How “Far” Beer Has Come…

"How far is too far?"

Well, each beer consumer will have their own personal perspective here. I am guessing I am 'old school' in that I prefer to drink beer flavored beers vs. the contemporary beers brewed with 'adjunks'.

Oh well, to each their own!?! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Cheers!

 

And beers that are hazyardous to my palate. Will no one rid me of this meddlesome style?

 

All these pastry stouts and fruit slushee bombs have definitely jumped the shark.

Interesting and fun to try, but when it comes to this: waffle or French toast or bacon and egg beer or whatever...maybe we've really gone too far? Past Oz and over the edge of the world?

 

I only drink hazy waffle beers

 

Ok, so I “disappeared” from the beer thing for a while, came back and yeah in the last 2 years a lot has changed. Some of the things people are making seem like they’re trying to get as crazy as possible instead of just making great beer. I’m not really a fan of most pastry stouts or milkshake ipas, but hey I can still find what I want.

 

OP, Pancakes beers were in the cellar? I usually get those confused more with French Toast beers than Waffles beers anyway. But yeah, I can empathize with the mix up.

 

Craft brewers used to use the Reinheitsgebot as part of their identity in order to separate themselves from "macro" beer. "Craft beer" was about what wasn't in the beer - corn and rice. Eventually, craft brewers began to use the Reinheitsgebot in the opposite way - as a symbol of tyranny that other brewers subscribed to. It was seen as censorship. The script was flipped so much, that the term adjunct became essentially redefined in the process.

Throughout that journey, the craft beer world failed to see the Reinheitsgebot as something deeper than just ingredient prohibition. The Reinheitsgebot doesn't prevent people from using certain ingredients, it defines what beer is. It sets a framework. It draws a line, and once that line is crossed, that beverage is no longer "beer."

Taking all of that into consideration, is it any wonder that we've now reached a point where we are struggling with the question that the Reinheitsgebot answers? Is an alcoholic fruit smoothie-like beer a beer... or is it a fruit smoothie? Never before has the expression "beer flavored beer" been so embraced on BeerAdvocate. The monster was created and now it's run amok.

And if we only focused on the Reinheitsgebot as ingredient prohibition, craft brewers would show its oppressiveness by scoffing at the fictional need for a "purity law" protecting consumers from unhealthy ingredients. The counter narrative was that it really was a way to maintain ingredients for bakers while creative Belgians were allowed to use natural cherries in their beer. But look at where we are today. I would imagine that some craft beer pioneers would think that craft brewers using artificial flavors in their beer is a sign that craft beer has collectively lost the plot.

None of the above is meant to come across like the thoughts of an old man who doesn't want change for the sake of change. It's not pro-Reinheitsgebot either (even though it reads like it). I just find the story arc interesting. (I got my third script/story comparison in.) But on a personal level, I don't like the idea of beer turning into a blank canvas to mimic other foods. That devalues its identity in my eyes. Beer isn't the canvas, it's the painting.

 

Probably as far as it went 5000 years ago when beer was probably made from left over bread and other baked stuff

 

I may be misremembering here but back when BA had a magazine, I do believe there was an issue whose main article was about German craft brewers in opposition to the Reinheitsgebot laws because it limited their creativity. So they had kind of speakeasy levels of brewpubs set up to bend these rules and deliver fresh, interesting beers to the German public who were interested in it.

While there are plenty of merits to something like the Reinheitsgebot, it is also limiting in a sort of authoritarian way. Some creativity in an endeavor like beer is a good thing.

The cost of limitless creativity is that some things will get added to beer that are more a matter of "could" rather than "should" and the line of what beer is gets very fuzzy. Sort of Jurassic Park levels of experimentation and mucking about.

Not to get too pedantic here but there is strong evidence to suggest that beer making lead to agriculture and by extension bread making, not the other way around, as was previously believed.https://www.timesofisrael.com/13000-year-old-brewery-discovered-in-israel-the-oldest-in-the-world/

Still a very fair point, I'm sure people have been throwing all kinds of weird shit in beer and proto-beer to see what's good or interesting, for as long as it's been made.

 

Well reasoned and very well stated.

 

Imperial Peanut Butter Hefeweizen? Get the fuck outta here! Never heard of that brewery, but they need their license revoked.

 

I personally don’t have a “too far” defined in my mind. You could say it’s because I’ve just recently got into this hobby a little over two years ago. I try new things all the time. Some I like, some I don’t like. I’m definitely not a “purist”. I like smoothie sours, I like pastry stouts, I like “milkshake” IPA’s. I also appreciate the simpler aspects of other styles and drink them frequently as well. I imagine new styles will continue to come out, I imagine I will keep trying them.

cheers

 

Yeah, the boring old beer, why weren't brewers innovative before craft beer came along?


Geez, I remember when the geekery was outraged about the lime wedge in the neck of a bottle of Corona. (Well, that version of beer geeks may have been the fathers of the current batch...).

 

I think the big question is How "Far" will Beer go.

 

Yes. I believe very far but we can't forget where we started from. I posted a thread titled Back To Basics and this point was talked about. Cheers!

 

We're in a very interesting time for beer. I don't hate anyone for making/drinking beers like these as long as the stuff I like doesn't suffer. Hell, I'm guilty of drinking dumb stuff here and there myself. The one thing that worries me is that in various FB beer groups you'll see people judging beers based upon whether they have certain adjuncts or have been in a barrel. So much so that anything that doesn't/hasn't is viewed as lesser. Not just in $ value, but quality. Fortunately, it seems like the ultra-traditional places seem to get a pass, but it's hard to tell if that's just because lagers are cool right now.

 

The only thing I can think to say is, ugh.

 

A beer out of reach from my hand it too far