounds like a tremendous waste of honeydew. If that beer really exists, the brewer should be slapped in the face.

Now back to your scheduled programming!

 

What's in it, I don't buy it. Tell me what you're selling!

 

You are not alone. I still look at everything in the store, but I'm selective about what I concentrate on. I'll spend most of my time in the import section, and I'll quickly go past 98% of US product. My attention and purchasing habits can be ranked in the following order of greatest to least (with quite a jump down in intensity from one to the other):

- imports
- Sierra Nevada, Bell's
- beer brewed in my county
- other craft
- other macro