Has anyone else completely stopped reading cans/bottles that they don't recognize?

Think I've been moving In the same direction as the OP this year. Walking past rows of jazzy arted cans to look at the breweries I know and trust. The exception is the monthly Tavour shipment, but there I get a full description of each beer.

Can't seem to get Maine Dinner in this part of PA either. Sadness.

 

Could it get any simpler? Even the Blind Pig is very basic.

 

To finish my story, I bought the limit of six each and spent a week hiking Yosemite drinking Russian River. I miss normalcy.

 

Nice, I would have sent my wife back in to do the same.

 

Shame on them if they weren’t refrigerated though.
Also, many liquor stores and bottle shops have their inventory online now. This means you can look ahead of time, with easily legible information, and even sort by style category.
OP, you’re working too hard.

 

I started drinking beer in the 70s, and then I started looking for flavor. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Going to dinner or a bar meant Coors or Bud. We did dig up Anchor, Ballantine Ale, Steg Porter, McSorleys, Andeker, Augsburger. In the 90s micros concentrated on great trad styles that I like. Beer heaven. Now, in my old age, we have infinite choices of cloudy IPAs, strong brews. Not a good selection of traditional styles anymore. I'm almost back where I started. But I do value the Robert Johnson commemorative bottle that my kids bought me.

 

Be glad to send you a few, especially when Mectoberfest hits.

 

Yup, count me in.

Stop putting art on your can and make it easy to tell what brewery and what type of beer. I don't have time to spin cans and read fine print or guess.

And in that vain, if you make new beer every week in a new can design then I do not have need for your beer

 

Be glad you don’t get Commonwealth from VA.

Yep, welcome.

Actually there’s two parts from your post and people have commented on both:

Labels that aren’t distinctive or obviously informative, and...
regardless, the beer within is likely one of three to five “styles”

Now I’m still into digging into some of the new, but it is annoying to have to put on the bifocals to see who the f*%# made the beer and/or it’s style. But my version of your post is that I’ve started carefully (dates) buying more from the box store/grocery and less from my “hip” bottle shop that gets all the new things.

 

It depends. If I forget to bring my readers with me, I can pretty much count on making a day of it.

 

I usually enjoy Sixpoint and saw a new beer that I hadn’t tried From them before at one of my local shops today - it was a Sour IPA. Hells no! Pass!

 

Nah, once I filter out all the 16 oz cans and all the acid-trip art there's not much new stuff to look at.

 

Collective Arts was the first one to make my eyes glaze over, then usually ignore them, due to their very busy can art.

Today I bought their Guava Gose (quite good!) , because, unlike most of their beers, the name of the beer is clear on the label. I bought it because I'd never had anything from Sentrock before, & was curious to see if they make good beer. It wasn't until I got home, & looked more closely, that I realized it was by Collective Arts. Guessing Sentrock is the can manufacturer.

 

I have to to take the pic & then stretch it out & this with x2 readers on, jeez

 

I want to pick up a can/bottle and know the style, ABV and brewery. If I need to decipher a label I just move on.


Enjoy

 

First, drink what you like.

Second, I still really like browsing. I enjoy looking at the art, different beers, new styles, new breweries etc. Even if reading the details of a can makes me go WTF!?!?!

I just find it a bit relaxing. A 10 minute-ish timeout in my week.

Now, I agree picking up cans of styles you just don't like (God help you now if you don't like hazy/NE IPAs or sours) is frustrating. My favorite beer stores are the ones that have the beers divided up by style not brewer. Certainly saves you some grief.

 

I do a lot of spinning pint cans around in their plastic ring holders. My local shop recently switched to making many more of their craft beers available as singles (pull them out of their rings as desired), along with expanding their variety. I like that a lot better, rather than having to risk buying 4 pints of an unknown. Talking about can designs, I bought a single can of Omnipollo Zodiak Multiverse which seemed to have a glossy black background with white psychedelic design. I read the full label before picking it out. It did kind of blow my mind later when I was about to get rid of the empty can and realized the white design was actually glow in the dark! No indication about that on the label. Unfortunately, I think the beer itself was a few months past its prime.

 

Phones? I thought those were pocket calculators and they were trying to figure out the "per egg" price on a dozen vs an 18-pack because the shelf tag was missing!