How much have Belgian beer sales fallen?

Strange, I thought Belgian beer sales fell off in the US 10-15 years ago. I don't really think there's a huge market for it, though what's left may be a consistent one. Personally I love Belgian beer, it's just that there's so much other beer to sift through and try out locally.

I'll be curious to hear from anyone in the bar, shop or grocery industries that has any numbers, though, as I'm just going off perception.

 

I'm not in the industry either, but as to the disconnect between reading forum threads on BeerAdvocate and observing everything else going on with beer...BA *definitely* has "old man yells at cloud" and "the craft beer scene in the United States achieved perfection sometime before 2005" vibes.

While the chicken-or-egg question of how IPAs came to preeminence in the US will never be conclusively answered, I'd say that most Belgian imports may have fallen more disproportionately than those from elsewhere due to many Belgian styles being easier to replicate by American brewers and that the higher-ABV allures of many Belgian styles has also been satisfied by the explosion in locally-made boozy IPAs, stouts (barrel-aged, pastry, or otherwise) and barleywines.

The counterexample of "Belgian beer has fallen from favor in the US" would be lambic, but...as that's the one style that's very, very hard to replicate consistently, I'd say it's the exception that proves the rule.

 

Yes

 

I think @swib and @ sabtos posted excellent comments. My beer world is centered around Belgians, and your points ring true to me. I don't feel deprived in today's domestic marketplace, although there are some brews that I only stumble across occasionally

 

I'm sure, like all imports those aren't selling as well.

Though, I have Orval and 3 Fonteinen queued up for tonight. Usually some Saison Dupont as well. One of my favorite bars always has Chimay Cing Cents on tap, another popular restaurant only has Belgian beers on tap, and I always enjoy going there. Including Duvel, La Chouffe, sometimes Chimay and Abt 12.

I think some places, like the bar and the restaurant I go to are maybe the last bastions for these, unless some unforeseen trend happens soon. Though my local bottle shop always has a good selection that I'm always going to grab as long as they are there. Until these beers are completely gone off the shelf, then I will complain, but they are still very much available as of now, even if they are not particularly popular.

 

I have zero statistical data to agree or disagree. However, even out here on the barren prairie, five to ten years ago, I could find quite the selection of Belgian brews. It's actually far worse now, selection-wise, than then. Chimay and 3 Fonteinen have all but disappeared, along with any number of other favorites. So I suspect these have fallen out of favor (other than the lambics and geuzes, as one other poster mentioned).

 

I still have no issues grabbing Rochefort, Chimay or St Bernadus at any of my local stores.

Here’s to hoping it stays that way forever.

 

Well, the one exception being imports from Mexico which are selling really well, Recently Modelo Especial became the number 1 selling beer in the US.

Cheers!

 

Strange observation on my part but even a lot of older craft drinkers (those that jumped on bandwagon in recent years) seem to gravitate towards NEIPAs over classic IPAs, pastry stouts over classic stouts and fruit smoothie sours over pretty much all of the other craft beer styles out there. I guess those new styles are beers that are approachable for non-beer drinkers.

 

Yep, that’s the word for it. How one approaches most Belgian beers — sipping, pondering, savoring, taking your time — is different from the traditional U.S. beer drinking culture of throwing one back or even the current ticker culture of getting an immediate impression of one beer and moving on to the next.

 

The odd thing is that Belgian beers are probably the most approachable of craft beer classic styles. Sweeter and not bitter. Perhaps the true place to look is sales of Shocktop and Blue Moon to see how much they have fallen over last 10 years.

 

Among the 'original' hazies!?!

Cheers!

 

A Belgian style beer that sells well is Victory Golden Monkey which is a Tripel. I was told by a Victory Sales Rep that Golden Monkey is their top selling beer.

Cheers!

 

Definitely seems like Belgian beer isn't as prevalent/popular in the states as it used to be. Now I live on a Dutch island and Belgian beer definitely seems to be alive and well here with it being the predominant craft option, even over Dutch beer. Unfortunately we get no lambic (which would be awesome in this weather) but Belgian dubbels, tripels, and quads are prevalent, far more so than American craft beers. There is very little tap beer on the island but if you can find a craft tap it's likely Tripel Karmeliet or something like that.

Oh no, just double checked my spelling on Karmeliet and discovered it's owned by InBev....lame. It's never going to taste quite as good again.

 

As an older beer drinker, I love Belgians but tend to drink them sparingly because of the higher than average ABVs. They lend themselves to special occaisons or when I just want one or two beers max. What I have noted at the retail level is less stores stock them, but the ones that do stock more and a good variety.

 

I’ve tried a number of them. Mostly Quads and Trippels. I always find myself wishing I had barleywine in my glass

 

That bar sounds excellent! I would be a regular there.

 

My local beer distributor has a vast selection of Belgian beers with an entire row dedicated to 3 Fonteinen.
Inventory seems to rotate fairly regularly, so people are still buying them, but probably not as much as years gone by. The only ones that for some reason seem to collect dust are the Unibroue, which is Belgian style, made in Canada, but in my opinion, still pretty solid. La Fin du Monde is still one of my favorite "budget friendly" triple options.
I even brewed a clone recipe with their yeast strain, which is seasonal and tough to come by.
I think a lot of people like me brew their favorite Belgians at home since most Belgian yeast strains are now available for the home brewer and it costs so much less than buying it by the bottle. Of course some, like Orval, Lambics and Flemish Reds are a bit more challenging, but not impossible to pull off with dedicated brewing equipment as to not contaminate everything. Those are the ones that I still purchase, as I haven't yet taken the steps necessary to brew them, but someday soon I will.
Most American brewed Belgian style beer costs just as much, if not more, as the real deal, so there really isn't any savings in buying domestic/local, which is a shame.
Myself, having a Chimay taste on a Schlitz budget, I try to brew my own version of my favorites as often as possible. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

 

Sounds like you live close to Shangy's.