What is your biggest problem as a craft beer lover?

Price and calories

 

I'm a fan of rating and reviewing new beers so for me it makes sense to buy singles. I usually do the Create-Your-Own-Six-Pack and then mix and match with new beers. The frustration for me is either a beer too expensive for the six pack (often NEIPAS) or the difficulty with novelty and distribution. Sometimes hard to find new beers, and even more often the beer on the shelf isn't fresh. Matters a lot when we're talking IPAs.
The ideal setting for me would be a business that sold a wide distribution of craft beer to-go in singles. Wide distribution that also maintains fresh beer. Let's hope for the future.

 

Too many beers on the IPA/SOUR/PASTRY spectrum.

Too many new jack breweries who are just following trends.

Not enough available Belgian/English/German ales

 

Too many beers show up and before I know it, they are past the best before date or their packaged date is way too long ago. Better than no date at all, I reckon, unless it's a new drop from a brewery that just showed up in town.

Also, craft beers that show up from breweries that I don't care for. Looking at you DBC and others.

 

Too much stuff in my cellar and refrigerator that I'll never get to.

 

Not a damned thing. There is more variety of styles and breweries available to me than there ever has been, several good breweries in easy driving distance, and several world class breweries I have to burn some gas and time to reach. As they say, life is good.

Not a particularly constructive contribution to the original topic, but I really can't complain.

 

No complaints other than my weak willpower to cut back a bit. Cheers...

 

1. Old beer on shelves.
2. No package dates.
3. Regional brewery finally starts distributing to my state but the beer isn’t as good as it used to be. Looking at you Surly, Cigar City and 3 Floyd’s.
4. Too many breweries making Same Beer Different Label. This seems fine for your inside draft handles but keep your packaged brews relatively consistent. I’m not spending $20/4-pack to find out it wasnt as good as the last one.
5. I’ve put this last because I appreciate all the great beer that I do have access to but the time, effort, and money required to try some of the great ones I’d like to try is just beyond what I’m willing/able to invest most of the time.

 

I don’t keep track of how much I spend monthly on beer, but I think if I did I'd probably scream.

 

The emerging presence of Venture Capital

 

Should be a law.

 

My biggest problem was people not realizing my tastes in beer were exactly correct. Solving this also would have solved my second biggest problem, breweries not brewing only beers that I like.

 

In addition to the problems already indicated by many and of which I definitely find common traits with my personal situation ...
My main problem is that, with the exception of a small circle of friends who, however, each have his own commitments, it is still quite difficult to have interlocutors with whom to close in on this wonderful subject.
Sometimes I realize I'm going to the pedenate ... but now people know me.
But it would be nice if there was a little more expertise on the other side of the counter because, even if over the years I have met people with whom it is nice to sit down and talk about craft beer, still many "publicans" seem to have the typical confusion of those who he only talks about a beer because he has read the label or learned a vague description.

very fresh example of yesterday ...
Pub in Rome, with an old school friend of mine who now lives in Belgium:
Against the Grain - 70 K
Not a word...
I had to tell my friend two words (two) about this beer which is the evolution of the 35 K etc. etc.
You could do better... especially if you still have beers of this level on hand.

 

I have no problems with the modern beer world. It really is simple and there are no snags in navigating the currents. People worry too much is what I really think.

 

Over priced 16oz canned 4 packs. It’s one thing to visit a local brewer and pay $8 for a pint to enjoy on site. Your paying extra for the experience/entertainment of visiting a brewery and on-tap freshness. Seeing $20 4 packs lined up on retail store shelves as far as the eye can see….most by pedestrian brewers, it’s just not worth the gamble from a consumer standpoint for at-home consumption of an unknown product.

 

I can clearly remember my personal evolution in regards to prices. It started at my local drug store with a 13 dollar 6 packs of some very well know regional/national favorites(Bells, Founders, the list goes on). Then on up to the craft beer/specialty liquor store, paying anywhere from 3.50 a single to around 15-18 a 4 pack and not even looking at the 20 dollar 4 packs in the beginning, thinking to myself “what kind of lunatic would pay that price”. But of course, as options dwindle and you try everything in heavy distribution, you inevitable begin to try those limited distro beers which sets you back a bit more but I was fine with it because hey, trying something new, most of it’s pretty good etc. Before I knew it I’m ordering 22-25 dollar 4 packs from breweries an hour and a half from home, driving all over hell to pick it up, and thinking to myself at this point, damn a lot of this shit is the same. How much fruit purée can I really drink? At the end of the day, I guess my biggest annoyance is my own lack of self control. But, I’m starting to wind down. I’m getting tired of those styles that seem to be so high priced anyways.

 

1. ANYTHING Pastry
2. Lack of canning dates
3. Sludgy thick, chewy beers
4. Max Profits Shitlords in the trade forums
5. The Secondary Market
6. Rising cost of packaged beer, especially anything barrel aged
7. Dogs / Kids at breweries
8. People who take pictures of their beer with action figures
9. Lack of diversity across tap handles
10. Lack of fridge space

 

I finally took care of this problem, I didn’t buy any big beers for over a year and tried to drink a bottle of “cellared” beer a month. I’m down to about 6.

I never plan to buy beer to store ever again. Just like you I felt it just accumulated way quicker than I’d drink it.

@TurkeysDrinkBeer i never understood the kids at brewery thing. You couldn’t pay me to bring my kids with me. Sure give me a few beers and the responsibility of watching them, sounds like a really relaxing time…I’ll never get it.

 

Please explain number 4.

 

Similarly, my biggest problem is what NOT to buy. I feel like I am constantly inundated with great beer options. Gotta keep drinking or I'll drown.

What a time to be a beer drinker...