Old beer on shelves isn't really anything new. If anything, I'd say it's probably a return to the way things were 15-20 years ago. Back then you had imported macro lagers gathering dust on shelves and taking up space that could have been better served by fresh local options. Now you have local IPAs that age even more poorly taking up that space instead. It's an unfortunate return to normal in some ways. On the plus side, it's super nice being able to buy Lagunitas, Stone, Sierra Nevada, Oskar Blues, etc. almost anywhere. I was able to buy multiple good beers at a rural Alabama gas station last month. That definitely wasn't a thing in the craft beer dark ages.
Granted I live in a metropolis, but compared to ten years ago, I have exponentially greater choices. This is true if one is talking about number of breweries to which I have access, or availability of styles. Ten years ago, during my ‘ticking’ phase, I could almost keep up with all the new releases at my local breweries. Now, there are breweries I haven’t even made it out to yet because there are just so many. A couple of them are 3-4 years old… Just yesterday I was considering a brief beer road trip and I was scouting out some breweries about a two hour drive from me. I was surprised by the number of styles that I could get at the 8-10 breweries I scouted. Everything from Lichtenheiner to Sahti, Wheatwine to smoked porter and everything in between. (One spot even had the bad form to be offering a locally made Gueuze!). To pile on, recent changes to inter-provincial trade barriers here have opened up a tonne of breweries to me who will ship my orders to my door. I’m in the process of making an order from the only brewery in Labrador as I type this. Speaking as someone who started to explore the world of beer in the late 1980s, the choices I have now in all respects are greater than they have ever been.
Just to confirm/double check. The availability of beer styles increased along with, or due to, increased number of breweries available to you? In other words, more breweries to select from equates to more beer style choices? Is the increase of breweries due to organic growth (i.e., more breweries opened in the metro area)? Cheers!
Sorry. That was awkwardly composed. I think it is a variety of things. There has been a proliferation of breweries here locally and in Ontario generally over the past 8-10 years. And, while there are a fair few ‘IPA factories’ among them, there are also more breweries now that seem to offer a greater variety of styles. Some of that is from the proliferation of new breweries. Some, I’d argue, is from established maturing breweries trying new things. It has only been in the last couple years that I’ve noticed a bit of contraction with breweries closing. Even if that continues, the opening of the country to inter-provincial direct purchasing will only make selection more varied for me here in Toronto. The better beer bars here also seem to have the most variety of styles on tap that I’ve ever seen. For example, the current list at Birreria Volo: Bitter (cask) Light lager Pilsner Italian Pilsner Double IPA Sticke Alt Belgian Table Beer Pale Ale Dunkel Double IPA Czech IPA (?) Hazy IPA Fruited Sour Fruited Sour Imperial Stout Pale Ale Hefeweizen Sour Wheat Gueuze All of those from local breweries except the Gueuze, and all from what I would say are good or very good local breweries. My most recent visit there also saw a couple Czech style lagers, a Baltic porter, a dark mild, and a Grodziskie, etc.
While I was awaiting your reply I composed the below message. You will note that I discuss that in the past (e.g., 10+ years ago) I could readily find Belgian Ales such as Dubbels but lately not so much. I also happen to live in a Metro area (Philly area) which has had a vibrant craft beer scene for a number of decades. There are indeed more craft breweries (and associated choices) today than 10 years ago. And we could also make the argument that in 2015 there were more breweries and choices as compared to 2005. But when it comes to choices of beer styles, the trend is not quite a 1:1 ratio. For example, 10 – 20 years ago there was a fair selection of Belgian Ale choices (e.g., Dubbels, Tripels, Wit) and while in today’s craft beer market these beer styles can still be found locally but not in the same amounts as a ratio to the number of breweries. I could likely discuss other beer styles (e.g., English style Ales) in the same manner. In contrast there is a metric shit ton of Juicy/Hazy beers clogging up beer retailers’ shelves and on the beer menus at local craft brewery taprooms. Yes, you can still find other beer styles beyond Juicy/Hazy IPAs but the proportion of choices are ‘out of whack’ compared to 10 – 20 years ago locally. Cheers! P.S. And when it comes to the city proper (Philadelphia) the number of craft breweries today is significantly greater than it was 10 years ago; 10 years ago the craft beer scene was much more vibrant, in terms of numbers, in the Philly suburbs as compared to the city.
I started drinking craft in 2004 (when I joined this site). I don't recall breweries making Altbier, Kolsch, Czech Pale Lagers of various strengths, Czech Dark Lagers of various strengths (and both are appropriately named at breweries, Polotmavy, Rauchbier, Maibock...I could go on and on. Right now in my fridge I have locally brewed Rice Lager, Caribbean Lager, and a Polish Lager. I have a UK craft brewed amber ale as well. Last week I had a hazy IPA in Heady Topper, an unfiltered Helles from St. Bernardus/Weihenstephan (Kombine), an American IPA in Cosmic Shift from Lawson's, and a local New England IPA. Could just be my area, but I don't think I'd see even a quarter of those styles locally in 2004.
What I find best about the current situation here is that is that not only is there more variety in styles available, the quality of the beer is far more likely to be very good than it was ten years ago. Despite changes in the laws here, there aren’t many private beer focused bottle shops. There are some small ones, and yes, they tend to be IPA and fruited sour heavy in their stock. Maybe because that isn’t the primary type of shop we buy from, I don’t notice that problem as much. Here, if you want good fresh beer, you shop at the brewery. The government liquor stores have decent import selections (trappist beers, Jever, Urquel, Timothy Taylor Landlord, Weihenstphaner) but are otherwise not a good spot to shop. I had a quick check of my other favourite beer bar here and their current draft list is similarly diverse: American Lager Mexican Lager Vienna Lager German Pilsner Czech style Pils Wit Hefeweizen Mild (Nitro) APA Hazy IPA Hazy IPA West Coast IPA Triple Hazy IPA Fruited Sour Fruited Sour Saison Belgian Strong Golden Ale Tripel Flanders Red Oatmeal Brown Baltic Porter White Stout Ten years ago this would have been far more IPA heavy.
But, where is the Dubbel!?! Sometimes I do the same here but earlier today I stopped by my local Retail Beer Distributor and I found a 12-pack of Lawsons Finest Liquids beer that was packaged less than a month (6/30/25) ago. That was a purchase for me! Cheers!
Dubbel being my favourite of the Belgian styles, I’m with you there! (My profile picture is the first Westvleteren 8 I had in Belgium about 20 years ago).
This is slightly off topic, but I tried to recall if I saw those beer styles, and I kind of, maybe, remember that there was a pretty popular Alt beer that I think was available at grocery stores. This probably would have been closer to the mid-90s than 2004, does that sound familiar to anyone?
In contrast there is a metric shit ton of Juicy/Hazy beers clogging up beer retailers’ shelves and on the beer menus at local craft brewery taprooms. Just had to laugh (& agree with) the, 'metric shit ton' reference. And now for the US equivalent of "shit ton" I shall let someone else chime in....
Sorry, I meant to add that it was a US brewery. I think somewhere out wast. I saw that Widmer made an Alt, but I don’t think that’s either.
I don’t think I’ve ever had that beer, I’d like to though, it looks good. It seems like it had a red label. I was thinking Bert Grant because I liked those beers and I could get them at grocery stores, but I don’t think they made an Alt.
A couple examples of a bar and brewery near me: Notch Brewing: 10° P Czech Pale Lager 12° P Czech Pale Lager Polotmavý Tmavý Germany Pils Hefeweizen Berliner Weisse (no fruit but they do have syrups to add if you want) Dunkel New England Pale Ale Dark Mild London Porter Olde Magouns (list is from last month, but this is a typical list for them): Three Casks - Helles Bock, English Bitter, Belgian Golden Ale Witbier German Pils Helles Pilsner Adjunct Lager ('Gansett) Pilsner Hefeweizen New England Pale Ale English Pale Ale Irish Red Ale Belgian Golden Ale 10 New England IPAs Smoothie Sour (whatever that is) Pastry Stout Irish Dry Stout (Guinness)
Altbier is such a weird style. I feel like 90% of the ones I've had are just a standard American amber ales. Either that or they're based upon the sticke or doppelsticke bottles that Uerige exports. I was able to visit Dusseldorf a decade ago and it was almost like I'd never had what they were serving before. Well, maybe once, but you get the idea. Munich and Bamberg weren't like that. I'd had US takes on those styles before, they simply weren't as good most of the time. With altbier, it was like something else entirely. It's a style where we're full-on missing the boat entirely, for better or worse. And it's not like there are all that many attempts to begin with. I bet I've only had maybe 20-25 beers even called "alt."
We found old beer in the early 70s. We were always looking for oddball beers in the back of liquor store coolers in Southern CA at the time. Cascade from Blitz and A-1 from National Phoenix filtered into the market. Einbock Bock came from S&Ps CO Walter plant. A few of them were not good. We bought a half case of over-the-hill Huber Braumeister. We also found a lone six pack of Ballantine XXX almost a year after the brewery had closed. That beer, however, survived in fine shape.
I don’t think so much that IPA’s are the only option. They were pretty strong back in the day, what 10-15 years ago now? It’s the many options of ipa styles that the breweries are doing these days. They can only do so much with IPA’s. Remember when OH introduced the hazy ipa? Then Monks, thx to OH got in on the game in the west coast. We then had the east coast vs west coast haze craze. They tried cold IPA’s, brut IPA’s, etc. then came all the cryo, terpenes, and Abstrax crap. There are some breweries out there that are still brewing a good old bitter high ibu ipa. So yes, times have changed from 5, 10, 15 years ago. And then there are these seltzers, hard, soft or whatever you call them seltzers. So for most breweries the seltzers are there number one sellers. Not IPA’s or merch. It’s Seltz.
