The Problem with American Craft

From what sources do you gather reliable data?

 

I think it's the fact more and more breweries are coming out with pumpkin ales that is the main reason imported Oktoberfests are being forced off of the shelves.

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with your post, but I feel the volume of pumpkin beers is a bigger issue.

 

I would agree that there are by far more wineries growing their own grapes than breweries growing their own malt and hops. The initial start up cost for a winery is much higher than for a brewery due to the land, planting the vines, waiting for the vines to produce. Some wineries will just buy grapes or juice from CA and ferment it on site.

For beer if the malt is grown by the brewery, few breweries have their own maltings, so the Craft brewers that grow their own malt will ship to a maltster that will keep separate lots and malt it for them then ship back. Hops are expensive, in that you need land, a trellis system, harvesters, separators, dryers, pelletizers and so on. I think if someone wanted to open a brewery of any high production volume, and grow malt and hops at a large scale, the total investment would be staggering.

 

Personally, one of my larger problems with many American craft breweries (this applies to most of them) is the need to produce such large volumes of different beers. If you click on the link to most US breweries on Beeradvocate, you'll see this massive list of different beers, both current and retired.

I just clicked on Weihenstephan (14 beers) and Ayinger (16 beers). And maybe a third of that list actually sees the shelves here in the US. St. Bernardus has 10, Westvleteren makes 3.....etc.

I have no problem with a brewery doing hoppy beers. I dig IPAs. But pick a few styles/beers, learn to brew them to the best of your ability, and sell those select quality beers. This need to produce two double IPAs, three regular IPAs, a session IPA, a hoppy witbier, a black IPA, an oak aged stout, then a bourbon barrel-aged version of that stout, then a coffee bourbon barrel-aged version of that stout, then a double dry hopped version of your two double IPAs, then a pumpkin beer in the fall, then a pumpkin stout, then a rum-aged pumpkin stout, and finally room for your flagship beers.........THIS IS WHY THE SHELVES ARE CROWDED.

 

As has been said, it is all anecdotal. Where I live there is no such trend. The quality of what I have on the shelf now, vs. even five years ago, reflects a dramatic increase in quality across the board. Stores have expanded and made room for Jack's Abby, Maine Brewing, Clown Shoes, Slumbrew, Wormtown, Mayflower and others, along with more out of state brands. Some brands faded like Flying Dog, Saranac etc. I see less Brooklyn and Victory too, though I think they are good. With very few exceptions, mostly cost related (Narragansett, Yuengling) quality is winning in the liquor stores. Taps are still dominated by the bigger local guys Sam and Harpoon, not the smaller locals, at most non beer focused bars. I wish we could get more small locals on tap.

 

Jack's Abby and Victory are both quality brewers, no doubt. Why more of the former and less of the latter? Could it be the hops? Again -- though anecdotal -- the OP has an interesting point here....

 

Very interesting points. But the large number of choices actually does have some bad effects.

For most people on this forum, it only affects us because we have to take a few more steps to bypass the mediocre beers to get to the ones that we know we like better.

But that's not the case for the less "educated". I can't tell you how many times I've been at my local Binny's and have watched novice shoppers looking at what to buy. And guess what... they usually end up buying based on the label or the cheapest price (I try to offer guidance if appropriate at the time). I was the same way a few years ago. And I bought some "bad" beer. To the point that none of them gave me an interest in this "hobby".

And then a friend introduced me to Left Hand Milk Stout and Pliny. My eyes were opened. I had no idea that there were beers that tasted this different, or so great.

My Binny's has a decent selection (I'm in Illinois, so we're relatively lucky). But I'll bet that I don't like (or consider "meh") 2/3 of the beers they stock. And only a small percentage of those would be likely to turn the "old me" into a "believer".

So I think the overwhelming variety that a great store like Binny's has, is actually a hindrance to converting people who don't care about beer, making them less likely to become craft beer enthusiasts. It's almost like the mediocre beers are "pawns", protecting the "kings and queens".

As to mediocre beer taking shelf space that could go to great beer, I don't believe this. My local rep says he's never been told that he can't get XYZ Great Beer because they'd have to remove ABC Mediocre Beer. It's almost always simply a (complex) distribution issue.

 

Well JA is simply new. It wasn't around 5 years ago. Victory isn't gone, though I almost never saw it on tap. JA makes several hoppy and not so hoppy beers, as does Victory, so I don't get the point. Dirt Wolf is certainly doing well, their hoppiest beer. Yet HopDevil not so much it seems. Why? Because 5-6 years ago HopDevil was one of the better commonly available IPAs here. Now it isn't any more. Competition. Brooklyn, I would say, doesn't focus on hoppy beers. People buy what they like and what is good.

 

My favorite Jack's Abby beer is Smoke & Dagger beer and that beer is not hoppy. Jabby Brau is also tasty and that beer is not hoppy.

I should mention that I also like the Jack's Abby hoppy beers as well; I just like Smoke & Dagger more.

Cheers!

 

It's kind of like saying that having a

And I was that guy a few years ago that would offer advice. For some reason I'm not that interested in chatting people up anymore when I buy beer. Not sure why. Everyone has the Internets. Everyone can do research if they want. People who actively seek out craft beer and then get turned off because they have too many mediocre beers don't seem like a real problem in my opinion. Most of us have waded through a ton of mediocre beer before having that Eureka moment or moments. It's called personal evolution. And I would argue that the benefits of more beer choices FAR outweigh whatever negative potential scenarios that keep being hypothesized in this thread.

 

Smoke and Dagger is certainly their most underrated beer...along with the Cascadian Schwartzbier, which if they labeled it a "black IPL" would fly off shelves. Both are awesome.

 

Yeah I basically agree with you. As I pointed out, it doesn't bother me at all, nor do I believe it effects the amount of higher quality beer that I can choose from. But I actually do care about the guy like me from 3 years ago , who has not had his Eureka moment, and does not know that there's enough difference in beer to even look for a place like BA or Untappd to help make buying choices. That casual beer drinker may never have any personal evolution, unless he's lucky enough, as I was, to have someone point him in a new direction. Agreed?

 

I'm gettin' old, man. If someone asks my opinion I'll be happy to give it. But I'm not losing any sleep over what beer you're not drinking.

 

No problem. If I see someone who looks lost, or picking up a bottle of something that's not so great (in my expert opinion), I may just ask if they've had it before (and the answer is almost always "no"), and then ask what they like and suggest something else. Just do what I'd hope someone would do for me.

 

I always try the IPA first. If you can't make a good IPA I doubt you can make a decent anything.

 

This, x about a zillion

 

I dont think there is anything wrong with the american craft style, which is many. As long as we have place like beer advocate i think the good beer will find its way

 

You mean bombers?

I was going to post the same exact thing, but @dennis3951 makes a good point below.

If you can't at least make a decent IPA you really don't know what you're doing. A pilsner is a much higher degree of difficulty.

It's not just the hops, it's also their barrel-aged baltic porters (vanilla, coffee, I think one is peanut-butter). While I do think they're good brewers who are only getting better, they make ALOT of gimmicky stuff. Their simpler beers have missed the mark, but their Jabby Brau (not hoppy and 4.5%, reminds me of an American spin on a Helles) has become quite good over the years in my opinion.

But they certainly brew more "beer geek" styles than Victory, and certainly more than the "simpler" Brooklyn. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that if you switched the "L" to an "A" in their hoppy beers, you'd hear a lot less about these guys. This wouldn't make them bad brewers, they're not, but I personally feel (and the ratings show this) their IPLs aren't nearly as good as the top hoppy ales in this area. I had a Galaxy dry hopped Fort Point Pale Ale from Trillium in the same weekend as Kiwi Rising (each of these breweries' top rated beers) and the Fort Point blew it away.

Victory and Brooklyn are great, experienced breweries. But Brooklyn's Octoberfest (one of my favorites from them this year, spot on) will never gain more attention than Jack's Abby's Vanilla Barrel Aged Framinghammer or their double IPA Kiwi Rising.