Where have all the barrel-aged beers gone?

I think most of time people are talking about barrel aged stouts which are plentiful on shelves so was confused on your question. Article seems to be focused on wild fermented aged beers which I agree are not as common

 

I see plenty of local BBA Stouts. Three local brewery taprooms (Woodgrain, Lupulin, Covert Artisan) always have at least one of their BBA Stouts on tap. Others have them frequently or occasionally.

 

If the wild/mixed ferm beers aren't being produced by many small breweries it's probably a cost and quality issue. The author neglected to bring out whether the breweries that abandoned their barrel program are now producing kettle sours, and if so, whether they are selling. He says Allagash is selling more than ever, and I think it would be interesting to find out whether Jolly Pumpkin, Russian River and other well-known breweries that have successful wild ale programs are also growing.

Smaller breweries can't afford the gamble to produce these beers with the expectation of having to dump some of them. Out of greed, if these bad products get bottled and make it onto store shelves but sell very slowly, the brewery should get the message and discontinue their program, thus fewer barrel-aged sours are a reality, which point does support what the article says... the barrel-aged beers are disappearing.

 

Out this way (CO), we have tons of both wild/mixed/etc. aged beers and ones aged in spirits barrels. After IPAs and kettle sours they're probably the 3rd and 4th largest categories.

 

Wild fermented barrel aged beers are definitely on the decline. Brewery’s can no longer be a “sour” only brewery. Rare Barrel is a perfect example. Breweries that can do both clean and wild beers. With the rise of kettle sours it much easer and cheaper to brew those and most people don’t seem to care.

 

Are breweries like deGarde and Casey still focused on their wild/ spontaneous fermenting beers or have they migrated into kettle sours, hazies and stouts to pay the bills? Been a few years since I’ve done trades for wild ales around the country so I haven’t kept up with some of the American brewers (plus I stepped away from sours for awhile, but now am back sniffing the horseblanket once again).

 

Yes, the cost associated with dumping barrels that did not turn out as intended is costly. And the long time is takes to produce these beers is costly as well.

But it sure seems that decreasing customer demand is heavily influencing things (emphasis in bold by me):

“Everett’s Night Shift Brewing, too, ended its Barrel Society in recent years, which co-founder Michael Oxton says was due to the shrinking market for these beers, as well as the higher cost to produce them.

And:

“…Idle Hands’ barrel-aged beers weren’t selling.”

Also:

“And then we found that our distributor couldn’t find a market for them on the shelves in retail stores. They ended up sitting in our distributor’s warehouse, and eventually that stuff just kind of bottlenecked.”

One last example:

“Early days of Springdale celebrated nearly infinite permutations that slowly got whittled down by consumer preference,” says Rob Day, Springdale’s VP of marketing. “Even in the most popular categories the consumer demand has dropped.”

I wonder is the high price charged for these beers meant that there was a very small subset of craft beer customers who were willing to buy these sorts of beers.

Cheers!

 

de Garde is still doing wild/spontaneous beers.

 

I'd think that by and large, wild/spon beers are declining in popularity. Funk Factory turned into something else, Side Project continues increasing how many sour bottles you're forced to buy in order to get the clean BA stuff, Casey is considering smaller formats, and most of the Kentucky breweries that dabbled in the field have mostly or entirely bailed out. Hell, you can find Floodland bottles now.

 

Once I discovered wild ales, and gave myself time to adapt my taste buds to them, I really enjoyed them. I occasionally buy a bottle or two (seems like this style is almost always singles), but I won't like them well enough to ever put the style into a 'favorite' category. I doubt that anyone can drink them exclusively because of the acidic nature affecting the stomach over time.

 

Maybe if wild ales were rebranded as "natural ales" they'd take off like natural wine did.

 

But my question is whether wild/spontaneous beer styles are their primary sales business volume today like it was in the past. Is the % sales of wild ales same in 2022 as in 2016 for instance or has it dropped significantly and now mostly sales are in kettle smoothie sours and NEIPAs for example with their funky sour wild ales sales being very low now? I think @IMFletcher answered my question however.

I still consider lambics, Gueze, wild ales etc when done well to be the best and highest representation of craftmenship within the craft beer industry and one of the most rewarding drinking experiences of any alcoholic beverage let alone just within the beer community. I will always continue to embrace and seek out the funk. It is a high risk endeavor for new brewers, but hopefully all of the great brewers in this segment continue to always offer some options for us small niche of craft beer consumers that appreciate them.

 

Speciation continues to grow.

 

It seems like every place nearby offers a spirit barrel-aged beer or two, and a line of sours which not too long ago would have meant a wild/spontaneous program but now means kettled and fruited.

 

Barrel and Beam, Jolly Pumpkin and Speciation are to a certain degree focused on BA beers, as long as they're not "normal". Jolly Pumpkin did a stout but it is a sour so there is that. They all seem to be doing pretty well in W. Michigan at least.

 

It seems to be the case to me too, which I'm ok with . Bring on the BA stouts and barleywines though!