Is Beer Less Interesting, or Am I?

Agreed. I cannot beat the ease and convenience of which I can get a good/enjoyable beer now.
It has been awhile now but I still have not forgotten the times in which I'd go out and the best options were the "import" section with Corona or other pretend craft mass produced beer.

 

I was having this conversation with some friends this weekend. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. The days of "what if someone decided to put XXX in XXX?" are pretty much over. I remember stumbling upon a tiny brewery in the CO mountains with a cherry IPA 17'ish years ago and being amazed. That kind of thing can't really happen anymore. Tap lists have oddly contracted back to the same 5-6 beer styles everywhere. It's like the early 2000's...only with 500x more places doing it, and with less variation. Even looking at the rare + hype beers, there are only so many ways to make a barrel-aged stout with vanilla and/or coffee. I've been assured that "this one is different!" so many times only to have everyone present laugh and discover that they're kinda all the same side-by-side.

At the same time, I feel pretty confident that I can get a pretty good beer almost anywhere. Major off flavor issues have borderline disappeared. Even if I'm in a full-on beer desert, I can usually get Stella, Modelo, and probably a Sierra Nevada or Voodoo Ranger. That isn't a bad thing at all.

I feel like the wonder of beer is pretty much gone, but there's something to be said for the ubiquity of good beer, too.

 

Some questions posed in the blog:

“Was beer really more novel and interesting X years ago (pick your time frame)?”

I think the important thing to responding to this is context. I am of the opinion that craft brewing (it was called microbrewing ‘back in the day’) started in 1965 when Fritz Maytag purchased Anchor Brewing and thereby kept that small brewer alive. And some microbreweries that opened thereafter are New Albion (1976) and Sierra Nevada (1980) and…

What was ‘different’ about those microbreweries is that they were producing beers which were notably different from the mainstream beers (i.e., American Adjunct Lagers) that dominated the beer scene. Perhaps most notably they were predominantly ales with a more flavorful profile. These beers costed more but there was a niche consumer market for people who wanted something ‘more’ than just beers like Budweiser, Miller High Life, etc. I would suggest that within the context of the times these microbrewed beers were indeed more novel and interesting.

There are a number of posts in this thread discussing the ‘trend’ of American craft breweries just ‘throwing stuff’ into beers to make them interesting, such as:

“Just add more and more stuff to beer

Well, in 2021 there sure seems to be no lack of brewers coming up with ideas on how they can “kick it up a notch” as Emeril Lagasse would phrase it. I just recently read on a brewing forum about a brewer producing Kool-Aid inspired beers (i.e., beers that taste like Kool-Aid flavors). I personally will not be drinking these beers but I have no doubt that some craft beer consumers will buy them. How many will they buy?

There just seems to be no lack of imagination by brewers on what sorts of ingredients to brew with. Whether it be culinary ingredients (lemon verbena, black limes, prickly pear cactus,..) or processed foods (chocolate chip cookies, marshmallows, breakfast cereals,..) or whatever. Do these additions produce better beers? I suppose it is like the old saying: beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

https://www.morebeer.com/articles/What_Is_Craft_Beer

Hindsight being 20/20 I wish I would have stated “beerholder” vs. “beholder” in the above.

Well, I suppose each BA will have their own thoughts whether throwing ‘stuff’ into beer makes those products more interesting but for me: not so much.

“Do we greet a new brewery opening with disinterest because it really does lack interest, or because we’ve lost our own sense of wonder?”

I can report that on a personal level I am 50/50 about getting excited about a new brewery opening in my area. I am spoiled in that there are many local craft breweries producing high quality products. I feel sorry for other BAs when they report that most of their local craft breweries are just OK or mediocre. So, is there really a need for more craft breweries in the Philly area? Part of me says “the more the merrier” and the other part says “we already have more than we need”.

Below is something I recently posted about a new brewery, Twelve78, opening in Phoenixville, PA:

“The borough of Phoenixville is a small town and yet there is so many breweries located there.

I know nothing about Twelve78 but I wish them the best of luck and hopefully they are bringing their 'A' game.”

Cheers!

 

I remember the tremendous anticipation/hype any time a new local brewery opened. It was like this until about 5 or 6 years ago. Now I just ignore and stick to the breweries I know are reliable and only go to the new ones if there's some sort of buzz. There usually isn't unfortunately. These new breweries aren't doing anything interesting - usual lineup of hazies and pastry stouts.

Also, every so often there's some new IPA variant (think "Brut" and "Cold") shoved down our throats for a few months before it fizzles.

Been a while since I was "wowed" by anything new.

 

Speaking only for myself, the more IPAs clogging the shelves and taking up space where other styles used to be the less interesting the beer scene has become to me. I'm sure I'm in the minority though.

 

I wonder if you are indeed a "minority" here.

I am fortunate that in the Philly area I have no difficulty purchasing non-IPA beers, e.g., earlier today I purchased a six-pack of Weihenstephaner Braupakt Blonde Ale but that was the last six-pack of the one case they received, but the vast majority of the beers on the shelves are IPAs especially of the Juicy/Hazy IPA variety. How many Juicy/Hazy IPA brands are really needed? It just sorta seems a crazy situation to me.

I suppose a situation which could be categorized as first world problems?

Cheers!

 

That is nothing like what you see around here. Granted, some of the fancier bottle shops in DC have more selection, but it's still less than what there was a decade ago. I rarely make it into the city anymore, anyhow.

 

Isn't LIFE funny that way. When I was young, it was all about quantity vs quality. As you gain experience, you become more discerning and it flips to QUALITY vs quantity. I love telling my younger friends about the handful of beers available in the 80s. (I even had them taste a Molson Golden and let them experience the 80s briefly LOL) After traveling to Belgium in 2008, a whole new world was opened to me concerning CRAFT BEER. It's been a wonderful journey seeking out well made beers and I do not regret going down the Rabbit Hole. Either you gain an appreciation for quality or you don't. I have well to do friends who enjoy their Coors Lite and Pappy Van Winkle. An old friend recently told me he is happy drinking his Headhunter everyday for his IPA and his Dragon's Milk as his go to Stout . Who am I to argue for diversity? I personally stop in 5-6 bottle shops every couple weeks searching for BURIED TREASURE, as I like to describe it. At our monthly beer gatherings, we sample a wide variety. Some epic and some drain pours. I will continue to support the Breweries who strive to make a tasty brew at an affordable price. I also will return to pubs and bottle shops where INTERESTING people sell and drink beer. Not everyone has a PASSION for their hobbies. I like to think ~~~ I DO ~~~ Cheers Mates !!!

 

IMHO beer is very interesting but the blog author's passion for it is waffling.

 

Agreed. I've been drinking trail pass and athletic cause they taste like 2016 wc ipas. They all taste like hop hunter to me lol

 

Its not less interesting if you go to different breweries since you can always find cool unique, new, stuff. If you buy from a retail store its definitely less interesting as you see the same old stock there all the time and it gets boring and mundane. Sure theres stuff there you havent tried but its stuff that I intentionally pass on for whatever reasons.

 

Barleywines are my go-to for limited style offering. Thinking back to what was available to me on the shelves when I entered craft beer in 2015 and we have it much, much better now.

We lost Stone's Old Guardian, but gained Pathlight's No Touchy, Alma Mader's Madera barrel program, BKS's occasional releases, and even Side Project's Anabasis is available to-go near me. There are a few other breweries that occasionally produce a barleywine too, the ones listed are just those I prefer. While I could certainly wish the offerings were deeper, they certainly surpass what was available to me just five years ago.

PNW is pretty flush with barleywines.

 

Same for me, I’ve gravitated toward those over imperial stouts over the years. I never loved Old Guardian that much and I’m not even that big of a fan of Bigfoot. I like what Fremont, FW, and a few other West Coast breweries are doing with English barleywines. I wish Deschutes did more of them—they had Mirror Mirror a few years back but seem to have given up.

 

I was looking at these beers at our local grocery store in France Sunday morning. The store had just installed a new rack for Belgian and German beers, which is very welcome. All of them are under $1.75 per bottle, and probably fresher than what you get in the states.

 

Personally I find beer much less interesting than I did 10 years ago, but mostly because of changes in my life. Before I retired I traveled a lot for work and I always sought out local beers wherever I was. When I hired new employees from around the country I would pay them to bring me samples of their local beers when they moved to NM to work. So I had a constant exposure to beer that was not ever going to be available where I lived. Then health issues forced me to essentially quit drinking beer for 4 years, I retired and moved away from my beer drinking buddies, to a house in the woods 15 minutes from a very small town. When I travel now I still buy local beers, but the fascination with seeking out beer has pretty much evaporated and now I drink more wine or whisky than beer.

 

There are plenty of good reasons to want to live in France and I’d count this among them.

 

How true. I've been drinking beer for 60 years, and there's no question I drink less and don't enjoy it as much as I did in my younger days. But I still enjoy sitting down with a good beer. I guess it's me that has changed, and not the beer scene.

 

That's some funny shit.
If I could just chime in with one opinion:
STOP putting everything under the sun in beer.
I cant stand this, guava, strawberry, watermelon, raspberry, fruit puree, smoothie, vanilla, cacao, chocolate, cinnamon, pepper, lime, Lemon....etc. And then just to separate themselves from others they will say "Madagascar Vanilla" jeez 'oh OK I will grab that one because it's Madagascar vanilla instead of just vanilla' dammit

 

In the early craft beer days, breweries could attract dissatisfied macro beer drinkers and import drinkers open to the home grown products. The problem is that overall beer consumption is pretty much a zero sum game, and even craft brewing volume isn't expanding. The establishment of new breweries at this point means lower sales for their competitors, and inevitable financial distress for some. It's "the more the merrier" for the consumers, until their favorite outlets go dark. I guess I'm part of the problem. I'm drinking less than half as much as I did 10 years ago. I'll go to a nearby brewery occasionally, drink a beer and possibly pick up a growler.