Is Beer Less Interesting, or Am I?

Better environment in past years, for my purposes at least. 1) Now too many beers that come and go in weeks. I'm looking for beers that I like and can latch onto, be readily available over months and years. 2) I prefer traditional styles, but newfangled hazy, sweet, soured, flavored beers are crowding most of the straight pale ales, bocks, and stouts off the shelves.

 

I recall taking someone to task after he complained about the lack of styles available. I used beermenus to prove this poor soul "only" had access to 41 different styles locally available to him.

 

I enjoyed the beer scene way more in the mid to late '90's compared to what it is today.
There was variety in styles back then. Variety packs had variety. Way better beer back then than nowadays too, in my opinion anyway.
Stouts were stouts and barleywines were barleywines without being adulterated by adjuncts and whiskey barrels.
Beers were for the most part diverse and well crafted.
I guess this was before every homebrewer decided to open their own brewery?
I absolutely despise the current "beer scene."

 

I’m now in my mid 50’s and I’ve found through my personal life and hobbies of interest for me have approximately a 10 year shelf life before I get bored and move onto another hobby of interest. Perhaps others, like me, find the new exploration, learning, growth etc to be the primary draw. Once you plateau and things become repetitive and there is no further rock to over turn, that’s when it’s no longer as exciting. So I don’t think it’s a question of was things better in the past vs today, for a new person discovering craft beer as a hobby interest, today would be just as interesting as 10 years ago, 1990’s, 1980’s etc. Its neither the beer that is lest interesting nor I, just I’ve now experienced it very thoroughly and this it’s not as exciting. Human nature.

 

We live in a golden age, can't stand the hand-wringing.

 

People tend to become miserable when they are spoiled.

 

Dude, you’re on a roll. Not sure I’ve seen (read) you quite like this, but it’s great.

 

There must be much more in the way of barleywines brewed out there. So far as Belgians, I still see some of the staples at certain specialty stores, but there used to be a bunch of lesser known breweries on the shelves even at Whole Foods and Wegman's. It was fun to check them out.

 

I haven't seen it in years out here

 

Same age here, same POV. What’s awesome is I do like new beer, but there’s always more than enough great beer anywhere I go to not have to chase anything. It’s cool to come across something new and special (like Fidens), but I could drink any number of classics the rest of my days and be happy.

 

It's me, I'm less interesting.

 

I think competition between breweries, old and new, to create a unique product to distinguish itself is part of the fun of beergeekery. Stepping outside the confines of ‘traditional’ brewing by twisting the norm creates, for me anyways, curiosity and temptation.
Non-artificial adjunks.
Yuzu in a DIPA.
Yarrow root in a Stout.
Jalepeños - no., don’t do that.,
Using a whisky barrel that held maple syrup.,
Newly refined cryo hops in a NEIPA.
Or just a well-made WCIPA.
These are the things that make craft beer continually interesting.

I laid down liquor 20 years ago this month, and have enjoyed being an advocate, yes, an ambassador, for craft beer. I always bring something new and different to a party, which makes me continue to be interesting.,, So.,.

 

I just realized why I'm a bit unsettled. About the turn of the century I could do one-stop-shopping (often for growlers). Blue Point had 3 beers that were my regulars: ESB (English Ale style), Pale Ale (American Golden Ale throwback), and Rasta Rye. Only the Rye survives, but it has an alcohol edge now. So I've found (very) rough replacements. They are a craft English-style pale ale, a German pilsner sub for the golden ale (!), and a west coast style IPA for the Rasta. And now I see fewer growlers, less cask around here. But it's not a crisis. When I started drinking beer in the 70's on the west coast, the selection was terrible (Bud, Coors, or Oly?), and I easily survived a large intake of unsatisfying American lagers.

 

Apparently yes

Fremont always seems to have some new one-off/special release barleywine (they’re expensive, but I think they’re good). I just picked up a bottle of Reuben’s Three Ryes Men, which has won numerous awards (including Gold at the 2024 WBC). And at the same time and place, a couple of weekends ago, I was kindly bestowed with a 4-pack of Upright Wee Heavy by @John_M, who I had the pleasure of meeting for a couple beers—I intend to open one of those soon. Not sure why breweries elsewhere would stop making these types of beers, they’re delicious.

I agree that the diversity of Belgian beers is less now than it used to be (the beer aisle at Whole Foods, as you note, is far less interesting than it used to be—thanks Bezos), but any decent local grocery store here has many of the aforementioned standards, and some have stuff like 3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze etc., which doesn’t seem to move much (IIRC a 375mL bottle runs around $20, which might be why). Specialty beer stores have even more, though I haven’t spent much time at all lately shopping for new beer at those types of places.

 

Yes, but he complained he didn't think the cask was looked after properly in the way he read it had been done in pre-war Britain.

 

because no one buys them.

 

I have long thought that " it’s harder to find anything new in beer." I'm not really less interested in good beer though. Around me we have probably 60 breweries in the area that I can say are local or semi local to me (if you include "Greater Houston"). Only about 6-8 of those do I think are of actual quality, and something I would consider drinking regularly, or when I see them. The rest are mediocre and gimmicky (to put it lightly). Which I'm not interested in at all. I am very much still interested in the "big three" imports, UK, German, and Belgian styles. Having worked in the UK for a good chunk of time, and visited Belgium helps with that (haven't had a chance to visit Germany).

But in general, I'm way more pessimistic about a new brewery opening near me than ever. I don't know if that means its less interesting, but it is less something.

 

More for me apparently