It seems like brewing ingredients/techniques/styles tend to hit the market all at once, with a different variation from just about every brewery. A good example would be the session IPA craze, and before that it seemed like every brewery and their mother was making a saison. But what really has me writing this post is the recent influx of beers made with blood orange. There's a bunch of them out there now and it seems like they all hit the market at once. Is there a Skull and Crossbones type of underground beer society that dictates what the new brewing trends are going to be?
I think it's all about inspiration and then the mass appeal follows. The other day i was at the beer store and saw a sour altbier from a German brewer called Methusalem. You think that could catch on here? I think local culture and tastes do a lot for beer trends.
I would say competition over underground beer society. Although, there is considerable collaboration.
Its actually consumer-driven. Brewers make beers that the customers want - power to the people! If you buy more of a certain beer, brewers will make more (inventory gets depleted). If you don't like it, brewers will stop making it (inventory piles up). I can only imagine how many German brewers of yesteryear are rolling in their grave! Was chatting it up with a 6th-generation brewer in Germany last week, and he said the thought of doing a sour at his brewery was "out of the question." He further went on to say "if the beer is sour, something went horribly wrong." I replied, "but your hefeweizen tastes a little bit sour..." He was not amused! and how do you feel about that?
Diverse ingredient use, low abv/session-style ales, sours and wilds... these all seem to be on the upswing - it's natural to expect that if one brewer finds success with one that other brewers will give it a shot, too.
Trying to get out what the customer wants is perfect. One question I have is how do you filter out the initial demand of tickers to get what the constant demand would be?
its really hard - because nowadays, perhaps more than ever, the beer customers want the "shiny new toy" its easy to sell one-offs these days - as a matter of fact, that is some brewery's entire business models! Release a new beer every month, and let the people soak it up. You never have to worry about repeat customers for that beer - its one and done. What truly is harder is to create a stable of beers that you can make over and over again, with a repeat customer base. To answer your question - how you do that is look at the true daily rates of sale once the initial POP has subsided. That will give you a better idea of what the real customer demand is like. cheers
@Sixpoint nailed it. Breweries will release whatever the customers are purchasing. When a particular beer style sells extremely well (session ipas) every brewery should be looking to put one out as quickly as possible.
Brewing is just like any other business. If something is trendy and selling well, there will myriad versions on the market in no time. I'm not complaining, as there are always standouts.
I would like to see barrel aging used as a factor and not the feature of of beer. I spoke with Matt from Other Half about this and his insight made a whole lot of sense.
Distorted variations on the true Gose to create a sour. Jammer is the only master Gose that has come out recently.
I'd love to read any documentation you have. Any links to PDFs or scanned pages? EDIT: I found your page.
