Are We Killing Beer?

Nationally (as opposed to in mature markets on the West Coast and Colorado), I'd say craft beer has been "cool" in terms of holding mainstream cachet for several years (3? 5? 7?), with that cool factor continually increasing during that period although perhaps starting to plateau. I'm not saying craft beer was frowned upon before that time, but I don't think interest in craft beer brought much social advantage, craft beer seemed much more esoteric to the general public, and those who were deeply into craft beer were more scattered though certainly still present. I don't think the sweet beers made craft beer cool, except perhaps in the Northeast, where the hype around NEIPAs has been so strong as perhaps truly to be a direct draw. Rather, I think the sweet beers are a natural industry response to a widened customer base, many of whom are drinking craft beer not because they particularly like the taste but rather because they like the social trappings around craft beer and the image it confers. That wasn't a major factor until recently.

I think interest in craft beer fundamentally is quite nerdy, and I'm certainly not bragging when I call it "cool," but I do think it's widely perceived as cool in many markets these days. I don't think guys in a hockey locker room who scoff at anything but light lagers are commonly thought of as cool in 2018, for better or for worse (I'm a hockey fan, for the record). Cultural tastes change. If you* don't think that something akin to coolness (call it hipness, trendiness, a fad, whatever) is a major factor in craft beer's substantial recent growth, you aren't paying attention.

* By which I mean the generic "you," not necessarily @FatBoyGotSwagger.

 

Your problem getting people to drink your beer with you may have something to do with getting inordinately upset at harmless conversations and/or insulting people for no real reason.

 

Uhh yeah.. haha ok.

 

The gap between what you know, and what you appear to think you know is vast enough to hold Donald Trump's ego.

Though perhaps not your own.

 

Your silly. Stop the handwringing already. I don't know where you live, there are plenty of quality small places popping up that make great stuff.

 

Maybe where you live, but here in Pittsburgh everybody's basically doing the same, boring things. There are some exceptions, of course, but, in general, all the new breweries are following the same model, with differing levels of quality.

 

I failed to read all 8 pages of this thread so maybe this has been discussed but I’m personally a big fan of what Dan Suarez has to say about beer and the brewery he chose to open. It’s rather refreshing in this day and age. Focusing on mostly sub 5% beers that you can have a few of, speaking a lot about process and quality and taking the time to brew better beer, not turning and burning every beer in 2 weeks. I know this is nothing new but for the space/culture his brewery lives in its a refreshing change of pace.

It’s nice to see the resurgence of lager and the focus on quality and process by the folks that do them well. Brewers have always wanted to drink them and they’re now more than ever talking their customers into trying and appreciating them by focusing and communicating about their process and the time and effort that goes into making them. I feel like “craft” lagers for so long have been all about how fast can we make a “clean” somewhat flavorless lager beer but now you’re seeing more and more breweries attempt the long slow traditional method that results in a softer, more aromatic, and flavorful product. The best German focused breweries have been doing this but you’re starting to see it pop up in the better breweries that maybe didn’t produce lagers in the past.

Social media and the internet have definitely changed the landscape for better or worse. For me the biggest benefit has been the increase in onsite purchasing due to breweries not having to rely on distributors and/or retailers to get their products in front of consumers. With social media and other modern marketing channels breweries can more easily communicate with their customers and tell their story in a more effective way. More on premise Sales means more margin for the brewery and a lot of times that can mean higher quality product. Whether it be through better ingredients, longer production and maturation time in the brewery, and higher quality equipment allowing the brewers to produce better more stable beer.

The barrier for entry is so low now we end up with so many breweries saying, making, and doing the exact same thing. They have no identity and are just focused on the cash grab through the latest hype style. I predict a lot of these folks won’t be around all that long. Quality always helps but when you have nothing about your brand that makes you unique then you will be passed by.

 

Almost exclusively drank his beer whilst at Mikkeller CitiField. They were a revelation.

http://www.suarezfamilybrewery.com/beer/

Anxious to see if this approach catches on.

I've been preaching this for a long time. Not that I'm hoping that breweries shutter, but less, while being more focused and unique, breweries would serve craft beer better than the current scene.

 

In defense of these many small new breweries churning out undistinguished examples of the same few trendy styles, there are intense financial pressures on most breweries. Brewery owners and brewers may get into the business for the love of beer, and they may have all sorts of creative ideas, innovative plans, and unique niches they want to carve out, but financial realities quickly upend those plans. Sure, maybe that's an argument that it was a mistake to open those breweries in the first place, but it's too late now for the ones that already took the plunge. I fully understand the temptation just to roll over and give the masses what they currently want if that's what pays the bills. There absolutely are brewery owners who set up shop licking their chops at the prospect of exploiting a naive public's infatuation with NEIPAs and flavored beers, but I suspect more of them end up reading the writing on the wall and quietly resign themselves to pivot toward sorts of beers that they never wanted to make and don't particularly care for or respect. I've seen multiple very good (or at least formerly very good) breweries in my area follow this path, some of them helmed by owners and brewers who I know from direct conversations disdain these trends and are embarrassed to be a part of them.

I know what I'm about to say will rub the usual suspects the wrong way, but I put the blame more on the underdeveloped palates of consumers than on the producers who aim to please them. That's why it's valuable for those of us who aren't caught up in these fads to inform and educate our fellow consumers that they could be doing a lot better, especially given that the echo chamber of Untappd and other social media (including, unfortunately, BeerAdvocate all too often) is misguidedly convincing them that what they currently enjoy represents the pinnacle of achievement in millennia of brewing history. "Drink what you like," as the cliche around here goes, but, at the same time, I encourage you to learn to like better beer. I think that's what "beer advocacy" is all about.

 

You mean brewers don't go into business only to showcase their craftsmanship and to give their friends and families a place to go and drink???

 

The terrible bit about this is that most of these people don't care if there is other beer out there and definitely don't want to learn about it or about beer in general. They already think that they know everything that there is to know about beer. It's sad, really.

 

I’m not sure that disliking NEIPAs is as intrinsically linked to having a fine-tuned, discerning palate as you seem to think. Plenty, in fact I would say most, of the NEIPAs out there now do not utilize any lactose or sweetening agents. This just feels like the same tired arguments from beer snobs 10 years ago who didn’t like all the over-hopped crap (west coast IPAs) that eventually became a respected, essential style to the American craft beer identity.

 

I can see what you don't like, but I'm also confused. There are definitely more NEIPA's, kettle sours and pastry stouts than ever before, but there are also more traditional (if that's even the right word) styles as well.

Of the breweries you list, Surly is by far the oldest and opened in 2006. The others I believe opened in '14, '15, '16 and '17, so it's not like they've even been around forever mastering the methods of the monks and most have always produced Americanized versions of traditional styles.

In going to these breweries and also looking at current tap lists, they all seem to have one thing in common - a lot more beer on tap. Surly currently has 26. While some are kettle sours, they also have a plethora of more traditional styles (which is something others even complain about). It sucked to see Bitter Brewer go away, but what else has been removed, Cynic?

I know the brewer at Fair State isn't a fan of NEIPA's and still brews Mirror Universe (which is more bitter than most) because it sells. However, he still has a lot of beer in his lineup that should more than satisfy you.

Most breweries around here still have a lot of non adjunct juice/candy styles. I mean, what about Town Hall, Utepils, Summit, and Schell's. Yes, a lot of/most breweries offer new styles that aren't suited to your tastes, but they also offer way more classic styles to choose from than there was 10 plus years ago. So what's the complaint? Even if half of the beers out there are styles you don't like, isn't a win if you can choose from 200 ones you do like vs the 10 that were available in 2004?

 

Unless they're labeled "milkshake" they probably don't.

You know what? There were "bad" WCIPAs being made then. Overly bitter, overly crystal malted messes with very little hop flavor or aroma. The style, just like NEIPA, isn't bad, but there are plenty of versions of it that are.

 

In my opinion it would be hard to get someone to learn to like 'better' beer. Who is defining better beer is? I am an advocate for trying many different styles and when doing so trying beers that are considered true to the style and where possible, beers that are considered world class for that style. But at the end of the day, drink what you like.

 

Glad to hear. Now if you would just illustrate that in your posts it would be more clear how and what I am wrong about.

 

The ultimate authority: Me, obviously.

In seriousness, I actually think "drink what you like" is misguided. It's fine but reductive advice for people who aren't hobbyists, but, for craft beer enthusiasts (aficionados, connoisseurs, smug assholes, whatever you want to call them), the better advice is to "drink what you don't like." Challenge your palate. Try a bunch of different things, from quintessential examples of both the most popular and most obscure styles to undefinably strange beers; from the latest, trendiest fare to the most unfashionable styles that many hope will be lost to time; from the "best breweries in the world" to unheralded spots that may prove themselves hidden gems or, more likely, deserve their obscurity. "It's a magical world, Hobbes, ol' buddy... Let's go exploring!" See if you can figure out what other people get out of certain beer that you don't. That doesn't mean that you have to come around to liking the beer, although inevitably sometimes you will. Open your mind, but don't sacrifice your critical thinking. I've taken my own advice and tried quite a few NEIPAs, and look at what a happy, satisfied man it's made me!

 

And herein lies the problem with many self-proclaimed craft beer experts. They only know a lot about a handful of types of beer, because those are the ones that are popular right now. You can only figure out what better beer is by drinking as many types of beer as you can. I don't necessarily subscribe to the philosophy of "drink what you don't like", but rather "drink what you haven't been drinking", which I think is the philosophy that is being espoused because drinking what you know that you don't like will probably not make you like it any better. In other words, if you're a blind man you can't describe the elephant if you only touch its trunk.

 

Right. I didn't mean it literally. Try the less catchy, "Drink what you don't know whether you like."

 

Oh, I 100% agree with you. I’m not trying to say that every brewery is just killing it with NEIPAs, or that most of them are even good. I think Islay is clearly arguing that the NEIPA style itself is not good and not good for beer in general. Good examples of the style may not have the bitterness of a WCIPA, but they’re not sweet. Certainly not in a way in which they should be compared to a milkshake IPA. Appearance is the only real comparison I see between the two.