Craft Beer's No Good, Very Bad Year

Interesting article. Was it a "great year in beer"? I don't know. There were certainly some negative headlines, and maybe as the article states craft beer has lost some of it's "cool" factor. Are there corners of the industry that have jumped the shark? Absolutely. That said, there are still an amazing number of outstanding breweries that put out consistently great beer, and do so the "right" way. I will never stop appreciating the amount of amazing options I have as a beer lover relative to 30, 20 or even 10 years ago.

 

Tough read with an invasive ad on my viewing and some form of auto-scroll to the bottom. Anyways.... He has some points but I think he's a little too negative. Let's face it, the pandemic has upturned a lot of things and craft beer is not immune. No, not all his points are pandemic related.
I think the "me to moment" is a positive thing. I do agree the seltzer points are troubling, but if it helps a brewery survive by chasing the market I'll learn to live with it if they keep making beer.
As far as I'm concerned craft beer is still great fun and far from in decline.

 

“As Jess Infante reported at BrewBound in early December, the BA’s chief economist, Bart Watson, is projecting 7 percent growth for craft beer this year and just 5 percent next year as pandemic disruptions continue to bear out. Both figures are better than 2020 (when growth was down 9 percent), but worse than 2019, when the segment grew by 10 percent.”

Wow! 7 percent growth in 2021 is higher than I expected given the challenges of the on-going (and never ending?) pandemic.

That metric sure seems to indicate that 2021 was at least a good (if not great?) year for craft beer.

Cheers!

 

From the article (in italics)

… it was completely normal to describe the industry as a “movement,” and … enthusiasts and industry insiders alike were credulously repeating the old “99 percent asshole free” canard …

None of which was ever actually true.

… genuine artisanal curiosity has given way to pathetic, derivative products and lazy intellectual property theft...

Plenty of examples of this everywhere and on every shelf of every beer store.

[and] that craft brewing is just a business like any other. …

Indeed. Always was.

 

Yeah, maybe. Maybe not. I tried a lot straightforward saisons this year - more than ever. Not a style riddled with adjuncts and additives.

I've also met assholes in craft beer every year since I joined. To quote, @BBThunderbolt #Shrug.

Only thing I'm mildly concerned about for 2022 is pricing. That could disrupt a lot more than just putting granola in beer.

 

The worst time for craft beer's evolution was the late 90s and during and just beyond 9/11/2001. The steam was lost almost completely. Discrimination and male dominance has been no different in craft brewing than in any other industry.

 

Cry me a river. There’s more options on shelves and on tap than there ever has been before, and that’s not up for discussion. 7% growth? Why are we upset with the growth of a product we all love? Because it’s not as much as 2019, and probably won’t be as much next year? So, probably just like every other product or hobby you have in your life?

2021 was my biggest and best year for “craft” beer yet, and by all accounts 2022 will be even better.

Cheers.

 

Thanks. I just had a great flashback to seeing Joe Cocker and Mad Dogs and Englishmen at Jubilee in Chapel Hill in 1970. "Cry Me a River" blew us away, as did the rest of the artists that weekend- James Taylor, Grand Funk, Pacific Gas and Electric, It's a Beautiful Day and many many more.

 

Grand Funk is one of my favorite bands. Mark Farner’s “American Band” is coming to town, his town Jan 28th. I thought about getting tickets. Cheers.

 

Sure maybe a bad year, but I think the overall long-term outlook is bright. Seltzer stocks have been tanking and oversaturated the industry. I don't think spaghetti sours will cause a fatal blow to craft beer. I hope to one day to see craft beer achieve the same interest and engagement as the wine industry.

 

Beer is here to stay. We need to take a look in the mirror as craft drinkers and realize that we are a very fickle lot and it isn't at all surprising to find that there is volatility in our industry. How could it be otherwise? We almost demand it with our broad and changing tastes in beer. Hardly seems fair to complain about it as though it is something done to us, not by us.

Beer is here to stay. Don't like the selection? Wait a few minutes.

 

Of course craft beer will never die - since the invention of beer, humans have found a way to make it different than the original.

I am noticing a shift, though. Those with either a bit of pocket change or good enough credit for a small business loan are realizing any old building can become a brewery. The more obscure and worse-looking the original building, the more "charm" that can be marketed, regardless of how good a product is output. Especially here in North Carolina, we're seeing old automotive repair shops, abandoned commercial buildings, and especially abandoned churches getting converted into nanobreweries. On one hand, I suppose is the re-purposing of what would otherwise be condemned buildings turning into somewhat functional businesses - a pro-environmental perk. On the other hand, the craft beer sector is becoming flooded with everyone doing the same thing at some level. Nobody is as original as they think they are, all the overpriced "gastropub" food is the same - especially with impossible meat, or vegan foods, or insects, or whatever the "food fad of the year" is. Not that I'm opposing those foods, but it's seeming like nobody has charm anymore. Throw a rock in any direction, and you'll hit five breweries that offer the same mango sours with the same $9 grilled cheese with the same industrial-punk atmosphere, with the same three bartenders that tell you the same reviews about the beer they've barely ever had. Don't get me wrong - I love business, I love beer, and I love people playing to the market for profit. The problem is that this is looking like a bubble. Not craft beer, but this culture we have today associated with beer.

Social media is the most powerful tool for a brewery owner today. It's the exact same as word-of-mouth, but it reaches the entire planet within minutes and actually brainwashes people into believing the same things with proper marketing and repetition. To owners, this spells infinite opportunity for profitability - especially in tough-to-survive market conditions like COVID. Unfortunately, this means that usual attention to brewery or local tradition is going to eventually become more lax in hopes of pleasing social media algorithm and hipsters with parents' money (an infinite profit source).

When first observing this shift, it was malt liquor. Soon, imperial IPAs. Then it was milk stouts. After that, bourbon-aged-<x>. Now it's sours of all varieties. Not that there's anything wrong with such styles (I love beer of all sorts!), but there's something to be said to not having certain styles trending. You'll never live to see west-coast style red ales, quads, or spruce-infused pale ales. The fact of the matter is, whatever is "weird" will be the most viral. My bet is within the next five years, eisbocks will be the next big thing! Nothing wrong at all with all of this, but when something is viral, it becomes the most profitable. When you have something easy-to-make that's got incredible profit potential, you'd be a foolish owner to be such a contrarian!

My prediction is that the next big viral thing in the brewing community will be something along the lines of non-political "charity brews". The label will by made by some never-before-heard-of local artist, and include something like "15% of all sales of this beer will help fellow brewers forced to shut down due to COVID", and it'll be a style most consumers will have never tried, but will be curious to, upon vibes of "organic" and "fresh air" - like a farmhouse ale.

I know this rant wasn't really well-worded, but this is what I felt. I'm of course entirely referring to the styles brewed and the outcome of the influence social media has had on the industry. Tackling the problems I have with certain breweries and how owners are treating their craft would be an entirely different wall of words nobody will read!

 

To add to my above rant, I sincerely hope some microbrewery out there somehow implements craft 40s - beers in glass (or plastic) 40oz bottles that you can get for absurdly cheap, filled with a pretty damn good beer, that you can find at gas stations in even the roughest parts of the US.

 

Dave, that is something exactly as I think and have lived. The broad view is best to determine and to not get stuck in any one moment. I wish I could go buy a 6-pack of Rheingold Chug-a-Mugs.

 

Reads like someone sick of their predictions that the "wheels were gonna come off" not coming true, so they just decided to declare it true.
Like this quote

What do we expect of this specialty segment? Its gone from a niche product you had to search for, to an established part of the beverage landscape available in dive bars, sports venues, gas stations, and wal marts. And it's spread to every corner of the globe. Is this author (who's covered beer for a whole decade!) expecting us to believe there were a bunch of people in 2011 that thought craft beer would be the only alcohol consumed one day?

 

Stove pipe cans of 8%+ ipas are a gas station staple out here.

 

Duct tape optional?

 

of course!