Best Craft Beer Trends in 2018

Someone please tell Florida Man

 

I would say the options we all have and the ability for most to now get good beer. Was not too long ago most folks had a hard time getting awesome stuff. Today it seems like most, with a small amount of effort, can score killer beers to enjoy, so that is pretty awesome in my book.
Cheers

 

So, what biases are you trying to hide???

 

Well I'm not happy about most any trend in craft beer.

I am happy that I now have a few breweries within 3 miles of my house but I only think the beers at one of them are really any good.

I do like that there are more Pilsners from local breweries but all but one that gets to my area are all crap.

 

I would not necessarily ascribe what I about to state as specifically being a 2018 phenomenon:

It never ceases to amaze and please me with the wealth of choices I have for purchasing beer. Whether it is drinking beer from newly opened small, local breweries to the choices I have at me local retailers. I do wish that there was not so much old product on my local beer retailers’ shelves but there is still enough product that is not too old for me to purchase; lately I have been concentrating on purchasing newly released (e.g., seasonal) beers. Plus the beers that I purchase directly at my plethora of small, local breweries are always fresh.

Cheers!

 

I would say once hyped and/or limited beers now being "shelf turds." Walking into a store and finding a shelf full of Abraxas, Darkness, CBS, Sucaba, whatever beer ain't a bad thing.

 

"Yeah, but...but they don't taste as good now as they use to. Rarity was my favorite flavor."

Not really a trend, but I love that we have an access to so much amazing beer these days.

 

As long as they keep making them !!

 

The increasing acceptance of lagers.

 

I'll go with the availability of a wide variety of beers and beer styles no matter where you are in the country. With very few exceptions, you can get a passable to good example of nearly every style you can think of in most of the country. That includes trendy styles like hazy IPA's and pastry stouts. I'm not saying that you're going to get Hill Farmstead and New Glarus-level stuff in rural Kansas, but you do likely have OK to decent options. That's a good thing.

I suppose improved quality can also piggyback on that. For a few years I felt like there was a LOT of flawed beer being served out there. Not just stuff I didn't like, but straight up technically poor beers. There is still some, but I'm encountering far, far less of it. That's also a good thing.

 

The rapid growth of some of my favorite South Jersey brewers like @CapeMayBrewCo , Hidden Sands Brewing, Carton and Kane. I just recently left this area, but I know it's gonna brew some incredible beer and always bring me back!

 

Bought Abraxas on the first two occasions I've seen it this year, and passed on the third - today. I can recall having to ask them to pull it from the back of the store. Crazy. I love it.

 

I've noticed a few more odd styles on a local tap list. I'm not sure that it's a trend, but they have poured a kvass and a sahati both within the past couple months. I keep a close eye on their tap list not for their IPAs, but for their low-production beer styles. I like seeing more of that.

 

Choice/variety... you used to have to hunt to get new stuff, now there's (almost) too much.

 

Affordable brett beers- keep 'em coming!

 

Definitely. It's nice not to have to go out of your way to get some of these beers any more.

Although, if you know someplace around Chicago that has Abraxas sitting on the shelves, please let me know. Every place I've looked for it, they kept it in the back, had a limit of 1pp, and they sold out in a day.

 

I came to here to basically write these exact words. Not that I needed it, I love a great lager, but the craft community seems to be embracing the idea not every beer needs to be a “juice bomb” or be derided because “ew, I tasted malt,” or have 0 IBUs.

 

Binnys on Irving Park had it on the shelf last weekend.

 

A positive note from our side of the pond is that people here finally seem to be starting to get hip to the idea that what happens to their keg and smallpack beer between the brewery and the glass is something they should care about and starting to take an interest in things like coldchain distribution and decent keg dispense.