Where Is Craft Beer Headed Now?

Other than mountain biking all of the 'movements' dave mentioned were also rebirths of a sort. Cannabis has been cultivated for psychoactivity for around 7 thousand years and the hippy and GD movements were about rebirthing either a simple land based community culture (hippies) or a paganesque mass spiritual experience in nature (grateful dead). So there might be more parallels there than it seems.
I'd be interested to hear from anyone here who was brewing at home before it was relegalized. Not a part of the culture i experienced but they might be able to highlight some more parallels to the marijuana thing

 

Or music. Could just be music.

 

I will answer part of your question at the moment and perhaps come back with more thoughts on where this space is going in the future.

I never considered myself part of a movement or craft beer a movement since I began enjoying it. Perhaps this is due to age differences, the time I joined the space, and the fact that I was never in the vanguard of any other movements. I do find your comparison of the movements and analysis of the “infiltration” of each interesting.

Reading about the history of the craft beer in the US, in books like Steve Hindy’s Craft Beer Revolution and Tom Acitelli’s The Audacity of Hops, specifically when the industry was in its infancy, evoked for me feelings of a “movement” afoot. But I do not get those feelings today as a participant.

 

I've been a fan of the Grateful Dead since the late 60's... own a large library of LPs, fewer CD, and a large digital library. I've been to a number of their concerts, but was not part of the Deadhead caravan. I loved their musicianship, their jamming style where they never performed the same song exactly the same way. The long interludes were generally fabulous. I also liked just about everything Jerry Garcia did separate from the Grateful Dead. I also like pointing out the diversity of their catalog to anyone who thinks they were a psychedelic rock band.

I was in college in the 60's, so I experienced a lot of what @cavedave mentioned about marijuana first hand, but it is exceedingly naive to think that big money was not always behind it.

I've never considered myself to be any part of a "movement" with the Grateful Dead... I just liked their music. And, marijuana was an experiment for me, left behind when I graduated.

Craft beer for me is enjoying good beer, with my personal grounding being with the pub experience in England in the 80's. It has never been a movement for me.

However, I don't like the direction it is going. It is too much chasing the latest "thing" rather than brewing good beer, or even true innovation. Case in point: Minnesota is awash with mediocre NE IPAs that everyone (it seems) is chasing like they were the elixir of the gods.

 

I like this conversation at this time. In 1968 I was 17 years old, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were killed just in our view that year. I was instantly politicized. I was dead fast against our involvement in Viet Nam and was well versed in the colonial history of the region. Ho Chi Minh tried to guide us, but oblique doctrinaire politics won the day(s) and steered us into oblivion. The notion of an ever growing monolithic communism ruled the day. At least 52,000 brave American soldiers perished as a result of this faulty policy. This was long ago, but was formative in my thinking and action forward into time.
Weed and beer and bikes came later. But music was at the core of our culture at the time.I could go on and on. It was a very powerful time of direct action for one's beliefs.
Dave's words are prescient in a time of moral quietude.

 

I have at last count around 180 Grateful Dead albums, studio,live,bootleg etc. Garcia and Weir side projects.Not counting original vinyl Dead, Hunter, Weir albums. I've never done a drug in my life, don't care if anyone does, just not my thing. Don't own tie dyed clothes either. The acid tests seems to have cemented that association with the Grateful Dead, individual band members personal tastes aside.
Workingman's Dead is the seminal album showcasing multiple influences in my opinion

 

Where are we going? And, why are we in this handbasket?

 

Hah! And what do you mean "we"?

 

Great post Dave.

I haven’t a clue where it goes to be honest and I’m a terrible BA. I’m very one or two dimensional and rarely stray from my comfort zone. Perhaps any forward moves are completely lost on me as time goes on. I’m shy on Belgians, almost nothing on sours, light on funky beers. If I’m still here in 10 years odds are it’s still Pils, dipas, the odd BA Stout. I’m actually quite boring beer wise.

 

I too do not feel like I am part of a movement. I drifted towards European beers in the 80s because of the taste. When I experienced one of NC's first craft beers at Weeping Radish and later, beer from the Oxford brewery near Baltimore, I was pleasantly surprised and became interested in something other than big US adjunct breweries. Most of my buddies just thought I was a snob. Can't say I was ever a Deadhead although for awhile, I had a number of Garcia ties. I am however, a Parrothead. Of course, we know that Jimmy does not necessarily support craft beer given that his original backer was Corona and now he has Landshark by In Bev.

I am also concerned that too many craft brewery startups are chasing different styles before they have mastered their original brews. I have had a few local breweries that seem to be doing just that. I wish they would focus on maybe three styles and get it done right before adding 8-10 other styles.

 

With the Cannabis we don't have to go back that long if focusing on the US. According to more than one source I've come accross it seems that while hemp was grown in colonial America the medicinal/recreational the reports of use of Cannabis started showing up post the Civil war.

e.g., https://www.history.com/news/marijuana-criminalization-reefer-madness-history-flashback

So perhaps the parallels that exist don't involve rebellion as much as they involve renewal or rebirth.

 

Yeah, I always wondered what was in those peace pipes. And I know a number of kooks that drove to Indiana along those rail lines harvesting very poor quality hemp rope-like weed. And boy, did it stink bad!

 

I don't know what's the next new thing or where the whole deal is going but I'm glad to be aboard for the ride. A few years back I took a tour at the Wild Turkey Distillery and our guide stated that "today is the best day ever for the bourbon business and tomorrow will be better." Substitute "craft beer" for "bourbon". Unless the industry somehow "blows it" the future is good. There will be the natural ebbs and flows - yes, some outfits (even big ones) will go under - but someone else will step up to meet the demand. After all, beer and brewing, while an art and skill, in the end they are a business at the professional level.

I've been drinking beer regularly for 43 years (a couple of them not so legally) and today IS the best day ever as far as choice - and tomorrow will be better. That I do think is certain. The beer scene in my part of the world continues to evolve into something better almost monthly.

The Bud Light drinkers of the world don't know what they're missing. We should have pity on them - not scorn them! In the interest of full disclosure I still like some scorned beers - some of them A LOT!

It is a good, check that, GREAT, time to be a beer lover!

 

The fact is that all fads come and go. Is craft beer a fad? It certainly isn't for me, but I'm afraid for some it is. I can't explain the meteoric rise recently any other way.

I think we'll see contraction as many new to the fad gravitate towards other things. Craft spirits seem to be gaining in popularity. Marijuana legalization will certainly have some effect. Even a recession will be bad news for some of the new hyper-local breweries selling $20 4-packs. I don't think the growth is sustainable.

There will still be a robust market for those true advocates, and there are many of us. But, I just can't see how small towns like mine can support 4 local breweries, plus 2 craft bars forever.

 

The local beer in many locales scene will continue to be emergent. I have Foothills, Highlands, and Sierra Nevada from Mills River in my fridge. I did not plan on that,,,,

 

for some it definitely is/was. but if you look at the die hard 'tribe' that continues on today it is as much or more about the whole tribal-nomad-meeting-up-for-massive-quasireligious-get-downs lifestyle. Of course any one of these (or countless others) movements is huge and diverse and can't really be talked about without overly broad generalizations.

 

Liver transplants.

 

I hope not! Speaking of craft spirits, a comparison might be to how American craft has spread to Europe, even places that have long and respected traditions. They're not going to overturn all that, and likewise, recently read an article on how the majority of Americans still drink AAL. Will ales ever replace lagers as the "popular" choice? Or at least balance things to 50/50?

Also wonder if one day there won't be a such thing as craft vs macro, just "bad" vs "good", or small vs large. Besides, some of the larger names being distributed worldwide prove the two aren't mutually exclusive. Still, I wonder where we'll be in another hundred or two hundred years (assuming US lasts so long as an entity).

 

Would love for English brewers to stick to embrassing, expanding and improving their English beer styles. Same for Belgium and Germany and not trying to make American IPAs and such.

Then we need all laws changed so people can order beers online from any small brewery from anywhere in the world on Amazon Prime and have it fresh delivered to our doorstep in less than a week! How awesome would that be? :-)

 

I think the difference is that in USof A NEIPAs are still fairly new style and the best ones are loved by so many people that most every other brewer out there is trying to make one on par so to speak. Not sure there is any historical literature on the subject, but what about when English beers (IPAs, Milds, ESBs etc) or German lagers first started being brewed?. I'm sure there was 1-2 brewers who nailed it well, the many others tried to mimic but many were really bad beers and took decades later for enough brewers made beers at a high quality baseline and thus create a great beer culture in their respective country will good beers found everywhere. US craft breweing as a whole, I think has finally transitioned at least out of child stage to adolescence. Obviously there are scattered "adult" brewers out there and places in the US with a mature beer culture (Portland OR, Vermont etc).