Okay, here's why I ask: I see many beers on BA with 100 point scores (obviously we can't go higher on the scale), and that tells be that they are basically "perfect". However, are they? This is where someone with brewing experience can chime in. What can be done to improve a 100 point score within the next 5-10 years. In other words, is it possible that today's beer with a 100 point score could potentially be a 90-95 in the next decade. For example, what can be done to improve Heady Topper? If not, then we come back to my original question. Has some craft beer peaked?
Yes, historically when beers on here increase distribution there scores come down a little. In a few years these beers could be exactly the same but with increased distribution its possible they loose their "rare" factor and come down. Some would argue that if you review enough beer and are rating by style each person should have a 100 for each style. If you have tried 20 Pilsners and one of them is the best then how do you know that its possible for a better Pilsner to exist? No, nothing can be done to improve a 100 point score. But peoples taste change. What ever is the biggest, badest, new, possibly rare, hop bomb now wont be in 5 years.
Speaking of absolute bests though... arguably there will be no better beers ever made for some German examples and Belgian examples.
I think that American craft beer will continually get better and in 10 years we will be looking at Pliny and Heady differently. But after having Myrcenary DIPA for the first time last night, I dont see how. I just know it will.
Wait for the next high essential oil hop variety to be released, and beers formulated to show it off.
anytime you use the word SOME then SOME of what your talking about will be true so I think your part right and part wrong
What people enjoy changes with time. Those changes shouldn't automatically trigger a recipe change. Desires don't change 100% across the board, so some folks will still appreciate things being done the same way. Case in point: Weinstephaner Original. Should the brewers there be concerned with "making it better"? Hell no. It's already awesome and its fans would be livid if it were changed.
As other's have said...sure an individual beer can fall out of favor. However, you can only make a beer as good as the ingredients and process allow. So, for styles sake, I do not think they'll be a better Pale Ale, Pilsner, Stout, Porter, etc... than exists today. New ingredients may come along that change our perception of what a good beer in this style tastes like. But, for the most part, the ingredients that make up the base beer are being used to their full potential...and the processes to utilize these ingredients have been perfected.
No. People have morning wood about beer atm and the hype factor of blowhards on the interwebz is creating its own bubble that has infected actual reality in ways that it probably shouldn't, but indeed has. Beer has an awful lot fanboyishness to it and this creates some falsities in peoples perceptions. I can't ever give something I've only had once a perfect score. It could be like a great lay one night that turns into a cold fish if you hang out with it too long. Too many factors and variables at work that can make that godlike nectar of a beer seem great one day and taste like sweaty dirty ass the next.
