What is your biggest problem as a craft beer lover?

it's not the end of the world

 

So many beers......so little time.

 

Maybe the border will open soon (July 21)?

“Trudeau said earlier this week that the gradual border reopening will take place in the coming weeks, not months. He did stress that nothing was guaranteed given Covid’s uncertainty.”

Cheers!

 

Beer bars that don't offer half pints.
I enjoy being able to try more beers. Taster size is OK for high alcohol beers, but for low/moderate alcohol beers, the half pint is ideal for me.

 

I’m not sure if the tap lists at restaurants are ran by people who know too little about beer, or too much.

I’m tired of going to bars and restaurants claiming to be “craft centric” only to find the whole draft list is IPAs and APAs. I know begrudgingly that IPAs are “the thing” and probably always will be, but draft lists really need to be designed with variety in mind. No wonder why a lot of people feel excluded by craft beer: there is so much variety and something for everybody, but places choose to chase the hop-heads and haze bros.

 

Around the places I've lived, that was worse 5 years ago. Sours and ciders catching on provided at least a few of those most anywhere I find myself.

Despite that, I do go out of my way to find German and Belgian themed spots more often than not.

 

Or, translated to business language, "...places choose to chase the $$$$". As long as the majority of the demand is for hoppy beers, that is what they will stock. They aren't in business as a social service to satisfy a minority. Until a lot more people become a lot more vocal to the business owners and demonstrate that the demand exists for alternatives you will continue to find mostly hoppy stuff on the menus. (IMO)

 

@BillAfromSoCal already beat me to it but...as long as the customers coming to those businesses continue to buy those limited number of style beers the businesses will continue to operate that way.

I am fortunate that is my area (SEPA) there is sufficient demand for non-IPA beers (e.g., Pilsners, Bitter Ales, etc.) that some tap space is devoted to non-IPA and sour fruited beers but frankly even here the majority of tap space is devoted to hoppy and sour fruited beers.

Oh well? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Cheers!

P.S. I received an e-mail earlier today from a local craft beer bar about beers on tap now. The non-popular beer styles for BAs I bolded:

BARRIER DEADLY COMBINATION NELSON & MOSAIC

BALLAST POINT SCULPIN

DOGFISH HEAD HAZY O

HOFBRAUHAUS JAGERBIER LAGER

HACKER PSCHORR WEISS

FIDDLEHEAD IPA

ALESMITH SPEEDWAY VIETNAMESE COFFEE STOUT

2017 FOUNDERS KBS

2013 LOST ABBEY CUVEE DE TOMME

2017 AVERY TWEAK

2018 FIFTY FIFTY PEACH BRANDY ECLIPSE

GOOSE ISLAND BOURBON COUNTY STOUT

RUSSIAN RIVER PLINY THE ELDER

PIZZA BOY MURREN RIVER

MAINE LUNCH

LAWSON SIP OF SUNSHINE

TRIPLE CROSSING FALCON SMASH

SLOOP MOSAIC BOMB

EVIL TWIN BLUE RASPBERRY

FOUNDERS RUBAEUS

GOOSE ISLAND SUMMER

ALLAGASH WHITE

D'ACHOUFFE La CHOUFFE

DEVILS BACKBONE VIENNA LAGER

FOUNDERS BREAKFAST STOUT

ARSENAL ARCHABALD CIDER

 

Or, #3, run by people who simply listen to their favorite distributor(s) salespeople as to what is "hot", "rare" or, likely/especially, "on sale this month".

 

For lots of reasons, I would go with La Chouffe. Great beer then and now...

 

Dead on the money. The big distributors have "largess" at their disposal, with free stuff, endless service and sometimes a decent portfolio. But, a good salesperson is always miles ahead of the easy sale. It's like beer evangelism if well done.

 

The irresponsible amount of money spent. I'd have a small fortune by now.

 

Retailers that don't stock stout year round. They have the mindset that stout is a winter beer, as if when the weather warms up stout suddenly tastes bad. Really?

 

My guess is that this is more so driven by customer demand (i.e., the majority of their customers choose to purchase Stouts & Porters during the colder times of the year). Unfortunately this is not a good thing for folks who appreciate these beers year round. My wife has a girlfriend who enjoys drinking Porters and Stouts year-round and it pisses her off that she has difficulty buying these sorts of beers in the summer.

Cheers!

 

Depending on the beer, I have a hard time buying the same beer that I've purchased before. I keep looking for something new to try, something different, however I do have my favorite seasonals that just hit the spot.

 

So many great responses in this thread! My own peer peeves:

(1) State-specific laws on shipping beers (but different laws for other alcoholic beverages like wine, for example). Remind me again why companies can’t ship to Michigan?

(2) Old beers taking up shelf space at local stores

(3) Local breweries that churn out “one-off” beers that are unobtainable two months later

(4) Too many variations by a brewery on any given beer…that all taste suspiciously the same…

(5) WAY too many $20-25 4-packs of 16 oz beers. I mean they can’t all be Tree House.

 

My biggest problem is that I'm a fat bastard and really good beer has a shitload of calories.

 

Green marketing, pink marketing, red marketing, $9 pints, 10 ipa selections at a single brewery, one bartender serving 100 customers, plastic cups for pricey pints

 

For me ,the lack of pilsners and lagers. Thank goodness for Bells Lager Of The Lakes! Sierra Nevada dumped Summerfest, Founders dumped PC PILs, Heavy Seas dumped Pounder Pils distribution in Ohio.

 

Being unable to find KBBS at my local corner store.