Pastry Stout -- FOBAB 2017

https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...-have-we-forgot-what-beer-tastes-like.545940/

Been brought up before.

 

I was at one of my local bottle shops talking to one of the owners and before this article we had a very similar conversation about his typical customer base. In general he feels that between the adjuncted stout and hazy ipa he thinks about 80% of his current customer base has no clue what a beer actually tastes like. He's also well aware that's what is keeping the doors open currently in a big way. I love all that stuff myself but in the recent weeks I've found myself shifting back to wanting just a plain old stout or something without vanilla, chocolate, coffee ect. I'm guessing at some point being a lover of beer the palette needs to go back to what made me love beer. The other night for example I was out and there was all sorts of crazy local craft on tap and I ended up sipping on a Founders All Day for the night. I

 

I don't agree with his opinion on BCBS. Bourbon County does not taste like beer. It tastes like bourbon, finishes sweet and buries all the stout characteristics.

 

10 years ago I liked to get "hopped up!"

Now I like to get "sugared up!"

Keep em coming!

 

The author keeps complaining about too much sugar in pastry stouts. None of the ingredients he lists as characteristic of pastry stouts contain any sugar. Is his complaint inherent to the sub-style, or would it be more straightforward for him to simply argue for less sweet stouts?

 

I like to think of myself as one of the more outspoken defenders of the beeriest flavored beers on this site: German, Czech, and English styles, often tossed to the wayside by newer members with even newer money. Even amongst people on this site whose palates and opinions I greatly respect, I find that very few of us are actively excited about a great altbier or a fantastic English brown. Those types of beers just don't get airplay because they're "boring," and I think that's really unfortunate because those styles are just as delicious and relevant as they've always been, plus there are no lines, secondary markets, or limited bottle counts on any of them.

The point of going on that short rant was to say that even I think this article and sentiments like it sound a little too much like someone who is out of touch, someone rocking on his porch rattling on about the good old days, someone telling all the yuppies to get off his lawn. Sure, these styles don't taste all that much like beer, but I think that's fine. They're seeing a surge in popularity, bringing new people into the fold that otherwise don't like beer (this has both good and bad aspects to it), and most likely they aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

While New England style hoppy beers are still relatively new, I don't understand pretending that sweet stouts with loads of additives are anything novel at this point. Hunahpu, Abraxas, Bomb!, Vanilla BCBS, CBS, KBS, FBS, Black Damnation, most everything dark from Mikkeller and Evil Twin, Bruery stouts, and, of course, the Sultan of Sweet, Dark Lord himself, all have been around for going on a decade now.

There's no real point of getting upset about the popularity of these more accessible styles because like it or not, they appear here to stay, and while they are probably taking market share away from more classic styles, I don't foresee us losing great lagers, English ales, saisons, or West Coast IPAs anytime soon since as people tire of these pastry stouts and milkshake IPAs, they tend to move on to more nuanced and less saccharine styles. Look at the continuing resurgence of lager to see clear evidence of this.

In summary, this article just comes off as unnecessary at best and crotchety at worst.

 

Main picture in the article they're pouring medianoche reserve and the caption for the picture doesn't even identify the beer correctly. Automatically didn't read.

 

There have been so many posts like this recently. Drink what you like.

 

More interesting is that the article acknowledges a Goose Island brewer trying a Sam Adams barrel aged beer in 1994 before Goose laid claim to inventing barrel aging.....

 

There didn't used to be cupcake shops on every trendy stretch of town, or 40 flavor combos at Starbucks. People like sweets, people like flavors. I like a hoppy bruiser of a stout sometimes, and I like a sweeter one sometimes too.

Adjunct stouts are not only "what's selling", they're also "what's buzzing" and these kind of festivals brewers travel with their hottest beer. When you go to your duaghter's wedding, do you wear your nicest suit/tux, or the flannel you throw on every afternoon when you get home. Not to mention most festivals probably screen what you're brewing if not have requests, who's getting excited about the session APA you can get anywhere, the adjunct stouts are what's hot, hard to get , and gonna help sell tickets.

Article in the OP gets an F- from me.

 

In defense of the pastry stout, big beer has been making flavored malt liquors for at least 20+ years so this is nothing new...of course these were mainly enjoyed by college kids and the homeless, but hey...

 

Josh is a nice guy and a good writer. Obviously a good topic, I'm sure he's getting good clickthrough from beer folks.

Lots of folks have been promulgating Il Malocchio toward the pastry stout for some time now. If he had written this two or three years ago? Interesting, even forward looking. Now? Derivative, and as @THANAT0PSIS says, crotchety. At best. At worst, he honestly comes off as a BCBS homer who conveniently excludes their early entry into alternative flavor profiles while profiling all of the breweries who noticed the success they had and followed suit.

Coffee. Cherry. Cacao nibs. Coconut. Cinnamon. Cassia bark. And that's just through 2014.

If you hit it right, Vanilla Rye is straight-up marshmallow goodness. Is it beer? Or pastry? Is it a classic? Or ice cream topping?

"Pastry stouts"
"Hazy IPAs"
"I liked the Replacements before they went major label"
"My fantasy team is gonna win the championship"
"Oh man my flight is delayed"

---------------------------------------------->nobody cares

 

This kinda falls in the same vein as the hazy IPA rant opinion BA article that has blown up the threads lately. But craft beer is what it is today due to experimenting and breaking away from the norm. The trend will continue and it's what makes craft beer so great.