Beer traditionalists

In 200 years whale meat beers will be what CAMRA tries to protect.

 

For me good beer is good beer, period.

I enjoy drinking good traditional beers and good non-traditional beers (this years Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout is OUTSTANDING!).

Cheers!

 

There's pretty good evidence that people have been putting weird stuff in their brews for thousands of years. That's one way to come up with new styles. That being said, I am very happy there are brewers still going at it in traditional ways. Those are often among my favorite beers.

 

I'm a lot more impressed by a brewery that can make a well crafted traditional style beer versus the brewery that comes out and says "here's out latest stout brewed with dingleberries/boisenberries/pumpkin pie crusts with 100 pounds of ethiopian coffee beans shitted out by our pet opossum aged on Egyptian mahogany saw dust"

 

There is a lot to be said for simplicity and, indeed, based on beers I have tried it is harder to make a solid version of something simple than it is to just throw gimmicks to the masses.

 

No preference - I approach beer like I approach people: on a case-by-case basis.

 

There's also a lot to be said for throwing together all that shit together and still have it turn out well lol

 

im with you OP. i find myself trying whatever is new and interesting when i first belly up to a bar, then im back to the traditional styles. just seem to typically more enjoyable for a session. however if its a one and done at home...i will reach for something unique for the fun of trying something new.

 

Sooooooooooo much agreement here.

 

I change my preferences in beer more often than I change my socks...I like everything, but in an ideal world I'd prefer a blend of the traditional and non-traditional. I am not overly enamored with the style "buckets" - it is becoming pretty arbitrary with all the hybrids that are out there. I don't think you can categorize traditional styles as "good" and the experiments as "bad" - there's good and terrible beers in both broad categories.

If nobody had the courage to take the risks and push the limits of the styles, what would we all be drinking? In that sense, I applaud the risk takers. I do, however, think that experimenters and innovators need to absolutely respect the traditional brews that got us where we are today. I would also agree that just because someone can doesn't mean someone should when it comes to pushing the envelope. Making some heinous concoction just to say "I brewed this radical beer" hurts the industry, in my opinion, and <ahem> leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth. At least I think so.

The other side of that coin is the consumer - it is us that ultimately determine the trends. Why are there so many IPAs & DIPAs? Well, we created the demand for them and it became the great hops race because everyone demanded "more". Why does is there so much barrel-aging? Somebody put out the first one, instant "wale" gotta have, and everybody jumped on the band wagon - we created the demand for all these things when you come down to it. We were just talking today here about how consumers get "conditioned" and the perfect (if unpopular) example is Budweiser - that is what the vast majority people have been programmed to think beer tastes like. Why? Because AB/InBev says so? Actually I believe the answer to that (for the masses) is yes. Point being, you can't leave the consumer out of this kind of discussion.

 

The more I think about it, the more I don't care about what 'style' something claims to be. It's nice if you're a brewer to know that 'adding x+y+z' from a recipe will result in Style A, but for me as a consumer if it tastes good to hell with the style it claims to be. Getting too enamored with what a style 'should be' has kept me from having some good beers for a lot longer than I should have gone without trying them.

I stayed away from Sam Adams 13th Hour Stout because I'm not a huge fan of high ABV stouts. Finally had it, tasted nothing like a traditional stout and I loved it for that. Kind of broke me out of 'caring' about styles. I just want something good I don't care what the brewer claims it is.

 

“We were just talking today here about how consumers get "conditioned" and the perfect (if unpopular) example is Budweiser - that is what the vast majority people have been programmed to think beer tastes like. Why? Because AB/InBev says so? Actually I believe the answer to that (for the masses) is yes.”

Larry, permit me to provide an alternative explanation for why the majority of US beer drinkers consume beers like Bud/Bud Light, Coors/Coors Light, Miller Lite, etc. In my opinion the US mega breweries make these types of beers because that is the type of beer that beer drinkers want to drink. In other words, the mega breweries have been “conditioned” by their customers to brew the beers that they want to drink.

IMHO, the US mega breweries are serving a market and that market is the majority of beer drinkers who prefer a beer that is light in color, flavor and calories.

Cheers!

 

I generally have a two-prong approach whenever I encounter a beer. The first question is "what were they trying to accomplish here?" And the second is "how successful were they?" - whether it's 'traditional', 'innovative' or all points in between. Most times it's never completely one way or the other. This way the two terms are merely descriptive, and not inherently value judgements.

If you start out by limiting yourself to one end of the spectrum or the other, you are going to miss out on a lot of good stuff.

 

Watching 'Lite' beers go from a novelty to the dominant type of beer consumed over the span of 30 years, I'd say that the consumers have definitely spoken on that one and the companies have complied.

But if a pendulum can swing one way, it can also swing another

 

These days, it's pretty traditional if it's got only 4 ingredients - and that IS how I prefer my beer. My Bud Light drinking co-worker who knows I like drinking 'fancy' beer once accused me of drinking beer 'with stuff in it'.

The f*cking guy sells beer for a living. B*tch your beer has 25% more ingredients than mine does!

 

...and if you use one of those "ingredients" in a "beer" brewed in the land of my forefathers, they arrest your a$$!

 

Whales may be as extinct as Vikings by then.

 

True, but I will counter that with the recent "throwback" sodas that reverted to their original formulas. Very unpopular decision. I agree that people drink what they like, but I also believe they have help getting there!

 

I do too. I am so much more impressed when a nice dopplebock sports a little chocolate because the brewer knew what he was doing rather than when coco nibs are added. Where the grain hasn't become roasted or burnt but is sweet like layers of sweetness and is crisp yet smooth in and of itself. So impressive are lagers.

 

Stepping aside from the "this is traditional, that's not" debate which is going to heat up (looks like it already has), I get what you're saying and I am in a similar situation. I dig the crazy, creative, brew-with-moon-rocks stuff, but at the end of the day I want multiple pints of well made Pilsners, Porters and Pale Ales (not to mention ESB's and Kolsch).