The Problem with American Craft

I would agree that there are breweries that make average beer, but there are also breweries that really know how to use hops to make something interesting and unique.

On the other side away from IPAs the variety in American Craft beer is great. One brewery can make sour, ipa, amber, hefe and barrel aged imperial stouts all under one roof. That is pretty awesome.

 

I don't understand what the issue is? If a brewery sucks, the market will drive it out. That's capitalism. Thats the beer market (barring the massive light beer). If a brewery is mediocre, don't fucking buy it. If a brewery is amazing it will rise above. There are an unbelievable amount of breweries doing this. Complaining about too many options? Give me an example of a brewery getting pushed under because of too much mediocrity surrounding it. I need examples of actual issues.

 

My recommendation would be the same as Mitch Steele's: if you're going to open or operate a brewery, please hire someone who knows what they are doing.

 

The 2008 BJCP guidelines specify German Pilsner's IBU range as 25 to 45, so Starkbier had that a little higher than what is in the guidelines.

 

This goes back to the OP first post. Way too many beers on the market right now that are not fresh and sitting there as the brewer designed. It's a shame picking thru 3 month old IPA's on a regular basis, or 3 month old Fest beers. This glut of beers is obviously good and bad, good because growth is healthy, bad because there's so many brews that they die on the shelf. If someone does buy, they decide it sucks, and blame the beer, and won't buy again, a real dilemma to be sure.

 

Agreed. I'm not seeing it as a "problem". @Rekrule did a nice job of listing some pretty poor beers and brewers in our region, but when I examined the list, most were disappearing from shelves or going out of business, not taking market share from better beers. Quality is winning. Yes, every new local brewery is going to get a shot, they will land on shelves...and somebody will buy it to try it. After that, they need to earn it. That's just the process that plays out in any competitive marketplace. @nc41 makes a good point as well, the volume of beer is more than people can or will drink. Some goes unsold, others clutter shelves past the date when it should be consumed. I think retailers need to become better educated, and buy with a little more care and understanding.

 

You don't even want to know how much of my beer budget goes to precisely that store, and that import section. Unless I'm south of the river near The Party Source or Party Town, it's about the only place around one can expect to find good German or Belgian imports.

Even that store has many of the issues previously mentioned. They allocate shelf space aplenty for local beers which range from decent to meh to worse, I'd estimate at about the size of the import section alone. The other US craft beer they carry, they carry in absurd quantities, which tend to sit forever on their non-refrigerated shelves or (usually only if good beer) wind up getting priced at ridiculous rates to move. Meanwhile, beer that most everyone agrees is meh keeps shelf space at full price. Last week when I was there, they already had Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome ale from 2014 offered at close to a 50% discount to get it out of the way of something else they want to put out, while a seasonal strawberry shandy from Traveler (with a good until date stamp of August 2014) was still camped out at full price despite obviously not moving. I'm predicting a January fire sale on the dozens of crates of Great Lakes Christmas Ale they've got stacked in piles everywhere from the Ohio beer aisle to the end caps in the beer section to a giant batch near the registers in the beer & wine section, since I've seen Edmund Fitzgerald on sale for $10 for a 12 pack there before at less than a quarter of that volume.

I've talked to one of the Ohio distributors that supplies the place, and gotten the quote that JJ's literally orders everything they get in from every craft brewer they carry, full stop. If the beer is sold in Ohio, they want it, regardless of quality, and it will sit until it sells. I'm hoping the good stuff sells well enough to not get shoved out by accumulating more non-good beer in the name of offering variety, and that the import selection also holds its own, rather than the decision coming down one day to stop carrying the good in favor of the inferior. So far, so good.

 

ISO: German brewed Pilsners which have hop levels greater than Prima Pils

(need to do my homework, I guess)

 

Nothing. It's a free market and will continue to evolve. The shitty beer will die off and the rest will evolve. Kill or be killed.

 

I would strongly recommend that.

Cheers!

 

Look on the "bright side": at least you don't have to go to Germany as part of your homework! I'd also strongly recommend cherry-picking which brewery employees' anecdotes about hop levels you believe, too!

 

FT: A time machine.