I went to a beer festival last weekend. I admit I was not paying a who lot of attention to the age of attendees but it seemed like a younger crowd than Jack indicated he's seen lately. I'd say primarily 30 to 50 maybe. One of my locals, NoFo Brew Co has a very young crowd but they cater to families. Lots of people there with kids on weekend.
Interesting It’s been a long time since I thought they produced an interesting beer Don’t they own Dogfish?
They do. I looked up Boston Beer Company and they own a bunch of brands, but I only saw two that were beer. Maybe I missed one.
I can’t keep track of the generations, but I keep going to brewpubs where it’s a thing to bring your toddlers - lots of young families. Not sure it’s always the beer - maybe just the best local space where it us relaxed enough to let your kids run or toddler around
Well, that is great news! In a couple of weeks I will once again be attending the Real Ale Invitational Festival event at Yards Brewing in Philly. I sincerely hope to see a 'younger' crowd there as opposed to prior years. Cheers!
I'd be surprised if a real ale event attracts a mostly under 40 crowd. I'd love to see younger people embrace it though!
Lately I have noted the absence of French Broad beer in the supermarket, specifically Ingle's. I always peruse the beer area when I go to the store, looking for something new, different, on sale, etc. Over the last couple of months I noticed that the normal French Broad selection was missing. Typically my local Ingles carried 4 different FB beers, but now none. The space is now filled with offerings from other local breweries, specifically Pisgah Brewing. I have mentioned this to several others, who have since reported back that FB beer is also not to be found in their local Ingle's. I know retail shelf space is a competitive market, and if it doesn't move, it will likely be replaced with something that does. Ingle's left that space empty for months post-Helene when FB was shut down for 8+ months and restocked with contract-brewed FB beer (brewed at Carolina Brewing) until FB started brewing again.
Apologies if someone else has already noted this (EDIT: I see that @unlikelyspiderperson made generally the same point)—but this part of your message suggests one aspect of the problem, and it might be more the fault of the patrons than the breweries. It strikes me that some breweries are under pressure to constantly pump out “new” beers instead of just producing a core lineup of solid offerings. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with making 90% the same beer year round and every once in a while making something special—a lot of the most successful breweries do this. I remember looking at Treehouse’s list of “unique” NEIPAs and just thinking, (1) this is pretty stupid and (2) it’s unsustainable. If customers need constantly new beers because they’ve been trained by Netflix and other streaming services that they need to constantly be consuming something new and different, and not just enjoy something good over and over again, then I don’t feel that bad for them. Plenty of European breweries have lasted decades or centuries making just a handful of beers really well—maybe it’s time American breweries learn the same lesson.
I think these are really good points. I came to expect new, different beers - as a way to attract my business. But if the majority of the patrons aren’t interested in that, then I can understand why they don’t emphasize this. My local brewer almost never has new beers, instead focusing on production and distribution. And he’s now the biggest brewer in my state. I also agree the Treehouse model of constant new releases is not sustainable. At some point, they will be forced to focus their efforts in order to support all the capital investment they have in place — maybe distributing, allowing their beer to sold at bars, having decent food (not horrible pizza) at their sites.
I just think customers have been trained, for better or worse, to always expect something new. It’s part of ticker culture. But there’s something to be said for having a few favorites and knowing they’ll always be available. I’ve never been to Treehouse—would love to visit sometime—but I just don’t think it’s possible to have 10,000 meaningfully unique permutations of one beer style. And even if there were, do we really want or need that?
And, being the cynic I am, I wonder just how many of those are truly 'unique' beers, and not just renamed batches of an existing recipe.
I don’t think that’s cynical at all. Whether duplication of recipes is deliberate or inadvertent (or so slight as to make no difference), no one is going to be able to tell every single variation apart anyway.
Solid core beers are essential, then a good seasonal rotation where you can make tweaks for creativity seems to nake the most sense to me.
I sometimes think the multiple variations of one beer (we all can name a few "series" beers here) just make them all less special. What was wrong with the first recipe? Why not make a new and different beer if you are bored with the original? I know people will point to revenue here, but it seems to start to be self defeating at some point. (Taking my naive glasses off now.)
Yeah I suspect that the market is moving away from the ticker culture. I may be wrong, but that's my guess
Paging Alesmith Spedway Stout... some of the variety 4 packs I've seen, I'm like... huh? Meanwhile, I've liked just about all the variations of Hi-Wire 10W40
