tonight I purchased and drank a victory storm king which was the best beer available at my local bottle shop. Excellent, silky smooth mouth feel, nice oatmeal/roasty and a complex floral hop profile floating above everything. so does anyone else feel that the actual availability of good beers is less now than it ever was? pineapple goses, bad new england ipas (with the exception of the Hop Nation Star Wars one which was really good) and generally pointless and poor quality sours seem to be everywhere it's harder than ever to find a good ipa, barleywine or imperial stout. Did craft beer just disappear up its own ass? Nowadays I'm more enjoying wine (a nice Sancerre a la Hannibal Lecter) and whiskey (a 35 year old sherried aultmore) Been thinking of making this thread for a while so it's not exactly a drunken spontaneity thing.
I think there is a big change happening but I don’t know if it’s all bad. I live regionally so nearly all the beer I drink is required to be mailed or when I get a chance to get to Melbourne for work. I think if anything there is a lot more stuff around, it’s just seeking it out as with any influx there will probably be as much shite as there is terrific offerings. With Good Beer Week, GABS and smaller venues stocking more craft beer it can only be a good thing.
I wouldn't agree too much, In that,I can still get a 6er of PL IPA at my local and that's better than the last 15 years ive been chasing good beers but I do wonder who the hell buys all these bloody berline weisse and gose,, there were 8 diff ones at my local the other day, I mean, do people actually drink a 4 pack of that stuff, or share a single can among their 6 bearded buddies? I imagine these low abv sour beers are cheap to make and when retailing at 8 bucks a can, someone's doing alright (if the sell) Hop nation Jedi juice was great, even if their brewery stinks of lobsters
My complaint would be the concentration on a few styles. Everything Ive seen on tap and in bottle shops in the last year or two (ok, maybe not all, but up around 75%) is some variation of IPA or sour. Walk into a pub with 10 taps and Im surprised if more than one is dark. And I think thats contributing to what youre saying. All the focus is taken up by making the next new version of those styles so no one is worried about an average anything else. Thats my two cents on the subject anyway...
There is just more beer available. More good beer, more ok beer, more bad beer. I went to a inner city chain pub that had 2 good IPA's on tap today along side 4 pale ales, a pilsner. 5 - 10 years ago that would've made the place a beer bar, now its just most pubs in inner melbourne. Maybe it's you that has changed. Any beer bar worth it's salt should have at least one dark beer on tap always.
@ smithflipper has called it, there's just more beer available than ever before in history. You have to break a few eggs to make an omelette, so you take what you get for now and see how it is: good, mediochre, or bad - but you're right that there's a lot of bad out there now that wasn't there before (there's always been some). We're in a growth phase that's probably a bit overgrown but it will eventually shrink back, at least for larger breweries that are distributing (smaller hometown breweries will probably be unaffected until people just get tired of them). That will be a fight to see! There are already several big breweries ratcheting back a little bit, is that the new way to go? Sam Adam's '76 and Victory Homegrown lager I'm talking about you! Anyway, I hope our beer historians are taking lots of notes
I drank 3 different (and all good) Founders beers tonight and a Last Rites New England IPA which was surprisingly awesome so I'm feeling a little better now
but I have to reiterate that I am so damn sick of sours I simply don't buy them anymore. My fridge and "cellar" is so full of undrunk sours and most of the ones that aren't driefer or loons are destined for the bin eventually
There is definitely beer from a few breweries that I have no interest in purchasing. Nothing puts me off more than a beer having a couple of fruit/spice additions and also kettle soured. I do not want to name names, but there are also a couple breweries in Victoria that are price hiking on top of hype. $10 for a 500ml of table beer is ridiculous.
Depends on your shop and the beer buyer. I do see in Sydney a lot of the same stuff. Have to remember Sydney is a little fad oriented and will feature anything from Inner West Breweries. Good bad or indifferent. Are there a lot of kettle soured crap in the market? Yes. Too many NEIPA's?? Yep Too many Bad IPA's? Yep Stouts in Sydney?? LOL All being said there is a lot more good beer in Sydney than 5 years ago. There is a lot more bad beer being jammed down peoples throats though
I'm so happy I got out of the beer 'game' when I did; Whisk(e)y Heartwood (shut the fuck up you idiot)/good Bourbon/good Scotch is just on a whole other level, both in value and quality (okay, there's still some gems like '11 Golden Blend, Loons, and a few big sneaky Stouts). I go in to somewhere like Plonk, and it's almost all saisons, weird fuckn' "light" sours, a thousand awful IPAs or similar, and low ABV watery stouts. All overpriced. There's also the obligatory "Limited Run" from X or Y brewery for $40-$60. Dan's is essentially all you need in Canberra, if you really want something worthwhile just grab it online and BAM. It's all flooded, I can't even begin to imagine someone attempting to get in to the ''craft" scene right now. What a turn off.
Completely agree on the beer scene but I am a jaded hipster. Also pm'ing you regarding the other stuff in your post.
