9 faded beer trends per Mother Earth Brewing

I do kind of miss the Randall fun. One of my favorite events was an annual thing a local brewery used to do where they would serve you a French press of their flagship ipa on top of various different hop varieties.

Obviously not the ideal practice for long term beer quality, but it was a fun way to experience some of the character that different varieties of hops imparted

 

What's a Randall night? Add a tenth faded trend: bottled beer. That's the one that impacts me.

 

A Randall is basically the housing for a water filter that breweries would fill with various flavoring ingredients and run beers through. In my experience it was common to have one beer that was run through a variety of different flavoring options. Like maybe a stout that could be run through coffee beans, cacao nibs, or vanilla beans. Or a pale ale that could be run through oranges, pineapples, or spruce tips.

 

Use your search engine for 'Randall the Enamel Animal'. It was DFH invention.

 

Best Randallized thing I ever had was a chocolate stout through a Randall of bacon.

 

In all my decades of this, I have never seen, let alone sat on, grain bag furniture. And breweries were apologetic about the spent grain bins. Now, brewers just brew with oddball ingredients/hops, and the need for a Randall has gone away. I liked nitro'd IPAs and such. I miss Firkin nights.

 

ISO. Of course, I could probably just cut up a smoked ham hock and stuff it into a French press with a KBS Chocolate Stout. What could possibly go wrong?

 

That's one "innovation" I'm glad I missed.

 

That's a search phrase that I didn't hit on.

 

Yeah those two didn't hit with me at all. I definitely remember how common it was to be basically sitting in a corner of the production warehouse, around barrels and cable spools as tables. But why the hell would they let you sit on their grain? And I have never experienced anyone celebrating the smell of rotting grain at a brewery.

Eh, it was a good time most of the time. Very lighthearted and exploratory. Like some others mentioned above, all that "whackiness" has been fully integrated into brewing and beer culture now.

 

I used to slip away to the grain room and rearranged a few bags for a wee nap on occasion, and others may have done the same for, uh, other, purposes, but I've seen it in the public areas. Mighta been a local thing around the author?

I have seen plenty of yard sale tables and chairs used though, and they were far more comfortable than those damned metal abominations that pass as chairs and stool these days.

 

I don't know, most of that was all great reasons to actually go to a brewery. Yeah I remember most of this (outside of sitting on grain sacks, and I never did the "untappd" thing)...back when breweries knew what they were, and people wanted to go cause it was...fun. I would say modern American "craft" breweries are every bit, if not more fad and trend oriented now than ever...

Juicy/hazy IPA of the day, that is the same as yesterday, just with a slight variation in hops.
Or just calling everything some form of "IPA" if it has any amount of noticeable hops. Or calling it "West Coast" just cause its not hazy.
Whatever a "Mexican Lager" is to craft breweries that use to make fun of adjunct lagers, but oh well. But hey, they use lime and salt here so OK
Punny beer names from a bad band, and awful uncreative label artwork.
Harry Potter/Marvel/Taylor Swift trivia night
Run clubs
Kids playgrounds (and I grew up in bars with my parents, don't mind kids in bars/breweries, but come on with the playgrounds)
Food trucks that will sell you a $5+ taco
Hmm...about half of this is trends and fads that are not beer oriented...like they use to be.
But what do I know?

 

I still have (and use) my 64oz. growlers and 32oz. squealers/howlers (howlers called as such from the Happy Basset, dog-themed brewery in Topeka, KS.).

 

The first two are the most disappointing to me, though I never saw a lot of cask ale, I just flat never see it now around me.

Growlers (and their half counterpart, "howlers") got mostly replaced by Ball's Crowler after going through COVID. Quite a few places near me have switched back to allowing glass, and I always have a couple in my car, but there are a bunch of places that don't do either now.

Randall was fun, as I recall first running into it at a DFH-aligned restaurant many years ago. I think VA law stopped it at some point as an "illegal alteration" of alcohol or some shit.

I never minded the 750mL as I had an adventurous partner to share such beers with.

Also, I thought the last section of the article was pretty much well-stated. For better or worse is for each of us to decide.

 

Aaaaaaaand a-NOTHER thing, regarding the article and disagreeing with the disappearance of growlers & squealers/howlers, the Lawrence Homebrewers Guild is still going strong (and even MUCH more stronger than when we founded it in 1995) after 31 years and even though al-U-min-eyum crowlers are more convenient than glass, anybody else look side-eyed at the newer, cap-screwed 25oz. or so 'crowlers' at the same price as the older 32oz. crowlers (even though it's nice to be FINALLY able to recap a crowler like a glass growler/howler)?

I'm not complaining, just making an observation that for some breweries, a crowler is 25oz. not 32oz.
Again, I absolutely LOVE the re-cappability, just not the same price point for 7oz. less brew.

Cuss & dis-cuss over yet a-NOTHER 'listicle' article, I just popped a 750 of the 2026 Surly barrel-aged Darkness 12%er so be warned, there might be a few more (ahem) "pointed" posts coming as I'm only a third of the way through the bottle......and yes, yes it's all going down the hatch this afternoon because as the good doctor Gonzo said, "when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro"......and I'm nothing but a professional at this point......as well as an 'old man'.....and.......

"HEY you KIDS! GET OFF MY DIGITAL LAWN!"

 

https://www.dogfish.com/blogfish/randall-returns-version-30

The technical term is organoleptic hops transducer

 

Yeah, but I'm on a more personal level with him and I can use his nickname.

 

Just read the headers, but I agree with all of them. What a fast history we've been through. Welcome to beer in 2026.

 

Something I was not aware of
Sounds like a bad idea