Where Is Craft Beer Headed Now?

Those stupid man buns (i.e. soy boy buns) have kinda died out finally...wondering when the neckbeards will change to some new hipster style thing and what it will be? Anyone 20 somethings out there got a better pulse on that than this old guy?

 

those who saw it as truly revolutionary and unique will be disillusioned (and maybe abandon the "movement"), and those who saw it as reviving best practices and time-honored traditions will (hopefully) be rewarded as brewers truly get better and better at their craft.

 

A fork in the road. Sell your beer or sell your brewing tanks. Or sell your brewery only 25% though.

 

Youngish for my areas true craft explosion. An OG if you will. Im sort of done with the overpriced guinea pig beers. I hope there's a crowd ready to fill my shoes. I'm package beer buying more than ever before. Rewarding breweries like Anderson valley, new Belgium, stone etc for their solid seasonals is very rewarding. A few locals are doing mobile canning and I reward them too. Random ass $6-$7 pint pours of just solid brews for NM is not sustainable.

Seasonal aisle is 90% of my buys anymore.

I know the organic, local, super fresh vibe is still growing so I don't see a true decrease for another 2-3 years. I feel a few OGs are reeling back. Not sure what their (our) impact will be as time goes by.

Sadly I feel we need a few places to fail to get everything back into balance.

 

I think IPAs have long been, and will remain, the "craft" analog to macro light lagers. But they will never replace them as the world's preferred beer.

 

Great thread. But this statement could be further from the truth, IMO. Veery few here will have a more informed opinion.

 

I sure hope one direction it's going in is to brew something besides those effin' hazy-juicy-NEIPAs!

I'm a malty IPA kinda guy. Beers like Alesmith Double Red, Lagunitas WTF, Great Lakes Nosferatu...and it's almost impossible to find any these days unless they're seasonals that show up only occasionally.

I was in Georgia recently, and since I'm not familiar with the breweries there, I bought an armload of singles to sample. Every IPA was an effin' hazy-juicy!

I mean, oh the humanity! Can't brewers go back to creating a variety of IPAs? Think of the children!

 

I was actually thinking something along these lines, but didn't know how to put it.
Pale Ale got me into craft, micro brew at the time. SN Pale Ale, Geary's and Gritty McDuff were my first introductions. It certainly replaced AAL for me. I've found over the years that I no longer have the taste for lagers, craft or otherwise that I did before. To me now, they are sweet, almost like those nasty orange marshmallow peanuts (I don't know if they even make them anymore). In my opinion, I think twenty years ago Pale Ale was the transition that left AAL lagers behind. In 2019, it seems like most new beer drinkers are starting on NEIPAS or IPAs and skipping both the AAL and Pale Ale as their introduction to craft. I think this is a detriment to their understanding and appreciation of beer, and their palete

 

IPA or PA is just too far for some to go in the transition. They will almost certainly continue to gain share on AAL (they have miles to go), but I see more flavorful lagers like Vienna and Pilsners as a more natural stopping off point for the masses, if they were to go anywhere. You can see the bigger players in American craft moving in this direction too, in spite of what BA might think about IPAs in local breweries.

 

I feel like the second quote is more revealing than the first quote. There will always be something to rebel against if one wants to find it. We've already seen a shift away from rebelling against macro American lager to rebelling against macro owned "craft." "Independent" now has more cachet than "all-malt." Down the road, consumers might rebel against beer variety cluttering up supermarket shelves. Craft vs craft. Or beer altogether.

The second quote is perhaps more of a moment in time though, and it is perhaps a better reflection of the real raison d'etre of this beer culture than the first quote. How will things change when the days of people looking to European beer culture for an eye-opening experience becomes completely replaced by people coming of drinking age at a time with hundreds of choices in the stores all around them? People's relationships to this beverage will certainly change as a result. I have no guesses as to how though. How will people’s relationship to homebrewing change as a result of the difference of what’s on the shelves... and then how will that wind up altering the professional beer space in time? European tradition and American homebrewing was a big part of the foundation of where we're at today.

We've already transitioned far from the once common story of Americans having cask beer while working or being stationed in London and being blown away by it in contrast with macro American lager. That narrative was replaced by "I'm going to London on a business trip... where can I buy Cantillon while there?" And that now seems to have been replaced by "There are some good NEIPAs coming out of London."

The days of a profile of Sam Calagione in the New Yorker making significant cultural waves are long gone. People still reference that 2008 article today, but I doubt any of today's literature or media will have the legs to be referenced in a decade to come. Instead, plenty of people can now go to their supermarket to buy a Sam Calagione “sour beer” developed with a person from Gatorade, inspired by margaritas, that's a "mash-up of a crisp Kolsch, a salty Gose, and a tart Berliner Weiss [sic] brewed in sequence with black limes, sour lime juice and sea salt." Will this inspire homebrew or curtail its need?

 

Had my first sip beer at age 5 in the early 60s. German and Irish family. Growing up in the 60s and 70s outside Baltimore, we always had the local keg of Gunther, Carling Black Label or Natty Boh at our crab feasts. Pabst came later after the locals left. As a kid and then becoming a man, I was use to the adjunct beer and did not know about other beers. As I began college and visited some local restaurants/bars/German beer halls, I discovered other beers from Germany and England. Dinkelacker, Dortmunder Union etc. Also liked Bass Ale. My first Guinness Stout tasted like licking the bottom of an ash tray. But, after several more, I began to appreciate it. The explosion of craft beer with microbreweries changed everything. This "movement" opened up a world of new tastes and possibilities! These new brewers were like the new restaurateurs who wanted to make the best hamburger ever after big food took over the fast food industry.

Whatever you call it . . . please oh please pray for it to continue. I know that I recently said that I am more of a traditionalist, but we need innovation and need to ensure that beer does not turn into McDonald's hamburgers, like it was awhile ago in the US.

 

At some point, I think a lot of local breweries that rely on taproom sales will need to offer their “house” beers for like $3-$4 a pint to help keep the local patrons coming in on the regular. Paying $7-$8 a pint for the amber or 5% Irish dry stout at some point will run out of steam along with the $10 crowlers. Just doesn’t seem sustainable for average local brews.

 

If anything, I think the two will merge in a complementary manner with cannabis being integrated into beers, subject to legalization of course. Supposedly hops and cannabis have a close botanical relationship.

 

Cannabaceae.

 

Craft has been riding this 15 year wave that appears to be cresting. I am certain it well flourish on the ebb--transformed from the dark ages of 30 yrs ago.

Just curious what "movement" takes over folks spare time.

 

Where do we go from here?

I have no idea. But cavedave's question is probably the most thought-provoking, well-stated post I've seen on this site. And it strongly resonates with me, as craft beer, marijuana. the Grateful Dead, and biking are four of my favorite things in the world.

If pressed for an answer, I would say: In general, we just need to fasten our seatbelts, appreciate how many options we have (There was a time when SNPA and Pete's Wicked Ale were the only domestic craft readily available to me), and see what happens. But unless the craft industry crashes and burns, I'm pretty sure I'll be content and have no complaints other than pricing.

 

Great topic and good discussion points. But my buzz is fading.

I guess I’m just going to continue monkeying with my home brew and drinking great locals.

 

I think maybe you're being too optimistic.

Most people won't increase their recreational/discretionary spending just because another option becomes legal.