Hazed and Confused

I stand there for 30 minutes, then the wife will text me and ask where are you?

 

Lol. I’ll hear the sigh from 2 isles over

 

Agree, I get the embarrassing times up lets go.And you just to yourself of course STFU

 

Luckily at TW you can but singles, check the dates and then mix and match.

 

You're right about that. Surprisingly, I can find a few options at that price point in PA. Nothing amazing, but some very good beers. Rusty Rail's 4 pack of cans are around $10 at my favorite beer store.

 

I spent 20 min in the beer store the other day. Too many NEIPAs to count from locals/regionals now on top of many of the national players in the game. It still seems to me however whenever I try them, frequently they are 2nd/3rd tier...ok to drink but feeling like I wasted my money none the less (whether $5-$6 a can or $15+ a 4pack). More and more it seems weird that the upper sanctum of NEIPA makers (the usual suspects from last 3 years or so) seem to still be making the best ones. Whenever I get something on rare occassions from them its a moment of "ok, now this is what a NEIPA is supposed to be like"..after spending months sampling through the local fare. And I'll read online about buzz about new brewery so & so is making great NEIPAs. Then when I go to try them....2nd/3rd tier, and false hype nearly every time.

So back to my beer store visit...I walked out with a 4 pack/16oz cans of German Swartzbier by Kostritzer....paid $6.99 and quite happy with the price, quality and quantity combo.

 

I am guessing that you do not think it is weird that the breweries that 'nailed' the 'NEIPA' style three years ago are still producing high quality 'NEIPA' beers but that breweries 'new to the game' haven't gotten to that level?

I am fortunate that a number of new small, local breweries near me are able to produce high quality 'NEIPA' type beers: Levante, 2SP, Sterling Pig, Workhorse,... Perhaps they know they need to do well here in order to compete with Tired Hands?

Cheers!

 

Best hoppy beer they make not even close.

 

I always have my "smartphone" and check the reviews on beeradvocate.com and other sources while shopping at a beer store.

 

Good strategy, my beer store is in a low lying area with a metal roof. My phone cannot connect to anything in there.

 

The only good strategy for Total Wine is to talk to the buyer person to figure out what's the main day/time the regional distributor comes in to stock the few solid brands of hazies amongst all the other crap. Show up then. If you wait a day or two or any other day in the week, the place is a wasteland with incredibly overprice horrible hazies everywhere.

 

Yes that was exactly the point that I was trying to convay, but you worded it much better (glad I didn't pursue a language arts major). Will have to check some of those out.

 

You bring up a valid point & example of where the craft beer market/industry has taken downward turn.

One of the biggest complaints that I hear from the consumer is how there are too many options. The 2nd complaint is the pricing. How can the average or even new beer enthusiast decide or trust which new beer to try? Is shelling out $18 for a 4pk worth the experience if the beer isn't up to their likings? Especially when there are so many long lasting names that are proven to be good year after year.

This is my take which is a double edged sword (admittedly). If you can buy a single bottle or can of a new beer without paying a lot extra, go for it. If you want to experiment with new styles, go with the least expensive & work your way up. Now, is it worth the money? Yes & no. You will find that there are a lot of beers out there that are either vastly different or exactly the same. That being said, you won't know until you try them. So on one hand, they're worth trying because you'll get a better understanding of the style but you'll also learn what you like & dislike. You'll learn that sometimes the money is well spent & other times you should've just set your hard earned cash a blaze.

The consumer market has now split into 3 types of general consumers.
1, the beer nerd. This consists of people who will only buy what's new. They don't care if it's any good. All they care about is if it's new & can they check it in on Untappd.
2, the traditionalist. These are the people that the beer industry thrives on because they will always buy what they know & love.
3, the hoarder. I constantly hear & see people who buy a beer with the idea that they can cellar it. Hell, I over heard a guy who was bragging that he had a 2 year old pipeworks IPA in his fridge. I also hear people talk about how a beer will be amazing in a few years without even trying it fresh.

Now back to the industry side of things. The industry has grown beyond it's means. There are too many breweries that are all trying to capitalize on growing trends. Such as an IPA with cereal. Several breweries have been doing this for the last couple of years without too much recognition. Then one brewery catches some wind on the news & here we are with multiple breweries hoping to catch the same traction. The point that I'm getting to is that a lot of breweries try to flood the market in hopes of success with new names of beers rather then good beer. This leads to confusion & at times even frustration amongst the consumer.

I apologise for the long winded response so I'll leave my comment with this last thought. Is this industry a balloon that's ready to pop? I believe it is. With so many breweries distributing to shelves, beer going out of code & the confusion for consumers. We are facing a time when either we'll see an increase is brewery closures or a situation to where more breweries might tighten up where they send their beer in hopes of increased sales along with less beer sitting on shelves. This could be a good & bad thing. The good, less options at bottle shops will help the consumer to decide on what they want to purchase. The bad, less exposure for nano/micro breweries. This could also open a rabbit hole as to how this will effect retail store vs breweries who only release at their brewpubs but I'll leave that for another day.

Cheers!

 

Pick 3-4 breweries that you know are reliable when it comes to hazy IPAs. Ignore the rest.

For me - heavy on Finback/Singlecut/Foundation singles. Second Fiddle is my go-to if all else fails.

 

Permit me to suggest a different perspective here via the term of "transform".

Maybe what we will see over the next few years is a transformation with more beer consumers purchasing beers from new small, local breweries vs. from the larger, distributing breweries? By purchasing locally produced beer (e.g., directly from the small, local breweries tasting room) the consumer is able to buy fresher product and simultaneously support a 'hometown' business.

No 'popping' of the craft beer balloon overall but perhaps some of the larger, distributing breweries may get affected.

Cheers!

@Beer_Stan

 

What you are stating is where I think the craft beer state of the union was maybe 2 years ago. Currently the problem that I'm seeing is that the new/local small brewers are now sticking their NEIPAs in stores and no longer relying on the taproom only buying as their business model. So now (i.e. last 6 months give or take), my town has about 10 breweries in it give or take competing for business. In the stores I'm seeing a few of these putting their beers in store shelves (lets go with 5 locals putting their stuff in stores). Then I'm seeing perhaps 15-20 NEIPAs on store shelves from other Maryland a few VA and PA brewers on shelf stores. Now lets also throw in the old guard regional and national breweries (Stone, SN, FW, New Belguim, Victory, Troegs, DFH, etc etc) making hazy/NEIPAs now and in my local stores (would guess at least 15+ as well from them). So just trying to add that up...looking at 30-40 different NEIPAs to choose from any given week on a store visit., and many of these rotate/replace as well. And we thought 5 years ago that old FW Union Jack and BP Sculpin competing with 10 other IPA makers in stores was as an issue with IPA freshness...and the issue with FW was that it was only $1-$2 more a sixer than others? Now where do we go with this current mess of $15-$20 4 packs?

My best guess is that many of the small locals that thought/needed to expand into retail market will have to contract back to taproom only sales where things were 2 years ago. If that isn't paying the bills, then we'll start to see some closures or owners have to drastically changing their business model to something else or shift to making different styles of beer. I think we truly are on the verge of just too much supply and not enough demand.

 

Yeah, they may indeed need to 'pull back' from also selling in stores. As long as folks are willing to buy their beer on premise that is still a viable business opportunity plus they realize greater profit on a per unit basis. If a small, local brewery can not stay in business selling 4-packs at 15-20 bucks then they have a really screwed up business plan.

I can report that the Tired Hands brewery is not only doing just fine today they are growing with a new location opening soon in Philadelphia.

Cheers!