The Problem with American Craft

Not going to call out any breweries, everyone is doing their thing. I see it though, especially more in newer startups. Where efforts could be put to quality improvement, its being spent in the creative realm.

 

Competition is good...

 

I have not read through the entire thread.

BUT, for those of you shunning the drink local establishments, I have 1 argument for you.

At the core of this craft, the purpose is to bring people together. Maybe some here have forgotten that, but I can say confidently most every brewer wants their beer to be enjoyed with friends.

The need for "entry level" beers will always be there because 90 percent of beer consumed in this nation is currently BMC.

If you are truly wanting to support craft beer, don't forget what your first craft experience was. We all started somewhere. Whether that be a Boston lager or a Honkers Ale, everyone had a simple craft beer that opened their eyes. Some will begin to explore and become extreme beer advocates seeking out world class beers like most of us on this site, but for the majority beer is something to enjoy from time to time in the company of fiends.

If we lose site of the fact that beer, at its core is merely a social lubricant then I think we are getting caught up in some sort of elitism that is not what beer was meant for.

Sure I seek out the best beer in the world and I can recall several specific mind blowing moments when I tasfed something completely new and exciting but for me the best part of this is introducing people to beers that make people realize there is other stuff out there than BMC. If it weren't for these entry level beers I couldn't do that, and more importantly I wouldnt have gotten to experience all the incredible beers I've got to try.

The craft beer scene needs to be more than just king henry, heady topper, and fou foune. The craft beer world is about variety and giving people a chance to try something they haven't before, so it annoys me when I see people who have been on this journey and forget the importance of it.

 

Many so called "entry level" beers are world class, SNPA and Anchor Steam come to mind.

 

I realize you haven't read the thread, but everything you said is entirely consistent with what I and others have said above. You can have the social lubricity at a beer bar with a Bell's Two-Hearted instead of a Grand Canyon Black Iron IPA. You can have the same social lubricity with a Founder's Porter instead of an Old World Dark Knight Porter. None of those are "whales". Look at the score differences if you don't trust my palate and judgment. For people who can't taste the huge difference in those beers and other countless comparisons I could make, it probably doesn't matter which one they're served. But for those of us who appreciate those differences, the world of the beer bar with only 20 or maybe 30 taps is an entirely different place when local options are taking lines because they're local, when a long list of better options could be there instead. Echoing @mabermud above, competition is good, and I want there to be real competition based on taste and quality.

 

I can appreciate all that and the problem it creates. What I don't undertand is why so many people insist on saying "the problem with American craft beer" and generalizing to the whole nation when at the end of the day it turns out that they really mean "the problem with my local beer scene/culture."

 

Can we start a second version of BA for the people who complain about American craft beers being to hoppy?

 

This exists in a multiple areas, as evidenced by some comments from above from others, and in other threads whenever this comes up. It's a species of the "too much mediocrity" problem that many have raised.


It's not that hard to see why it is a national problem:
The "buy local" is everywhere.
Very good breweries are not everywhere.
That leaves the majority of the country with the buy local movement present, yet no very good local breweries as the beneficiaries of that ideology.

 

This statement sums it up perfectly and is my biggest frustration with the craft beer scene. Luckily there are plenty of great breweries doing it right that I can avoid the bad ones

 

I, like many, prefer to accentuate the negative, but if I'm honest the question of "what's wrong with American brewing" pales into insignificance alongside recognition of how much great beer is easily available to me all the time.

And come on folks: across the vast expanse of this fine nation, buying local is far more of a slogan than it is an actuality.

 

The hypocrisy is ubiquitous, no doubt. But it's no slogan when someone sees some rather mediocre local taps taking valuable lines that could have gone to something far better.

 

Those of us in a good craft location (arguing best is pointless once it is overwhelmingly good) are truly blessed. On the other hand, I have winter.

 

I would have to add that too much of it is overpriced.

 

I'll bite.

I like beers that are really bitter. Luckily there are a great variety of hops that can be used for bittering, and different techniques, so we are blessed to be able to try hoppy beers bittered with varying amounts and flavors as the bitter part of it, and more hop varieties being grown every day.

I like beers that showcase the flavors of hops. Since there are over 350 different compounds in hops creating these flavors I love to taste all the different ones, from ganja and mint to mango and grapefruit and a staggering quantity between.

I love a hoppy beer that is full of hop aroma. Luckily our brewers have discovered late addition techniques that put a stupid amount of these beers on shelf, and little chance of getting bored with them as they change the techniques and hops they use constantly.

This is why, as a hop head, I can have one of my local faves, Naysayer Pale, done regular style, or with Belma, or with experimental hops, or with hops grown at local farms, as the brewer switches and experiments. When was the last time anyone had a Koelsch done 6 different ways by the same brewer that all taste different and great.

One local brewer uses a coolship to do his late hopping, he calls it the "hop dam" technique. I love trying all the different techniques brewers experiment with to use hops.

I love a hoppy beer done with Belgian yeasts, and with fruit additions, and with herbs other than hops also added.

What I am saying is trying to put all these into one boat and say that "IPA type beers" are all the same is one of the most ridiculous things that can be said about beer. Those, like me, who are card carrying hop heads, will never get bored, because we are blessed with an astounding array of very different from each other beers that run a wide gamut of taste experiences, perhaps a greater range than available in any other category of beer.

 

Not by the same brewer (not sure why that would be a positive thing anyway), but how about done 24 different ways by nearly two dozen different brewers in a world-heritage city?

 

Well then we'll just have to agree to disagree because I don't see what you see.

Granted there are multiple areas based on the comments. But correspondingly there are also multiple areas based on other comments where it is not the case (e.g., the Pacific North West) and those appear to be growing in number and in surprising places (e.g., Western NC, certain areas of VA, Southern MI, etc.). And consider some of the places cropping up in the "Best Beer Cities" polls. Flawed those those poll may be the places that get onto such lists are not typically picked just by throwing a dart at a map of the US>

I can't speak to "buy local" being everywhere since I've not been to or seen data on the "everywhere." But what I can say is, yes we have a buy local advocate group in SEPA but it doesn't harm the beer market in the least. Indeed one of the best German style breweries in NJ has so much on tap local business its hard to find their beers even in Philly. And as for finding bottles.... Don't hold your breath...

True, very good breweries are not everywhere, but again out of the numbers that open every year a few manage to distinguish themselves. (.e.g., the Bruery, Hill Farm, the Alchemist, the Devil's Backbone, etc., etc.).

As for "majority of the country" being left without good beer, I'd say that truly depends on whether you mean geographic majority or population majority. PA was once characterized for political purposes as being Philly and "da burg" with Alabama in the middle. That certainly applies to the majority of the land area in PA for beer as well. However, I'd say that many of the major population centers have good breweries/beers and the number seems to be growing rather than declining.

So I find it hard to say its a problem for American craft beer when the trends are moving us upward faster than they are holding us down.

 

Which seems fantastic for you hophead folks. Me, I'm in the boat that literally cannot taste or smell a thing beyond the beer seeming to have become perfume once the hops reach a certain point of forwardness. There is no nuance, there is no distinction, there is just a wall of non-enjoyment, which does taste similar, if not the same, across every hop-forward beer.

Fade the hops into the background as support to other flavors, and then they become clear and distinct flavors for me. I can pick them out, and actually enjoy them. Tuck them away behind other big flavors in a 70+ IBU RIS, and I'm perfectly happy to drink them all day. But I'm happiest when I'm tasting little to no hop, with plenty of malt in its various tones and shades and/or yeast esters and phenols galore. I'll pull 8-10 distinct flavors or so out of a good Vienna lager, and notice differences between different ones by different brewers, much better than I'll notice any difference at all between SNPA, Boulevard 80 Acre, and Arctic Panzer Wolf. Those may as well be the same beer to me.

I'm actually a bit saddened by the fact that I can't enjoy the hoppy beers, not because they're seemingly everywhere, but because everyone else seems to absolutely love them and find all manner of flavor and complexity in them. I'm also slightly annoyed when I try a new beer in a style I enjoy, which the reviews and descriptions of mention as having "a slight, minor hop presence" which hits me with all the grace and subtlety of Mike Tyson in his prime - but mostly, I just feel saddened and excluded in the minority of the minority that is craft beer geeks.

 

@herrburgess said, "Not by the same brewer (not sure why that would be a positive thing anyway), but how about done 24 different ways by nearly two dozen different brewers in a world-heritage city?"

Well, it sure gave me a chance to try a bunch of different hop varieties done in a way I could taste the differences and appreciate them. It made the one beer at this one local brewery become a different beer six times in the last year and a half, all of them delicious. It made it so I could enjoy them all without having to travel to different breweries all over the place to do it.

I guess I could find other things I like about this but I will leave it here.

Glad you got to try all those "different" koelsch when you were in Europe, I guess you were able to enjoy a similar thing to what I describe here. Of course I also was able to try a stout, a porter, a cured rauchbier, a barley wine, a Scotch ale, a baltic porter, saisons, and other styles at the same place and time, so I guess I can add that to the things I enjoyed about it.

Naturally, though, in Germany you would only want to have the one style of beer, done different ways at different places around the city.

 

Agree to disagree? For me it's not just about the variety, but about the culture (and, yes, I traveled to and walked through the city to sample all of these). I suppose some people might find the following "scenery" more attractive, though...