End of 2nd wave?

I'm going to have to say I agree. Granted, there's a certain element of reluctance there. But, I agree.

I've had some absolutely outstanding brews lately that seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Though, they were only found after a seemingly endless trek through the grotesque badlands of beerdom. There's a whole lot of sub par nonsense collecting dust on store shelves this nation over. The sad part is that there's little insulation from these horrors.

However, in retrospect, I just tell myself that it's all about the journey and not about the destination.

 

I have not experienced this at all. Its pretty rare that I encounter a genuinely bad packaged.beer, and its usually the result of.me being a pretty terrible beer consumer.
Last time it happened was buying a mixed 6 to go from a bar.at closing time. Got to enjoy a few sips of 9 month old alpha king, it was sub optimal.
Other than that there have been some duds when stopping into random breweries and some misses when trying openly experimental brews. But day to day I find it exceedingly easy to keepna steady stream of good to great beers in my mug

 

There has never been a time where I see so much out-of-code beer on the shelf and in the cooler ... Many stores in the Boston area are loaded with hazy beers that have been sitting there for more than a few months.

 

Isn't Hopslam a 6 pack?

But yes - there are plenty too many $19 four packs.

 

At least 50% of it is the same hazy liquid, you really really hope that brewery has a centrifuge. Aside from that its the same beer with a variation of hops ... boring is being generous, only a few really shine out of hundreds. The industry has abandoned classic styles and the lack of education will permanently hurt this industry for years to come. Then in comes the seltzers, many brewers don't want to do it, others have embraced it and have a false pride for producing a product that breweries from 20 years ago fought against.

On the flip side, its a great time to be a consumer when it comes to being able to hit up a taproom and the social side of it. People that normally would not go to a bar during the week have no problem swinging by a taproom for a couple of pints.

 

Confirming that Hopslam is a 6-pack of 12-oz cans. I have not seen it in any other format except for the mini kegs.

 

Thank you. I would've been shocked if Hopslam was in 4 packs now, but I also haven't been out looking for it. Sad thing is there are $19 4 packs of other beers....

@zid

Cheers!

 

It's just a misunderstanding. I wasn't correcting you. Just making a joke by pretending to continue your sentence: "At $19 a 6 pack, it just isn't justifiable for me anymore considering what else is on the market now... $19 four packs."

This next part isn't aimed at you at all, but I'll use this opportunity to mention something since @JackHorzempa asked me about it in another thread a while ago and I didn't get a chance to respond to the good man. When compared to more expensive beers in less consumer friendly packaging, beers like Hopslam get lots of complaints about price due to it's consumer friendly packaging. Beer shoppers tend to compare like-to-like when determining if something is priced accordingly. We do it with ingredients, style, ABV, brewery size, etc... but we also do it with packaging by comparing 6 packs to 6 packs, 4 packs to 4 packs, and bombers to bombers. We all do it. Brewers know this and tend to react accordingly. I give (a certain amount of) credit to brewers who stick to 6 packs of 12 oz beers despite knowing that there will be a backlash if the price goes over a certain threshold (even from people who spend more money per oz on other beers).

 

I personally give a lot of credit to breweries who package in the 'standard' six-pack/12 ounce format.

While some (most?) beer geeks get excited about the four-pack/16 ounce format I am the opposite. I view this as the brewery using this as an opportunity to practice inflated pricing (which I am not a fan of).

Cheers!

 

Ooh, I understand now. I partially thought it was a joke and then immediately worried Bell's had switched up the format.

I agree on the rest of your sentiments. This is why I value the price per ounce number. It may not give the complete picture for what a beer costs, but allows comparison between formats. At $19 for a pack of 6x12oz cans, that's more beer than a $19 4x16oz pack. In fact, the Hopslam is a better deal at $19 a pack ($0.26/oz) vs. an $18 4x16oz pack ($0.28/oz). Of course, this is just based on the 'deal' being the lower price per ounce option.

I may not purchase Hopslam anymore, but I do value Bell's use of the 6x12oz format. It's an integrity move. Not to say integrity keeps businesses open, but I at least respect it.

 

Time to name names.
The unconscionable and dangerous thing that a brewery like 450 North is doing with their trashing of styles, and also being dangerously stupid with refermentation causing exploding cans and the strange inability to understand abv in conjunction with fruit additions.
Yet. They. Sell.