Classic craft beer?

On this particular thing, we are in complete agreement.

 

The new beer drinker comes from a much wider swath of the population today compared to seven or more years ago, when craft beer was a smaller and less celebrated part of the broader culture and there were lower social returns to being a beer enthusiast. Back then, there was little social capital to derive from craft beer, so the people who were getting into beer went out of their ways to seek it out and did so solely because they legitimately enjoyed beer-specific flavors. They often pressured breweries to push to the extremes of those flavor profiles, sometimes with unpleasant results.

Today, many people get into craft beer because their friends are into it, because local food writers and bloggers cover it extensively, because taprooms have become a significant part of social life in many markets, and because of popular social media outlets like Untappd (which has a user base that is orders of magnitude larger than those of BA and the other site). Craft beer is a much more ubiquitous part of the culture, and people easily can stumble into it without actively seeking it out. You no longer particularly have to enjoy beer itself or the flavors specific to it to find yourself getting frequent exposure to craft beer. That means there's a fundamentally different customer base on the whole.

My point is that it's largely a different set of people driving these trends: Beer supernerds in the past who pushed for aggressive, bitter hopping and the like (perhaps to a fault) and scenesters today who are happier with more familiar and accessible flavors that aren't necessarily inherent to beer. These are broad and perhaps unflattering generalizations, of course. Obviously there were some friends of beer geeks who were just along for the ride in the past and those who legitimately appreciate beer in and of itself who enter the hobby today.

 

I believe this to be a HUGE part of the "issue".

 

There’s “social capital” to be derived from drinking beer today? I think you’re overstating beer’s cool factor

The drivers for today’s craft beer trends are still supernerds from what I can see. Or you think the guys/girls lining up for 12 hours for the latest hazy 16oz/4 pack are the social return-seeking casual fan who just stumbled into the overnight line?

 

Remember that Millennials are an odd bunch.

 

I was always one who tried to pick up a ton of new beer every time I went to the Liquor Store but lately i'm finding myself sticking to my tried and trues: Samuel Adams Boston Lager, Weihenstephaner Hefe, and Muskoka Detour. To be honest, i've also had a taste for Miller High Life lately for some reason.

 

That's because it's the champagne of beers.

 

Lol! That it is...

The liquor stores here just got it for the first time last month so I've been indulging in it a little bit. I'm thinking the "newness" will wear off soon enough

 

My son is in the beer business, like his dad was. He came by last night for dinner, brought an outrageous Giraud Cotes-du-Rhone and a pint of beer.The beer was Casita Cerverceria La Di Da Di Double IPA, brewed at Duck Rabbit in Farmville. We split it in two Hitachino glasses and it was stellar. That 8 ounces was all I could handle. So many of these newly emerging beers are for sipping and savoring, not for really drinking. He drank most of my Sierra Nevada Pale Ales after that, and I helped!

 

High Life is my go-to when we hit up dive bars.

 

Honestly, I’m not trying to be a jerk here. Maybe it’s because I’m in Maine and everyone is brewing multiple hoppy IPAs, but how can Heady and Focal for example, put out $4 dollar beers which are excellent, yet this market, in my opinion, is flooded with garbage that pushes the $5 mark?
Solid, consistent beers are the only ones that get my money at $4/can. I’m asking @honkey as a brewer, do you see competitors producing inferior products and charging top prices to follow a trend?

Exactly. My New Years resolution was no more $4 beers unless they are from Vermont. Multiple breweries and styles across the board, and I’ve never had a Vermont beer that was a disappointment.

 

I have heard folks complaining about beers that don't taste like beer. They claim these new styles don't taste like beer and these new beer lovers enjoy them for that reason.

Can someone tell me which of the following styles, if any, taste like beer?

Spontaneous fermentation beers/Lambics
Imperial Stouts
Gose
Schwarzbier
Hefeweizen
Doppelbock
Kriek
Gruit
Sahti
Koelsch-style
Saison
Altbier
Flanders Red/Brown

Thanks for helping me figure out what the taste of beer everyone references is supposed to be. Cheers!

 

For me the "taste of beer" is associated with pale malt-forward lagers. Typically the American macro variety, but that can extend over to helles, pils, export, etc. The key is that bready character. Almost like Wonderbread, but richer. Not saying it's right, that's just what it means to me by default.

As far as "classic" craft beer goes, I associate that with the early 2000's. The era when microbreweries weren't all that common and they were mostly all making the same stuff. Blonde, wheat, porter, amber/red, pale ale, and maybe a fruit extract spiked blonde or wheat. Back when a big stout was a rarity, IPA's hadn't caught on much, and lagers were typically frowned upon.

 

I think there’s a lot of aspects to this question. The short answer is yes, there is a lot of bad beer out there with a high price tag. It’s entirely possible (and highly likely) that a lot of these beers that are of low quality still use high quality ingredients. However, brewing is so much more about your processes than it is about your ingredient list. Good beer can be made from low cost ingredients with good processes. I don’t think a good NEIPA can be brewed with low cost ingredients and I don’t think a world class example of any beer can be produced with cheap ingredients, but that a good or maybe even great example of some styles is possible.

 

Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

Well that makes sense. I drank my share of AAL before the craft movement.

Whattaya know I am one of those folks who drinks craft beer because it doesn't taste like "beer". I guess I have something in common with the folks that get disparaged for liking beers that don't taste like beer.

 

So being a malt forward drinker in a hop world, I’ve finally come around to “piney” and “resin” as a way of life, albeit limited. Now the IPA Revolution has moved to the opposite coast. I really don’t care where my beer originates mainly because of my location in Southern Wisconsin where I am blessed with many local and exceptional breweries.
By the time the trendy styles reach the Midwest, it’s already old news. Local breweries are quick to put out beers to mirror National trends like the lastest NEIPA, which I find delicious.
Fads come and go. There will always be a display of the newest, greatest beer at your favorite store. I take a look, smile and move along. Not for me. Not today, anyway.
That being said; I can’t imagine how boring and unimaginative beer, beer chat, beer shopping and the most important, beer drinking would be without the fads.

 

You made my day! Thank you!

 

Would that make you a millennial from the wrong millennia?

 

I think a very large chunk of them are relatively recent entrants into the hobby who quickly have become caught up in the trappings and hype of the scene and prefer drinks that emphasize flavors not historically associated with beer.

I'm happy to help: All of the above are styles that "taste like beer" in the crucial sense that they rely on flavors unique or common to beer, as long as we're talking about examples that don't use flavorings (the more fruit-forward, cloying examples of kriek lambics would be exceptions) or hops intentionally designed to deemphasize, distract from, or cover up beer-specific flavors and replace them with flavors associated with other familiar edible items (such as tropical fruit juice).

There are some very good beers that don't "taste like beer." I'm thinking of, for instance, the heavily cherry-dependent New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red, which is famous for being enjoyed by many people who otherwise don't like beer (as well as appreciated as a change-of-pace drink among beer aficionados).