Craft beer is responsible for the renaissance in beer.

It is known.

 

Well, yeah. Back in the 70s and 80s 'craft beer' was limited to a handful of locations. An entire industry has grown out of good beer made with care in small batches.

 

Craft beer IS the renaissance, pure and simple.

 

Yeah this is it. The craft beer craze isn't making Bud Lite any more alluring than it already was, there is no AAL renaissance, only a craft beer one.

 

Shelf space says it all. At the little store down the road, the cold cases have always been filled with BMC 12-packs.
Over the last 2-3 years they've moved the 12-packs to the walk-in and filled the display cases with solid craft.

Now you can pick up Dirt Wolf or Flower Power with your slurpee and scratch ticket.

 

Total mindblower.

 

Old brands that used to be popular that don't sell anymore like Old Milwaukee or Milwaukee's Best probably wont be around much longer. People got into craft and stopped drinking them and they stagnated sales wise. PBR was able to break that mold.

 

If you are saying that people did not love beer as much in years past you are so wrong. That is why you have brands, and macros, and huge big business trying to snuff out the craft beer revolution. It amounts to an awareness of styles. Go ahead laugh. That's what it amounts to. It;s not just that the beer is better it's that all the styles are now represented. It's a lovely to go to the beer store and see everything from pale lagers to dopplebocks to stouts to belgians to wit beers to bier de garde to zwickels and grodziskies. It's booming. beer is . In general. Anyone who things that the pale or the american adjucnt lager is going out of style is kidding themselves. It's staying but gose might not be as popular in a few years. Think about it.

 

You say this, but overall beer sales have fallen in recent years. Craft isn't responsible for a renaissance in beer overall, because there isn't one. Craft is simply responsible for the craft renaissance.

 

IMO craft beer and its popularity is more of an enlightenment then a renaissance

 

Perhaps that unfair negative stereotype is being replaced by a different negative stereotype of the "new" beer drinker.

An elevation in status has its pluses and minuses.

If by "renaissance" you're thinking revival, then @utopiajane is highlighting this by referencing the European styles in her post.

 

We have more choices when it comes to beer and when there are more choices, people tend to expand their horizons. Of course, we live in an era where we have more choices in almost everything. When I was a kid, we had maybe 30 television channels...now I have 700.

With more choices comes more exposure and exposure (such as this site) has been very, very beneficial for craft beer.

 

I am very interested in beer. This interest includes AALs. My interest in beer activism is equal to my interest in cream cheese activism (zero).

Edit: I'm not totally sure I'm reading you correctly, but if beer activism actually exists, I would think that AALs did create the climate for it.

 

Good lord, duh

 

1) What do you mean by "all the attention"? Craft beer is continuously gaining ground, I agree. But it's still a small part of the overall market.

2) I would be more specific and say the attention is mostly due to the rise of the IPA. IPAs made up 16% of the dollar share for craft beer last year, experiencing 39% growth from the following year. Seasonal is still number 1, but not by much. And who knows how many seasonals are IPAs themselves or hop forward beers in general.

http://beerandwhiskeybros.com/2013/03/28/the-top-7-best-selling-beer-styles/

"IPA’s are number two with a bullet, surging up 39% in volume growth and falling just three points behind Seasonsals in sales. My guess is IPAs will top this list the next time you see it."

 

"Microbrew" was doing this before "craft." What was doing it before "microbrew?" Good beer. People have been making good beer for centuries.

 

I beg to differ, I think some of those older brands are making a come back similar to PBR & I'll admit to grabbing them when I see them, mostly nostalgia sure but I find that as macro's go their profiles are slightly less off putting, ala Schlitz, Black Label, Hudepohl & more recently the return of fucking Hamm's of all things. The come back being from the brewer's themselves not necessarily the public at large.

 

I disagree. It was cask beer where it all started.