What is your biggest problem as a craft beer lover?

My biggest irritation is the number of good breweries only doing one-off special beers (mainly IPA’s) that they never make again.

Perhaps this is the Same-Brew-Different-Label thing, but for the German/Polish/Dutch breweries I drink, it seems more like Same-BaseMalts-Different-Hops. This formula would be fine if it generally produced different, but still quality, beers. Unfortunately, the “hits” are heavily outnumbered by the “misses”, and mostly it produces unrefined, off-balance, overpriced experiments dressed in fancy labels to hide their mediocrity.

I love trying to discover new beers, and am always excited when one of these one-offs hits a bullseye, but what exactly is the point if I will never see it again? It’s like stumbling upon a great restaurant only for it to go out of business the very next day. Yes, I have the memory of it; but what I want is the actuality/availability of it.

 

As some have said, no info on the ingredients, on the date of production, and no more bottles. Mostly cans that are crushed when you return it and you don't know what they do with those.

 

People whining about freshness / packaging dates etc

We live in a golden age of beer, and more breweries in the US than ever before

Drink what you enjoy and stop being a "fresh-****" - most beers taste fine far longer than people think....this bugs me

 

Have had several experiences with people over valuing their beer or trying to squeeze every last bit of value out of a trade as they can in an effort to "win" the trade.

 

1. For styles I like, I've exhausted the decent SD distribution, and have to travel out of state 1.5-6 hours one way to find many new-to-me brews
2. No domestic mail-order beer allowed here, though I managed to get some Trappist Westvleteren 12 shipped in
3. Craft stores that don't have what I want in singles. I'm spoiled by my favorite local store where everything is available in singles, no asking before cutting one from the pack
   
4. Beers I want that are in surrounding states, but we don't get despite the brewery distributing here. Major case in point was Oskar Blues Bamburana, though I did get some in trade
5. It always feels like a risk trying to ship beers for trades. Got back to UPS in the nick of time once, as they were starting to open one package due to suspicion over sloshing. Then in the winter worrying about it freezing. I end up way overpacking. For some reason it's so nerve-wracking that I hesitate to trade, though the end results have all been good

 

Number 2 is a big one for me too. I would probably have access to a lot of mail order stuff if MI. allowed it. Number 5 as well has been a big issue for me and is a reason I’ve done such limited trading. Although I’ve found away around the sloshing thing, you can just tell them it’s soda pop or maple syrup. Plus I use so much bubble wrap you can’t hear it anyways! But, I still ended up sending a pack out a couple weeks ago that ended up getting damaged.

 

$20+ four packs of beer (and the schleps who happily partake in this tomfoolery mainly because of FOMO) - if its a barrel aged imperial stout, I can see that, but when Johnny Come Lately Brewery is charging $24/ 4 pack of their Kolsch, thats a huge problem for me and I won't even set foot on your premises if your pricing at those levels.

 

As a freshman at Richmond in 1969, and living on a decent budget, we found that Ballantine Beer at $.79 a sixer at Standard Drug would be our dorm house brew. The empties were sometimes a touch embarrassing, even for college. There were eight of us up there.

 

Advocate
1.a person who actively supports or favors a cause.

 

I do tend to agree with this. Before I knew about the way freshness effects flavors, I was a lot more lenient. I drank a lot of IPA’s six months old and thought they were great before I understood everything regarding the way time takes it’s toll on flavor. I will still drink stuff a couple months old and have obtained older stuff in trades without complaining, but I do tend to buy stuff as fresh as I can now, if for no other reason than I want whatever I’m spending my hard earned money on to be at the peak of its enjoyability. Cheers!

 

This is why I wish more breweries were willing to share their recipes. If you're only going to make it once, but I enjoy it enough to request your recipe, couldn't you at least let me try to homebrew something slightly similar?

 

I think for a lot of people it’s for the novelty of having tried it especially if it’s from a hype brewery, and for people like myself who hardly ever buy the same beer twice, sheerly for the options available to me, I don’t tend to miss a beer even if it was killer because I know the brewery will most likely come out with another one in a week or two. Like you said, large majority is IPA. If you’re really into that style, you probably don’t mind trying a new one or 4 every week or two. Often times the flavor profiles are similar coming from the same brewery+- an adjunct or hop. Cheers!

 

This is really my only gripe as well (apart from calories/cutting back which is more of a 'me' problem).

We've had a great lager revolution here in the Boston area, but it's kind of a bummer that a lot of it seems to have succumbed to the gravitational pull of the $15+ 4 pack of IPA. I'm not blaming the breweries, I just wish it had played out differently.

Jacks Abby eases the pocket book pain though.

 

Inconsistency.

If anything, 2020 taught me to rely on breweries that I know get it right every time. And, to be honest, this has meant a shitload of Modelo, Miller High Life, and Coors Banquet.

 

Breweries I've loved for a while only putting out hazies and pastries. When before they had great West Coast, pale ales, and stouts that weren't loaded the f- up with lactose

 

I tried telling them it was coffee and that worked once, but on another occasion they asked how much, I said 12oz not knowing where it was leading, and they told me the limit per package of any liquid is 8oz. That was the time they called me and said to come back, and when I did I found them starting to open it. I don't go to that shipping store anymore. I have started double boxing and using more packing material, and the last two didn't slosh. I found noisemakers are a giveaway, they get that a lot and aren't fooled.

Most places don't care enough to push it, as long as you don't actually tell them what it is. If you have something reasonable to have them write on their form, that's all they car about. I had the misfortune that one time of ending up with a nosy clerk that was a stickler for the rules.

 

I'm the one that likes those.

 

Only 24 hours in a day

 

How did you stop them from finishing opening it? Did you just say never mind give it back or what went down from there?

 

What beers are you drinking 5-7 pints of that have 425-600 calories per pint?