The Murtaugh Rule in Beer

I guess it is what sells. I love reviewing new beers to me but not a fan of hazy/murky IPAs..its becoming hard to find new beers to try, that are not murksters, even in Oregon.
Luckily most tap-houses have a better choice with some more classic styles than store bought beers

 

And yet, you haz access to Grape Lotion. From @John_M 's weekly GL update;

The Mad Batter
(12.4% abv) $30/4pack
Turns out, The Mad Batter is running late for his own important date, so we decided to hold the release to make sure we get it just right. Never fear, this bonkers dessert stout will be dropping soon, heavily laden with chocolate, vanilla, almonds, and coconut.



Sir, get you that, and I'm sure you'll understand what a "Pastry Stout" is.

 

I guess I'm confused, because from what I can tell Grape Lotion is an IPA (which I have never had). And I don't see a listing for Mad Batter, but I haven't tried that either. In any case, if this style is anything like Southern Tier Crème Brûlée then I guess I've had something similar. But it's not something I would seek out again. I've got enough health issues without adding diabetes to the mix.

 

Ahh, I think I've got this.

During your hiatus, we NW forum denizens jokingly nick-named Great Notion, Grape Lotion. So much so that A: some of us can't break the habit, and B: they have a sense of humor, and actually made a grape pop flavored beer called Grape Lotion. Mad Batter, is their latest Pastry Stout, and they've been hyping it for a few weeks, but it's not quite ready yet (again....).

So, GN/GL is famed, perhaps even revered, for making sticky-sweet fruited IPAs, and thick, Die-A-Beetus inducing stouts. In other words: they focus on what exactly OP was railing against. But hey! Their 2nd Seattle location will be opening soon (Technically, the 2nd spot will be opening before the 1st one does. They don't seem to do anything simply. Sigh.), so you can explore taster pours at your leisure.

Hope that, uh, helps?

 

Thanks for bringing me up to speed. Clearly I’m like the OP in that I’m reluctant to follow every latest trend in the beer scene. After all, I’m the guy who started a recent thread actually asking for hazy/New England IPA recommendations. Which must seem pretty ridiculous given that we are drowning in options. But ignorance is bliss, especially these days.

 

All I can recommend is finding ways passing the unpleasant stuff fast for coming to the, often classic, goodies. Make a strategy when wandering into the store. Try to hit the beer shelves from a suitable angel . Best case scenario you don't even have to see the stuff you're not interested in, no matter how popular it happens to be at the moment.

The world will feel like a better place

 

Captain obvious here. While I’m sure this trend will flatten and begin to tail downward w/the effects of the pandemic - it pretty much explains why most see a glut of trendy beers. Competition is fierce and the market/consumer drives the trends. But - as others have pointed out - a rising tide lifts all boats - and I agree with @drunkenmess - you just gotta know where to look for your traditional favorites. Personally I don’t long for days past - not the 80s or 90s or 2Ks - I’d freeze the current beer scene in lucite block if I could - cause it’s not likely to ever be better in our lifetime.

 

For me, the problem is that the abundance of all these new styles that I don't care for is pushing out the the old standards.
Yesterday I went to have some food and drink at a place that advertises "over 600 bottles of beer" to choose from. Not a single saison to choose from, imported or domestic/craft could I find.
When I go to visit a new brewery, what impresses me the most is that they brew close to style.
Even at the big stores, so much variety but my old standards are getting harder to find. This has been mentioned in different threads on this forum.
I've taken to "hoarding" because I feel that certain beers that I like and drink on a regular basis might not be restocked once the store runs out. Sometimes, I feel, it is not the stores fault as the distributor doesn't bring it in to the area.

 

You are not alone and you are not nuts.

I am sorry to hear about your challenge of deceasing beer style choices. I am fortunate that in my area I can still find beer styles like Bitter Ales, Mild Ales, Porter, Brown Ales, etc. but the choices are limited.

And luckily there are also choices to drink 'beers that taste like beer'



@TongoRad

Cheers!

 

I started out Murtaughed. I've always loved beer since I was about 15. I'll be 70 in May. The arc of my life has been shaped by beer and wine. Traveling to Europe as a 20 year old opened my eyes for good. I ran a wholesale company and bought beer and wine for distribution across North Carolina. So as a salesman I could not besmirch successful styles and brands. I gave consumers what they wanted and really tried to stay ahead of the trends. So, in this manner I was able to acquire emerging brands that made our company grow. I'm not against anything, but I know what I like. Know it alls always amused me.

 

I am. Or, at least in the case of pastry stouts, I am. If hundreds of brewers made a beer that was aged on sardines, one of them would inevitably be less gross than the others. But they’d all still suck. Such is the case with pastry stouts.

 

I had my Murtaugh moment early this year while visiting friends in Buffalo. After having a fantastic time at Big Ditch, we tried a new place, Froth, that had recently opened. Of the 12 beers on tap, 5 were kettled sours, 6 were DDH NEIPA's, and an AAL that you could tell was for the brewers.
It was some of the worst beer that I have ever had. Everything looked the same. The sours all tasted like curdled smoothies, and the IPA's were sweet yet acidic, so I felt like I was drinking bile because all of the hop burn.

I still regret it, months later, and I just get frustrated when I buy beer because I feel like my options are increasingly limited to a handful of choices. I still drink NEIPA's, but not as often, and I spend much more time hunting for a traditional east coast or west coast + lager; usually stuck buying the same few brews on repeat.

 

Hell yeah!

Photo appropriation approved

 

I have exactly one store in my area that carries traditional imports from the UK, Ireland, Germany, and Belgium along with 'traditional' craft beers (straight up porters, stouts, brown ales, west coast IPA, etc). Unfortunately that store is a 45 minute drive from my home.
All of the stores that are closer have given over 35-40% of their cooler space to ciders and seltzers (more power to people who enjoy those, it just annoys me that they have pushed import and craft beer out and replaced them with non-beer). When you then figure another 35% of cooler space for Adjunct lagers (and light and ultra light lagers), that leaves 25%-30% for ALL other options. Of that last portion it seems it least half of the craft brews I see are 'gimmick' beers (craft versions of flavored malt beverages). There is very little left for traditional styles -- with Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, and Sam Adams providing the bulk of those limited options.
I still enjoy trying new beers when I can find them, but my tastes are just too out of step with the current marketplace. I just cannot get excited about cider, seltzer, flavored malt-ernatives, or gimmick beers. I have come full circle on beer at this point in my life. Price point is king and I buy and drink whatever best meets my goal for straightforward beer at this time, which means I mostly just buy the same beers over and over since options are so limited within my parameters.

 

The NEIPA and pastry stout trend in the U.S. is quickly being supplanted by these lactose-heavy fruited kettle sours (or, really, fruit & field beers) with names like Joose and Schmoojee and Jreamsicle — a bunch of which explode if you leave them unrefrigerated for more than a day.

 

You hate it when trends become too dominant.

 

Hobbies that grow to become very popular end up with some sorts of conflicts between the folks who were the original people who loved the hobby when it was unknown by most people and those who joined the hobby after it gained wide popularity. I'll leave it to psychologists to explain the kinds of entitlement felt by those in the hobby, and the varying degrees it is expressed, but it is easy to see how many folks who consider themselves originals have a sort of arrogant dismissiveness of those new to the hobby. And those who come into the hobby after it already is popular try to make up for not being "OG" by overcompensating in ways easy to identify when they occur, such as they try to be more knowledgeable or collect more or better things related to the hobby. I enjoy to observe this interaction from the "OG" vantage point in a few hobbies I enjoy, and craft beer shows it in very interesting ways.

 

I guess I am just lucky, I find I don't mind the hazy if it is done well, but having access to some WC IPA's hasn't been that big of a deal. Most of these brewers are just cranking out what is selling and I can understand that. Hopefully there will still be love for some of the other styles and they will continue to filter down to the shelves. The hazy's that I have found I truly like are those that are somewhere between a NEIPA and WC. They have that great juicy profile with a firm bitterness that encourages drinkability. And most of these roll into that 5.5 to 6.5 ABV spot which is where I like to stay.

 

That describes some of my favorite hoppy beers from the breweries of Hill Farmstead, The Alchemist, Lawson's,...

I once suggested in a past thread (somewhat tongue in cheek) that we need another IPA substyle to describe these beers. I posted "Vermont IPA" as a name.

Cheers!

 

Is Silversmith not open? They seem to have a solid line up or are they bad?