Is craft beer BETTER than it has ever been before?

I just had quite possibly the best non-BA stout I've ever tasted today. Thanks F2Brewers!

Absolutely amazing - http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/423/156744/

If anything BA beers just add another branch on an otherwise large tree worth picking cherries from. It doesn't make the other branches not worth sampling.

 

Some is better, some is worse, some is the same.

I predict in 15-20 years we will be looking back on this era with all of the flavored beer 'experiments' as a fad and will be asking "what in the hell were we thinking back then?"- so I suppose you can guess in which category I'd put those things.

 

If anything, there are relatively fewer professional brewers today that have truly mastered the basics than ever before. That said, a (very) select few have, indeed, managed to raise the bar somewhat. (Note: However, they did not do so by simply adding new flavors to old base beers.)

 

Think most are looking for a way to get noticed in a crowded market. Had some barrel aged beer this year that were not good and that was probably because the stouts were not good to begin with. Gotta have a good beer before you try to add things to it. Agree in a decade will wonder what we were thinking adding flavors to our beer and other weirdness that gets added to beer. (looking at your Rogue)

 

Tough to say.

I will say that tickers and people that don't drink anything unless it's limited are really making some all-around great beers do nothing but sit on shelves.

 

Yes ... the explosion of new breweries (increase in competition) for the most part has pushed the quality bar higher across the board.

 

I'd say yes. A lot of variety, and a lot of great beers. You may not want imperial stouts or +/- 80 IBU IPAs, but the options are there for those who do, and outside of that the go-tos are still around with more breweries offering more choices.

 

We're better than before. There are definitely some brewers who don't know how to make a good beer first without flavoring it oddly, but the emphasis on freshness and the variation within styles are both good things IMO. In 15 years, I think we'll finally be getting back to focusing on extremely well made examples of traditional German and Belgian styles, unadorned by adjuncts. I do see the current IPA trend of fruit-forward beers continuing, however.

 

yes

 

I think that America's true "talent" has always lay in our ability to try and take on the world and fail spectacularly in doing so. The current U.S. "craft" movement has attempted to brew every style under the sun...and then some (much more than past brewers attempted). While the overwhelming majority of these attempts have been failures -- some more spectacular than others -- a handful of true successes, in a handful of "styles," have indeed changed the game for good. The fact that we are attempting more "styles" than in the past may ultimately lead to more of these "better" beers, but it will also lead to many, many more failures. If the ends justify the means, I suppose "craft" beer will be the better for it.

 

I do not see that as a positive thing.

 

Anything is better than Bud Miller Coors. Have four breweries in my modest city can tell you right now don't know how one is still open because the beer is not very good. One will be closed shortly after and the other two are actually pretty good. One in fact is really good brewery and is starting to win awards at pretty good events in the state.

 

I'm not sure if craft is better than its ever been or ever will beer. I do think there are a lot of styles being brewed with quality. I think there are good classic beers available and new styles available as well.

 

Well said! Of course the competitive explosion will yield a greater number of weak beers to sort through. As consumers we win as quality improves for the same price. Question - does this trickle down from final product to quality of raw ingredients?