Are you exhausted with the constant hype?

I don’t live in Minneapolis, but something about this just sounds ridiculous. Maybe I’m just out of touch with what is going on in giant metro areas, but it seems like there are more options than ever to find and enjoy the beers we all want.

 

That's too bad. Most of the GE's around me are the Market District model now. The guy who manages the beer department at the one closest to me is an avid craft fan, and seems to make an effort to keep a nice variety. I can find everything there now from local haze to Schlenkerla bottles. I feel for you.

 

If thre is demand for a brewery to make 10 different brands of hazy IPA that aren't distinguishable from each other even side by side, if that's what's keeping them in business, then more power to them, as long as I can still find something |I want to try. |I don't mind one or another of those hazies, as long as I don't get that hop burn at the back of my throat.
But I also like Pils, Czech |Dark Lagers (or the same thing with a clean ale yeast, I've seen) etc.
and those are getting harder to find. Whether the demand is there or now, |I don't know - that's one reason that someone mentioned talking to the brewer earlier. Certainly put it politely, but if it's one person, so be it. S/he'll let you know, but if a lot of people are asking for a style, then they may well brew a version of it.

 

I would agree that I’ve never once gone to any decently sized bottle shop/liquor store and not been able to find any beers I want to purchase to take home for drinking. But the significant majority of the time that I go to “random bar X or random restaurant Z” I don’t even consider ordering beer since their beer menus are often so uninspired including their craft tap offerings which often consist of exclusively varieties of middling IPAs/ Pale ale spectrum beers. I don’t actually blame these crazy smoothie/milkshake/etc styles on that per se, I think it’s more a reflection of the several years long migration towards IPA craze and an over expansion of what I would consider low quality craft breweries (all of whom seem to make multiple IPAs and variants), so this may be a discussion more appropriate for a different thread. But consumer trends negatively influencing the availability of options for people who prefer certain alternative (which ironically seems in this case to be classic) styles is definitely a thing that occurs.

 

Well perhaps but there should be some general consensus of what defines a certain type of product. I mean people can have their own definitions of things that are just flat out wrong and we shouldn’t pretend that aren’t wrong just because everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

 

Anyone who says the distro has gone down, and that there are fewer styles available, than there were twelve years ago, well, I won't call you a liar, but...

Twelve years ago there were posts on here from completists looking for beers brewed in a few states that had only one or two, or zero, craft brewers in the state, to complete their beers from every state. Some common styles today hadn't been invented. There were other styles that if you wanted them you had to trade unless you lived in one of the few areas of the country that brewed them or received them in distro. Twelve years ago there were still movements in this country to try to change state laws to allow for home brewing and lift prohibitive restrictions on craft beer. There were one third the number of craft breweries in the country.

And here we are twelve years later wondering if the "traditional distribution and styles available to consumer" are being negatively affected by hype that has fueled our hobby to grow in size the way it has. Some of us are on this site daily moaning about some new trend affecting some other trend, in a hobby that itself is a new trend composed of new trends.

 

Well in reality I would just go to a different place, but I would commiserate with my friends and fellow advocates and former lovers of the restaurant.

 

A trend fractal if you will?!?

 

I view hard seltzers as the new light adjunct lager.
Agree with your frustration with the constant hype. That's why I go for more west-coast IPAs and traditional porters/stouts. Sure I have some NE haze, but don't spend a fortune and don't seek it out. Not conventional, but I stick to mostly west-coast IPAs. Seem to be few and far between these days, but I think it helps ground me from getting into the constant hype.
Don't get drawn into the hype. When all else fails, a nice and clean lager is often the best medicine.

 

All that to say, I'm aware, but it hasn't impacted my beer enjoyment. I've always considered this metropolis area a 'beer desert', so it shocks me others could have it worse. Glad to have more context for this topic though.

I also didn't consider it being a 'hype' problem, but more so COVID related business issues at this point. Companies are trying to survive, and people don't spend craft beer amounts of money on low ABV beers in meaningful enough quantities to influence a businesses decision to provide the product. Even the big breweries are pulling flagships to keep their sales numbers up. My belief is things will change when breweries are open for consistent on-site consumption, as they work to serve patrons session-able beer.

 

I hate hard seltzers. Couldnt get one down. Therefore I dont order them.

There is a huge population that does like them and prefer them as an option. (Beer sales are declining nationally)

It costs a lot of money to open and operate a brewery. It generally is a person's entire life savings bet. Where a patron can choose to spend $5 or not. Bitch. And move on. The owner has their whole life on the line. House. Family well- being. Everything. (And lets not forget the hardship covid caused).
If 50% of your client base asks for a product, you give it to them. They are the reason the business is there. To serve them! Business serve the needs of the community...not themselves.
Rarely does a business owner have the privilege to ignore the wants and needs of their patrons and be fine. Its not a "money grab" to sell something that your customer asks for in order to pay your debtors, payroll, and keep a roof over your family's head.

Because you dont want a hard seltzer does not mean millions of people should be ignored.

If Corey King's base asks him for a hard seltzer,.i for one wont discount the rest of the catalog based on that.

Hype beers are hype beers because people want to buy them, which is the point of being in the business. If someone wants to open a brewery to sell beers no one wants, that would be their choice. Which is easy to say when one has no skin in the game.

Breweries survive on their local base. Beeradvocates make up a very very very small proportion of their base. In my town of 6700 or so. I am the one and only BA. If my local brewery cranked out a 17% BB Barleywine, their sales would be in the neighborhood of one bottle. Me. And perhaps someone else who thought they were buying wine.

 

I guess my next question would be, did that random bar x/restaurant z previously have a better diversity of options? My experience has been that really good craft options have always required a bit of effort to track down. Those meager pale ales/ipas replaced macro lagers at those bars, not some obscure European style. Kinda the same thing with @JackHorzempa 's example, was there some previous golden age of Czech dark lager availability? Or are there actually more Czech dark lagers available to US consumers than ever before?

 

ISO DBA seltzer blend 1

 

I would suggest you should consider yourself lucky. I have traveled enough throughout the US to know that that not every area of the US has a breadth of beer styles available for sale.

Cheers!

 

Agree with a lot of this. I think the thing that gets me as that there are good breweries out there that could be brewing good beer, but they fill the tap lines with fruit and seltzer’s instead.
Perfect example is a brewery near me called Eagle Park.

 

So you're questioning a native's description of the beer scene from halfway across the country while knowing nothing? Yes. You are out of touch.

 

I've never had, and probably would never try a hard seltzer. But I love NEIPAs, pastry stouts, pastry sours, and puree sours. I also like BA stouts/porters/quads/scotch ales. I dislike bland beers, so I guess I'm into extreme flavor, even it's not true to style.

 

This.... its hard to find a really well made lager on the shelves anymore thanks to the multitude of said beers...

 

Might be the first time I’ve ever seen a post of yours not end with “Cheers.” Stunning.