Has Craft Beer Jumped The Shark?

Exactly, the critical statistic is not the current failure rate but the failure rate among breweries 2 years and older.

 

I answered no, but I have no idea what jumped the shark means.

 

Your point is poignant, but the 20 year contrast you have chosen to make your point is dialing back the clock to well before the shift. I too remember the craft of 1995 and before that...and it was a bit shit....but that doesn't mean some riduclous shit is not occuring (e.g, upstarts coming out of the gate with $29.99 bombers or $12.99 twelve-ounce bretted saisons) today.

 

No way!

*Takes sip of porter brewed with smoked pig parts using yeast from the brewer's beard*

 

My point was simply a reply to the claim you sometimes hear in threads like these that the olden days were so much better. Fine -- change the 20 year timeframe -- was 10 years ago better? 5 years ago? What I'm saying is that, even acknowledging the craziness out there -- $30 bombers, $15/12oz saison, whatever you like -- today is still pretty darn good if you want it to be. Last night, I picked up a mix a six of fantastic IPAs, all 4-6 weeks fresh at most, for $10. I happen to be on a hop kick at the moment, or I would've filled the pack with stouts and browns and lagers, of which there were many fine examples. The point is: selection is great, sure there's issues (crowded shelf space, zany "innovative" beers being proffered by baseless upstarts, yadda, yadda, yadda), but those, at least in my neck of the woods, aren't precluding me from enjoying the many fruits of craft beer -- i.e., tasty, fresh beer.

 

Absolutely....better times across the board, but that won't stop the internet's pulse (hate sporting)

 

To me it's like salsa was about ten years ago. All of a sudden there's like a hundred different kinds/brands, and many failed and disappeared. I'm in the Chicago area and it seems way saturated to me, and surely many of these startup breweries are not gonna last five years. The other point people are making, somewhat, is that too many try to do too many things. Nothing wrong with producing 3-6 really good simple beers. After a certain point there's not that much difference in different IPA types, to me, so just stick to one that's good, make sure it's consistent, work on the branding and run it into the ground. That goes double for the fruity/experimental variations, but that's just me. There are still a ton of breweries around here I haven't even tried (Pipeworks for one) mainly because there are too many choices. A neighbor friend recently opened a brewery/taproom and I fear he's gonna have a hard time differentiating himself from such a crowd.

 

Hey, I liked the episodes where Fonzie Jumped over the shark. Over course I was 11 at the time.

 

My Imperial Pumpkin Citra Lager (brewed with pumpkin puree and released in May) disagrees!

 

The only thing that has jumped the shark here is the term "jumped the shark" and that happened years ago. The state of craft beer is just fine, and yes it's okay to use the term craft beer. It's very easy to know when a consumable good has outstayed its welcome - people stop buying.

The great thing about the current age of beer is that if a beer or a brewery takes a nosedive in quality or sells part or all of the company to an entity that you may not approve of, there will always be someone else waiting in the wings that will gladly take your business and offer you better beer.

 

Damn, I hate it, but that Polish salsa for pierogies never caught on!

 

Last time I was in there, talking to J.C., the plan was to be able to expand retail and draft accounts using the new brewery. They aren't going out of state (or even past Worcester,) from what I understand, but you should be able to find Trillium beer - at least the basics: FPPA, Trillium, Congress St, - in many places within the 495 belt.

 

I think you're roughly accurate about the typical lineups. I'm just exactly on the other side of that preference.

 

I don't think you have to choose! That's my point. Still lots of wheats/pale ales/Irish reds even (Fate has one on right now!). In addition to those, there's other stuff for folks with other preferences.

Not suggesting this is the golden age of beer -- I don't even know what the golden age would look like. I just happen to think the pluses outweigh the minuses.

 

problem with producing just a few great beers is that people may lose interest, since variety is what keeps this ship sailing

 

The notion of craft beer as a whole doing anything seems overly reductive. There are great beers out there, and solidly run businesses to boot, but some people have lost perspective. Not atypical.

 

Plus the stuff that pushes boundaries makes the rest of beer better

 

Hopefully this means Artaic won't completely sell out in 1.5 days even though it was released in the middle of the week (still salty about that).

 

I actually did prefer 6 years ago mostly because you could actually buy things like Cantillon, BCBS, KBS, Pliny...without all the trouble and I think the overall quality was better. On the flip side, a number of great breweries I love didn't exist 6 years ago and many areas like my hometown of Cincinnati have actually blossomed from awful in the late aughts to very solid places to be as a beer geek now.

 

Fair enough, my friend -- there are certainly gives and takes here.