Where are we headed?

I've gone full circle and I'm back to buying almost exclusively beers from larger craft breweries or macros (SN, DFH, Founders, Bells, etc). Nearly all my locals and regional beers we get, do the 4x 16oz format and the prices are $14-24, sometimes the beers are good but I'm done 'hoping it's good' when I pick up a 4 pack.

I'm also overwhelmed going into a store and seeing all the 16oz cans with labels that require me to spin the cans around to find the style among other things. If I can't figure out something as basic as the style without having to pick up the cans, I can assure you I won't buy it. Labels are for info, not some wack artwork the brewery thinks is edgy or trendy.

 

+1

Price is right and it is pleasant to work through a case of a tried and true favorite: Victory Prima Pils for me. The hopping of NEIPA has been a pleasant revelation but the business model it has spawned needs to die

 

You make a good point. At the time of my post (the one that you quoted) I was thinking more narrowly in terms of how the deletion of a beer by a "big brewer" is not that big of a tragedy because the "small" brewers are very nimble and creative and quickly fill gaps in styles and produce some pretty awesome beers. I am less concerned about the demise of something I like as long as I can find something I like equally as much somewhere else, even if that somewhere else means relying on a small brewer.

 

I feel your pain....which is why I feel REALLY fortunate for two things: 1) my local Trader Joes and also Total Wines and More stores sell singles, which makes it really easy to try stuff and 2) I apparently an very easily impressed, as indicated by an average score of 4.01 on the 150+ beers I reviewed in the last 15 months since I joined BA

 

My TW has singles, always warm, usually old and generally marked up 50%. So if a 4 pack of beer is $20, the singles sell for about $7.50 at my local TW...no thanks.

 

Beer didn't change. We changed.

I wonder what people getting into beer now ( ipa haze craze, stout pastry plague etc) will feel 5-10 years from now about beer

 

Total Warm (thanks to whoever said that in another post)

 

This is exactly me currently. I don't have the patience to research all the breweries with the hard to read labels ("wack" artwork is right), so I've gone back to old favorites. I'm going to get through the Holidays with SN Celebration, Sam Adams Holiday 12-pack, etc. Will still hit up a couple of local breweries, but only the ones I can really rely on as I don't want to deal with a $24 4-pack that I may have to sit on due to "hop burn".

 

I take it you never had the opportunity to check out the beer aisle circa 1975?

 

We are headed for more buyouts and more beers brewed skewed towards "approachable". We are going to see the story of Ballast Point occur quite a few times.

 

Spot on, you nailed my two biggest issues with beer today. The 4x16 format and pricing, and the labels that not only require a close inspection to tell what the hell it is, but most of them look like projects from an intro graphic design class.

 

We have a plethora of craft beer choices - going into my local grocery store - there is over 200 feet of refrigerated beer - too many hazy IPA's, sure - too many choices in general? Maybe.......but, not that much to really complain about

Beer has changed since I started drinking back in the 70's - a lot - so have consumers
Not sure about others - but we are a bit spoiled in the US I think - more breweries now in the US than anytime in our history.....let's be thankful!!

 

too bad...at my TJs they are not marked up and most of the IPAs are within 6 weeks of being canned, and the selection is excellent and always changing.

 

Another aside - when I get a little disillusioned by all the hazy IPA's and way over-priced 4pk - 16 oz cans - I remember that here in NE Ohio, we are sooooo fortunate to be able to buy great local beers like Great Lakes Dortmunder and Elliot Ness and Eddy Fitz, that have been around for decades - fairly priced and fresh.....as well as beers from local to me Thirsty Dog, Akronym, R. Shea etc, to name a few....
A lovely drive south takes me to a wonderful lager only farm brewery called Wooly Pig, with amazing German inspired beers at great prices.....
So, I think we are doing more than ok, beer wise.....

 

Well (since I had the pocket calculator out over in the Bells Sells thread) I always wondered about that stat, too.

1873 (pre-craft era peak number of breweries in the US)
4,131 Breweries
38,558,371 Population of the US (1870 census)
1 brewery for every 9,334 people

2020
8,884 Breweries
331,449,281 Population of the US (2020 census)
1 brewery for every 37,309 people

So, there's a way to go. and, on top of that, in 1873 the largest 2 brewers, Conrad Seipp and Best & Co. (predecessor to Pabst), the only 100k bbl/yr breweries, each had about 1% of the market.

Today, two US brewers (AB and MC) account for about 3/4 of all beer brewed in the US.

 

Barrel Aged Narwhal on the shelf yes please! Plus, Sierra Nevada’s Alpha Hop Series has been awesome. Barrel Aged Mint Stout and BA blueberry stout have been great. I know that’s limited stuff but SN is doing some good things. Yes, I wish tumbler, summerfest and other beers would still be available but if the company isn’t making money off them can’t really blame them.

with the market the way it is breweries have to keep changing and finding beers the consumer wants.

 

I think the larger regional breweries like SN, North Coast, Stone, Founders, Bells, etc need to take advantage of the blaring gap left in the local/state microbreweries, which in many cases just means these large regionals need to continue to do what got them to their current standing.

While hazy IPA's, fruited sours, and pastry stouts are the big "in" beers right now, two things seem glaringly obvious to me:

1) The folks eating these up are content to reach for the new options provided by their local breweries. I'll use my home turf of Des Moines for instance. There are 3-4 high quality breweries, plus another 2-3 in Cedar Rapids, plus Topping Goliath, all releasing a new hazy IPA about every 2-3 weeks. There's no reason to every branch beyond these. Nobody is going and grabbing Wicked Haze or Lagunita's hazy, or whatever else is there from the big macros.

2) The complaint of many local beer fans towards these local breweries is thats ALL they brew. Go to the taproom and choose between 5 different hazy IPAs, 3 different pastry stouts, and 2 different sours. Maybe they also have a cream ale available for your uncle who only wants budweiser. This is where regionals need to capitalize. Pilsners, ambers, porters, wheat beers, scotch ales, bocks, imperial stouts without flavorings, etc - When I'm looking for one of these I'm instantly going over to the regional brewery section of the store.

 

North Coast? Wide distribution but pretty small at 43k bbl., compared to the others, from SN's +1.1M bbl. with the others all around half a million barrels a year.

 

Hey Steve......I knew someone would be here to get all mathematical on us poor beer drinkers!

More breweries per capita in 1873, but then, people were not driving around to the breweries like we do today - at least not in cars....plus< i doubt anyone was waiting in any lines for any beer to be released back then, either! Haha!

First world problems - all these breweries and all this beer......what are we to do?

 

I really couldn't have said it better myself. There's exceptions, but it can be hard to find local breweries that brew a decent amount of traditional styles