Next mainstream style

Fat Tire already has created the hype of Amber Ale for the masses. So, to the masses, it is possible for them to gain more steam. Unlike IPA's which most craft beer nerds love, I don't see us all flocking to Ambers however.

 

IPA will just continue to get bigger. Stouts and sours will likely grow too, but I think the meat of the growth will continue to be from IPA.

The market for expensive stouts and sours to be sitting alongside expensive wines at restaurants is huge and untapped imo.

 

I think pumpkin beers have become "mainstream" as of the last 2 years. A lot of my usual BMC/Blue Moon drinkers at the bar all drink pumpkin beers in October. Especially since Shock Top and Blue Moon mass produce them.

 

I hope people drinking Shock Top and Blue Moon aren't thinking that they're drinking craft.

 

Amber ales are good to go in my book...if some more start getting put out, who am I to complain?

 

About 6 years ago I thought that I was. People who are used to drinking BMC assume they are drinking high quality beer once they veer off from light lagers.

 

Don't get my hopes up for more tasty ambers please. I loves me some amber.

 

Lighter barrel-aged beers. The macros already have the mainstream female demographic with gimmicky orange slices on super fruity witbeers; now they'll conquer the mainstream male demographic with gimmicky appeals to bourbon and whisky flavors. In fact, this is already happening with A-B's recent forays into barrel-aging with "Project 12."

 

I'm going with porter and dark lager (including dunkel, schwarzbier) as two likely candidates. Already seems to be good momentum for both styles and they will gain popularity as more people discover that not all dark beers are super-alcoholic and overpowering.

 

Sour IPAs.

 

Ambers were already the "Hot style", 15 years ago when Full Sail Amber, Alaskan Amber, and Widmer Drop Top were everywhere.

 

That's actually a good hypothesis. Especially with all of the new trendy commercials for Guinness Dark Lager.

 

Judging by a conversation I overheard at Pegs the other night I can assure you they do. A woman sat down and tried to order a blue moon or a shock top. I was internally laughing my ass off when the waiter said the closest thing they had to a Belgian white was the Berliner Weisse since it was wheat based, but he assured her it wasn't he same. She tried it and made the warhead pucker face, I loved it.

 

Berliner Weisse! In cans! I've read it was the most popular beer in America once.



I can dream , right?

 

If only, if only

 

Ready for this one? Old ales. I don't necessarily think there gonna be the next IPA but I seem them heading real mainstream about 5 years out. Complexity and "obscurity" are both things that the masses love and BMC and just about everyone else already have it on their radar, it might be right on the edge of their radar but its there. Call me crazy, lets hear what ya think

 

Schwarzbier/bocks/dark lagers in general. Need the proof?

Source: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/10/23/big-breweries-go-dark-to-attract-craft-beer-set

 

Whenever I have my cousins and their families over, the case of porter (Sierra Nevada or Anchor) tends to disappear first. These are generally not craft drinkers, either- at their houses I usually drink Becks, Corona, Blue Moon, stuff like that- so there is a familiarity with Guinness, pretty much. An easy-drinker along the lines of a porter or schwartzbier isn't that much of a hard sell to this crowd, and could be positioned to become bigger.