The Next Big Thing

Call me cynical, but even if such a brewery-rich system were to develop, I doubt the demand for exotic whales would ever diminish. People in passionate niche hobbies like this one want, to take from the thread title, "the next big thing", not something good and easy to obtain. Convenience, consistency, and, on occasion, quality are trumped by prestige every day, unfortunately.

 

More whales means less whales. Get it?

 

I think the next big thing will be a return to normal sized beers (<8%). Brewers are going to examine what flavors are obtained in barrel aged imperial stouts, DIPAs, etc. and try to capture that in a way they initially only thought was possible by going bigger. The same concept that attracts people to session IPAs, but without the novelty of calling it a session. Right now, not including sours, there are only 14 beers in the top 100 below 8% (16 sours below 8% for 30 total in the top 100).

 

I would like to see more "food" flavored beers. Not like full on chicken flavored stout or anything but more things like chocolate cherry cheesecake stout, apple pie ale, sour cream sour... well that's probably be gross, but i hope you know what I mean. There's endless flavored to experiment with food wise.

 

They sound good on paper, but I have yet to try one that is good.

 

What is funny is that I feel sour beers are also polarizing, there are just more people who like sours in comparison to smoke beers.

Me - I'll take the smoke beers over sours.

 

Seeing you are from Georgia I assume you're referring to Liquid Bliss. But if you ever get to Jacksonville, check out Green Room Brewing - their Peanut Butter Shakula is everything that LB should have been.

 

Yea, I've had liquid bliss and sweet baby jesus, both just awful. But I will definitely check them out next time I go down there!

 

Gin is not aged like whiskey, so I don't think there is such a thing as "gin barrels". Maybe there is something out there that I don't know of. In any case I find gin disgusting and don't want my beer tasting anything like it.

 

Also one in Manhattan. Great bar but I have never used the automated by by the ounce machine once.

http://www.bin220.com/keg-home.aspx

 

Boston Beer Co. brewed a **** Ale with a "..rooster...boiled whole in the wort, and BBC's own specially selected spices -- cloves, dates, and coriander..." back in 1996.

 

Rum barrel.....great warmth and flavor without the bracing boiler maker effect that in some cases is done fantastically, and in others just overdone and off-putting.

 

I recall about 14 years or so ago there was a "thing" at the growler station called Randal The Animal which had fresh hops in it for a few select beers for a dry hopping effect. Tasty depending on what was put through it.

Odd, but unique.

 

The next thing, which I am dabbling in with home brew, is fruited Berliners and other fruited sours aged on tropical fruit wood. Mango sour in mango wood, peach sour on white sapote wood, ect....can't beleive no one is doing these yet....

 

actually I'm now thinking there might be a return to adjunct lagers for value, drinkability, and most importantly for hipsters and hipster sympathetic individuals - being contrarian.