r/Homebrewing • u/innsource • Jun 11 '21
Craft Beer Brew Humor
So I run a liquor store which speciallizes in craft beer. #1 store in the state, to be more specific. I live and breath beer. If I'm not selling beers or ordering beers for the store, I'm buying beers, reading about beers, brewing beers, out with beer reps drinking beers. You get it.
Over the past few years I've been getting more and more disenfranchised with the what is being considered "craft" beer. This really hit hard with feedback from my last 3 batches.
Super crisp- clean, sessionable Lager: Too boring
Top tier West Coast IPA: Too bitter, not hazy or fruity enough
Marshamallow Dessert stout (I wasn't happy with sub-par quality) AMAZING!!!
Long story short, I want to brew more "Craft" beers. Does anybody have any recipes for a good New England Double Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Tropical Salted Caramel Double Dry Hopped Extra Oat Cream Vanilla Milkshake Chocolate Raspberry Icecream Sour White Stout Infused with Mint, Hibiscus and Truffle oil?
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u/shockandale Jun 11 '21
>New England Double Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Tropical Salted Caramel Double Dry Hopped Extra Oat Cream Vanilla Milkshake Chocolate Raspberry Icecream Sour White Stout Infused with Mint, Hibiscus and Truffle oil
Sooooo crushable, sesh that.
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Jun 11 '21
There has never been an easier time to access a huge variety of craft lagers than today and yet all you hear from beer snobs is “why are there so many IPAs? Why aren’t there more LAGER options???” It’s just the same shit you’d hear from beer snobs 25 years ago, except with the styles reversed.
I get it, you think the kids aren’t alright. You liked beer before it was cool. The good news is that there’s tons of beer for everyone. We’re spoiled for choice, I don’t get why we need to see this rant 20 times a day on beer reddit/Instagram/etc.
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u/HerrKarlMarco Cicerone Jun 11 '21
Absolutely correct. If you don't like the newer styles, don't buy them. But chances are, the brewery who makes your favorite Czech lager is making a pastry stout because it helps keep the doors open. Let the brewers make what the market wants, let the market buy what it wants.
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u/kelryngrey Jun 11 '21
Yeah, there's a constant flow of whinging about places keeping the doors open. I hear it here in South Africa and we are absolutely not drowning in NEIPAs everywhere you look, but there are still people that are pissed that some exist. Don't like it? Don't drink it. Don't want to brew it? Close your business if it's the only thing keeping it open and you somehow can't stand to have a job.
You can brew all the old school Dortmunder Exports you want for fun, but a business lives and dies by selling product.
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Jun 11 '21
Indeed so. When the going got tough, the tough brew lager. Look at Devil's Peak and Jack Black. While they're famous for what was once brilliant IPA, they are big because of lager.
Breweries that moan about not being able to keep the doors open in a market where craft is unpopular and all the beers are fringe recipes, clearly don't understand the concept of marketing a popular product and selling the less popular drinks on the side.
Let's take a burger joint. If they sell pizza, and people don't buy pizza from them, have they failed as a burger joint?
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u/kelryngrey Jun 11 '21
I think the lager thing is a bit of a double-edge sword in South Africa. It can be a struggle to convince a not terribly craft savvy public to spend a lot more for a lager than they're used to paying for an SAB product. At least when you're making a funky wild hop bomb they can say, "I can't buy that at Checkers Liquor in the fridge for 30 Rand."
I think that's place where wine has an edge - people think novelty is worth money for wine everywhere. Beer has historically been sold and mass-marketed into an ultra common drink.
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u/TaiwaneseGoat Jun 12 '21
True true.... I understand that you have to keep the doors open but... making "craft" lagers in a market where you can buy Windhoek and Tafel (arguably one of the best traditional lagers money can buy) is not really adding to the variety out there and making beers the macro breweries can't make. But like you said... That is the problem with SA as a beer market, beer drinkers are just not into paying three times the price for a beer that they are not used to BUT they are also smart enough to not pay three times the price for a beer that is equal to or worse than the lager that is already in the fridge at the bottle store.
I remember walking into the Old Biscuit Mill market one morning many years ago (think it was around 2008) and seeing a small stand purporting to sell craft beer called Jack Black... They had a lager on tap... I asked them whether they had anything else to which they replied "not yet, we're starting with making a great lager to introduce the public to a better beer in a style that they already know. When they realize this is a better way we'll introduce different beers to them..." I was like oh-kay... I bought a pint and was thoroughly underwhelmed. Turns out, that lager is still the best thing they make and it's still not as good as the ones I mentioned above which costs half the price... So yeah...
Also, if you want any chance of getting different styles of craft beer, you can't leave Cape Town...
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u/Rsubs33 Jun 11 '21
100% this. Forest and Main outside of Philadelphia opened focusing on English and Belgian styles and they were amazing, but you could only get some of their saisons in bottles and do some growler fills. They started brewing hazy IPAs which allowed them to expand increasing their production and allow them to start canning. I moved to NY, but when I visit my parents I love that I can grab cans of their ESBs, Bitters and lagers to bring back with me. I can go into my local Wegmans and get a bunch of Jack's Abbey no problem. People who bitch about the new styles just come off as snobbish and are just as bad as the people who look down on those who drink macro brews.
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u/HerrKarlMarco Cicerone Jun 11 '21
Damn skippy, and you can read the same story in dozens of breweries. I admit I was a styles snob until I got employed in the industry and did work behind the bar and in the brewhouse. It really broadened my views on the industry. There's a time, place, and market for hazies and adjunct laden beers as well as to the BJCP style letter-correct styles. Just drink the beer you like and the beer that supports your local community.
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u/h22lude Jun 11 '21
This may depend on location. I have maybe 12 to 15 breweries within a 20 minute drive of me. I have a bunch of liquor stores with great beer selections. There is not a huge variety of craft lagers here. And the lagers that are brewed aren't very good IMO. I do live in the NEIPA belt (North East). 50% of the beers at each brewery are NEIPAs. Each brewery may have 1 lager on tap and that lager will be slightly hazy with a strong hop presence. Luckily the liquor stores have good selection of German beers so I just stick with those.
I think people are just getting tired of the same beers on tap. I don't think this necessarily applies to canned beers. If you go to a liquor store, you will have more selection because you have all the breweries in one place. However, at least for my location, if someone doesn't like NEIPAs, they have a very limited selection on tap at breweries. NEIPAs are king. About 50% at each brewery. 35% will be sours and stouts. The remaining 15% will be others. So for those people that don't like the trending beers, they really don't have a good selection. And I can see why that would get annoying. But it is what it is. Breweries need to sell beer and that is what is selling right now.
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u/thingpaint Jun 11 '21
Each brewery may have 1 lager on tap and that lager will be slightly hazy with a strong hop presence.
I really don't like trend of throwing fist fulls of hops in everything and not labeling it. I bought a brown ale the other day that was so hoppy I couldn't drink it. If you're going to do that at least put a warning on the can.
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u/h22lude Jun 11 '21
My preference would be to call it a hoppy XYZ or pilsner hopped with XYZ hops. I've had too many "German pilsners" overly hopped with non-noble hops. I'm all for experimenting and not sticking within the style but at least state that on the can or on the tap board.
I'll start this next statement by saying this is all speculation. If I had to guess, at least for my local breweries that overly hop lagers, they can't make a proper lager. It is hard to hide off flavors in a pilsner...unless you throw in a bunch of hops.
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u/thingpaint Jun 11 '21
I don't know if it's hops hide all flaws, or most "craft beer" people won't buy a beer that's not supper hoppy. But it's gotten to the point where I don't want to buy random cans any more because the beer in the can is probably not the style that's written on the can.
It drives me nuts because I don't like hop forward beers.
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u/h22lude Jun 11 '21
IMO, I don't think craft beer drinkers want all their beers to be hoppy. NEIPAs and hoppy pale ales are big but I don't think that means people want all styles overly hopped
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u/thingpaint Jun 11 '21
There's got to be a reason people keep buying them.
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u/WDoE Jun 11 '21
New sells better than old. And there's waaaay more new hop varieties than new malt or yeast.
There's also the romanticism of hops.
There's also the issue that pretty much everything with high hop character gets thrown in the IPA bucket. There's more variance in IPAs than any other category. While not completely relevant to why we see hopped classic styles, I think seeing half the menu be IPAs then seeing a hopped lager really changes appearances. But when you think about it, half a menu of hop forward beer and the other half malt forward is really balanced.
I can tell you that besides maybe a small touch of diacetyl, hopping isn't going to cover faults in a lager very well. DMS still shows up. Sulfur still shows up. Autolysis shows up.
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u/h22lude Jun 11 '21
I don't think people hate those beers. They are still going to buy them. But I don't think that means they wouldn't prefer them to be closer to style.
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Jun 11 '21
I get what you're saying, but 20 years ago or so, there likely weren't 15 breweries within a 20 minute drive of you (or at least for most people). So, while each of these new breweries may have 50% of their taps as IPA, you're likely still getting a huge more variety on tap, directly from the brewery, than people did a short while ago. I don't think that's a bad thing.
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u/h22lude Jun 11 '21
I guess it depends on what variable we are looking at when talking about variety. Each variable has its own variety level.
If there were 10 taps in my area 20 years ago and now there are 100 taps, I have more variety to pick from in terms of individual beers. However, if those 10 taps 20 years ago each had completely different styles but the 100 taps today only had 3 styles, there was more style variety 20 years ago. The style variety is what I'm talking about.
Don't get me wrong, I like having tap variety. I just wish there were more style variety.
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u/anthropoll Jun 11 '21
Thank you so much for saying this. It often feels like a large part of the beer community wants us to go back to the days of purity laws. No one's allowed to be creative apparently, and God forbid you have fun with anything.
Thankfully they're only the vocal minority.
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u/thingpaint Jun 11 '21
The good news is that there’s tons of beer for everyone. We’re spoiled for choice, I don’t get why we need to see this rant 20 times a day on beer reddit/Instagram/etc.
Honestly there really isn't around here. I've gone to "craft beer" bars and ended up ordering whiskey because all they had on tap was IPAs. I get that people like IPAs, but some of us don't, and it's disheartening going to a brewery and realizing you like 0 of the beers on tap because the head brewer thinks the only appropriate flavor is hops.
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u/Bovronius Jun 11 '21
I mean, I whine about IPAs, but that's because an abundance of hops do not fit my pallet at all, and my favorite brewery that was mostly dark beers had a bunch of amazing ones, but, unfortunately my liver couldn't keep them in business alone and they slowly transitioned to 75% IPAs, and maybe 2 dark beers during the winter, 1 for the rest of the year.
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u/shoreman46 Jun 11 '21
I like the term “Candy Beers”, I’ve heard a few times and use it myself.
I also like Denny Conn’s “Beer Flavored Beer” comment.
I can feel a “micro brew” revolution influenced by early craft styles coming soon - all those classic styles like american brown ale, Porter, blonde ales, etc will be coming back around. I’ve been seeking them out myself and brewing them if I can’t find them.
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u/shoreman46 Jun 11 '21
I hear ya, there’s always Sierra pale ale, but yeah try finding a straight up Porter these days.
I’m lucky to have Allagash here but Belgian styles have just about fallen off the radar - it sucks. So I brew and bottle a saison regularly.
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u/make_fast_ Jun 11 '21
american brown ale, Porter, blonde ales
Please happen, please happen. Throw in red ale, steam ale, plain jane stouts and some lagers (although those are surging a bit now) and I'll be pretty happy in the beer aisle.
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u/dahappybanana Jun 11 '21
That'd make me so happy! Good brown ales are hard to find, and generally they leave nothing to hide behind because they're all about balance.
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u/pear-shaped-jack Jun 11 '21
I spend all year waiting for Bell's Best Brown to be in season. Living in VA I missed it last year due to distribution issues. Can't wait until the Fall.
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u/Radioactive24 Pro Jun 11 '21
If you like steam beers, look for "California commons".
Anchor Brewing has a stranglehold on the "Steam Beer" trademark, so breweries legally can't call them steam beers, even though it's a style.
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u/tato_salad Jun 11 '21
yes please.. My current beer in bottles Blonde ale, wee heavy (nothing stupid) Bells Expidition stout clone (no additions) Simple summer wheat 1 Simple summer honey wheat brewed with local ingredients Rebrew of simple summer wheat 1 Piwo Grodziskie (I spelled it wrong)
On tap to start brewing for for falltimes: Alt, and Brown ale, Maybe A Rye.
I brew simple beers, because I don't want to dick around with additions and I don't want to make a 100 ingredient beer.. Nice simple beer for me
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u/thingpaint Jun 11 '21
I can feel a “micro brew” revolution influenced by early craft styles coming soon
Oh I wish. Every brewery around me has 9 taps of IPAs and NEIPAS and 1 tap of a Budweiser clone. It gets old.
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u/shoreman46 Jun 11 '21
People will eventually move on from those IPAs- it’s just going to take a little while. I’m close to where the style originated neipas and it’s slowly changing, lagers are all the rage as of late.
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u/Pugnax88 Jun 11 '21
I hope that's what's on the horizon, as I'm getting real bummed with the current beer landscape. I've been looking for places that put browns and American pales on tap
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u/QdelBastardo Jun 12 '21
With that, I can't remember the last time that I could find a non-fruited gose.
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u/GingerThursday Jun 11 '21
I just refreshed my taps and this post hits home.
Dry Stout
Bock
IPL
Bourbon barrel aged imperial chocolate vanilla milk stout
What's happening to me? I never felt the change happen!
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u/orzm Jun 11 '21
Hey is no one gunna answer OP's question? Because I wouldn't mind that recipe too hahaha
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u/Frenchy1892 Jun 11 '21
Haha brilliant. I totally feel ya. Sub-par beers and breweries often hide behind the word “craft” as some divine protector. It is quite tiring!
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u/Jawbox0 Jun 11 '21
In this case, it's just that the feedback is on the style, not the beers. If you want the quality of a beer judged to style standards then enter a competition.
Generally people like what they like. A perfectly beer in a style someone doesn't care for is *always* going to lose out to a mediocrely brewed beer in a style someone likes. Best of show always goes to the unique beer, not the cleanest example of a style.
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u/sinburger Jun 11 '21
No no, sub-par breweries the hop the shit out of their failures and call it a limited run IPA.
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u/ByrdMass Jun 11 '21
It's funny to see these comments all the time. I live in a small college town in the Midwest where the best option to pick up craft beer is Kroger or Meijer. The only hazies I see are from New Belgium, Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams, etc. They are pretty good, but hardly taking over the shelf. I NEVER see dessert stouts or fruited beers. This seems like a coastal problem haha.
Here in the Midwest, I guess the breweries are more restrained. Bell's, Three Floyds, Great Lakes, Rhinegeist, New Glarus, Sun King, the list goes on, but I don't see a lot of weirdness out of these guys and gals. They all make great beer-flavored beer. Another reason life is better in the Midwest!
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Jun 11 '21
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u/LukaCola Jun 11 '21
I literally couldn’t find a “regular” Porter the other day at the shop without other things added to them.
Porters aren't a great example though, in large part because the style had basically fallen out completely until really recently.
Founder's also makes a basic porter that I'd recommend.
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u/TheReverend5 Jun 12 '21
Founders porter, Deschutes black butte porter, Anchor brewing porter, Sierra nevada porter, just to name a few off the top of my head. I am pretty sure I could get those 10 years ago. I know for sure I could get Anchor and Deschutes in Tempe, AZ.
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u/marimbloke Jun 11 '21
We get most of those beers, plus the more out-there stuff here on the east coast. You can always buy the classics if you want. I'd argue that's better!
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u/shoreman46 Jun 11 '21
I buy a lot of Bells and I’m in New England - I just picked up a 12 of Oberon, hard to find an American Wheat beer anywhere. Their imperial stout Expedition is amazing too, 6 pack of bottles, no candy in there and I think I paid $12 for the 6pack. It’s a big beer for special occasions.
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u/burmerd Jun 11 '21
Yeah, I think part of it is there is no PNW equivalent to spotted cow… maybe there just couldn’t be? I could see anchor steam filling that niche, but it doesn’t.
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u/ridethedeathcab Jun 11 '21
Yeah this complaint is a bit weird to me. Being from Cincinnati I'm definitely spoiled with some great selection just from the city, but most of the breweries have at least one each of a lager, and amber/red, a blonde, session IPA, classic IPA, etc. And then they also have some more out there stuff (Braxton collabs with Graeter's, Rhinegeist IPAs and barrel aged, etc.), but most of them have made a market of being fun places to hang out, so they try to also make beers for a wide range of people including the person that is prefer Bud Light. Sure if you go somewhere like Urban Artifact you'll be let down, but that's because they're a smaller place who's found their niche in sours, don't like sours, don't go there.
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u/cexshun Jun 11 '21
Wow, this surprises me. Been into craft beer for 20 years and I live in Indiana.
Three Floyds has always been considered an extreme brewery. In fact, the main complaint people had about FFF back in the 2000s was that they were too extreme and never brewed anything "normal". But by today's standard, since they aren't brewing a cloudy milkshake basil curry saison, they are considered "restrained". LMAO
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u/Ksp-or-GTFO Intermediate Jun 11 '21
Sounds more like rural vs city. I am in the Midwest and there are plenty of places locally doing fruited beers, sours, desert, hazy, all the other ones. Fun to try but I do wish it was easier to find traditional styles
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u/ridethedeathcab Jun 11 '21
This kinda reads like the anti-beer-snob snob. Like these are the same kinds of things I hear from people who hate craft beer in general and just drink Bud Light. "Isn't there any normal beer". People like what they like, and brewers are often interested in exploring their creativity and pushing boundaries. I'm sure there's still plenty of beer in you preference to choose from it just may not be dominating the market right now.
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u/EazyPeazySleazyWeezy Jun 11 '21
For me it's about being well crafted and still tasting like "beer." Some of these super fruity, hazy, lactose etc beers taste more like juice. And I find a lot of these examples are catering to a target market and are not well-crafted.
Also, when EVERY beer on the shelf is some kind of "unique" fruit/haze beer, it creates a kind of monotony. For as different and crazy as all these beers are, liquor stores' beer selection is boring cause it's all the same stuff.
But that's just me. To each their own. I'm just gonna be excited when the tastes shift again and classic styles get their resurgence.
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u/ridethedeathcab Jun 11 '21
I guess it just seems a lot of these complaints are highly exaggerated. Unless the markets we live in are extremely different it is not hard to find standard craft beer. New Belgium (Fat Tire), Goose Island (312, IPA), Sam Adams (Boston Lager), Sierra Nevada (IPA, Torpedo), Bells (Oberon, Two Hearted), and many others all have flagship beers that are pretty traditional and all distribute across nearly the entire country.
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u/EazyPeazySleazyWeezy Jun 11 '21
For sure. Those beers will always be there and have been there for forever. But also I've drank those to death by this point in my life. Most new beers that are being distributed bend towards the current additional ingredients beers and haze craze stuff. For better or worse. That's just how the beer shelves are right now.
While some people are exaggerating, i'm really trying not be hyperbolic when I saw if I take off all those beers from the shelf that well over 2/3 of the shelf would be empty. And what's left has some gems certainly. But it's far from new. As someone who's been looking at these shelves for quite awhile, it's impossible not to see the shift. Which is fine, I guess. Just not for me. I'd personally rather eat a bowl of Trix than drink a beer that's trying to taste like it.
To me the beer shelf was more diverse and interesting when all the breweries weren't making just hazy, sours, and dessert beers.
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u/sinburger Jun 11 '21
I like beer flavored beer, and I also like fancy candy/fruit beer. I definitely understand the frustration when the market is flooded with candy beer at the expense of well crafted beer-flavored beer.
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u/poscaldious Jun 11 '21
Had a weird moment once where I stood back and saw monkeys arguing that his fermented grain juice was better than the others because it had more flowers in it...
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u/toadi Jun 11 '21
dude it is fucking beer. Snobs try to ruin everything... I'm Belgian and we love our beers but please keep the beer snobs out of it. I stay clear of wine because of this. I always I don't like wine but it is actually the culture around it I de-test.
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u/barley_wine Advanced Jun 11 '21 edited Jun 11 '21
Not trying to be a snob but the current trends around my area are kind of weird to me. Seems like they are often beer that tastes nothing like beer, fruit slushy mild sours, milkshake IPAs, flavored seltzer, I don’t care though, drink what you like, I’ll continue to brew what I like. If you don’t like my beer bring you own.
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u/TheDrMonocle Jun 11 '21
Yeah I've seen this too. Its not that the beer snobs are taking over, its more of the opposite. The average person who doesn't like classic beer has found what they like and its beer thats not beer.
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u/OccamsLazerr Jun 11 '21
Why does that matter? The breweries are obviously going to follow the market. Your dollar isn’t worth more than anyone else’s just because you like “real beer”. I love the classic beer taste and I promise you, if you have enough energy to post about it on reddit, you have enough energy to find decent beer around you anywhere.
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u/TheDrMonocle Jun 11 '21
It doesn't matter. They should absolutely follow the trend, I was just commenting on what I've been seeing. Didn't mean anything negative by it, just an observation.
As far as my beer thats not beer comment, I think that also came off wrong. All i meant is it's a bit further from beer than what came before, not trying to say its worse.
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u/OccamsLazerr Jun 11 '21
Reread your comment and you’re right, you didn’t say anything negative. I guess I was just ascribing the vibes of this whole post to your comment. My bad!
I would say my only gripe is the idea that many craft beers are “beer that’s not beer”. If it’s got water, grain, yeast, and hops, it’s beer. You can say it’s far from its roots and you can say you don’t like it, but it’s still beer.
Ignore the second paragraph as I typed it earlier today before I read your reply!
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u/JustinM16 Jun 12 '21
Is braggot beer or mead?
Discuss.
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u/OccamsLazerr Jun 12 '21
Lmao. To me it’s always been a normal beer with a lot of honey added at flameout.
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u/toadi Jun 11 '21
I'm happy my country has a big beer culture. So we like classic beers. Regular pils, triples, trappists, ... Regular stuff.
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u/ilikesports3 Jun 11 '21
I think the US is missing a lot of that middle area. We have a lot of creative fruity or hoppy stuff and a lot of imperial malty beers, but we're missing a lot of the established, traditional styles that are truly fantastic.
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u/LukaCola Jun 11 '21
I don't think we're missing it tbh. Not only is there not much of a shortage of, say, the many pilsners, but some of the larger craft brewers in the US all have pretty classic styles that are regularly provided.
Allagash, Sierra Nevada, Bell's, Stone, Two Roads, Ommegang, and I'm sure many others regularly put out mainstays that fit pretty well in the traditional styles.
Many of them also experiment - but that's no sign that the traditional styles are absent.
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u/ilikesports3 Jun 11 '21
I agree there are a handful of breweries that keep focus on traditional styles, but from my experience, the vast majority of breweries (and craft beer available in groceries) are 80% hoppy or fruity beers. Rarely do I find a good red ale, brown ale, ESB, bock, dubbel, etc.
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u/barley_wine Advanced Jun 11 '21 edited Jun 11 '21
Weird the downvotes, it's kind of true. I think it's an overcorrection, when I was real into the craft beer scene 5-10 years ago, everything was going to the extreme of appealing only to craft beer fans, You'd have double IPAs, Russian Imperial Stouts, all the like, high ABV extreme flavors.
Now you have the opposite correction, craft beer is becoming even more popular and you have the move towards the direction of flavorful beers that don't taste anything like a traditional beer, full of fruit, lactose, whatever else to make them very appealing to the non craft beer drinker. The goal now seems to be beer that replicates desserts but doesn't really taste like traditional styles. It's kind of smart though, near me the places that have moved to the new crowd are doing way better than the ones that that aren’t following the craze.
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u/ridethedeathcab Jun 11 '21
They were getting downvoted for saying that people who like this stuff don't like beer, it's like somebody who only drinks bud light telling somebody asking for an amber "Why can't you just drink normal beer". Beer is such a diverse thing that just because you enjoy a sour or fruity beer doesn't mean you can't also enjoy other styles. I personally love a juicy NEIPA on a hot summer day, but would also love more traditional styles. It's just a kinda smug comment.
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u/TheDrMonocle Jun 11 '21
Putting a lot of words in my mouth.. but I can see the interpretation.
Didn't mean to put down what the new trends are. Sure they're still beer, I was more just talking about my observation of the current trend vs beer snobs taking over.
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u/ridethedeathcab Jun 11 '21
Yeah I'm not really trying to say that's what you meant to say, but it often gets interpreted like that from people who likes something, and then being told "well that's not real XXX".
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u/TheDrMonocle Jun 11 '21
Inital downvotes we're probably because they misinterpreted what I said, which I get. Came off wrong but didn't mean anything negative about the trend. Just thats is a bit further from beer than your traditional stuff. But reddit be fickle.
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u/burmerd Jun 11 '21
It is funny how tastes swing around. I also remember going to many different small craft breweries, I dunno, 10 years ago and so many of them were like: and this is our RED one, it is red, or possibly amber, you will like it. THIS is our BLONDE one, very special, slightly feminine adjectives used for this one, very boring sexism employed. Next is our DARK one, it is darker than the others and occasionally compared to a coffee or a chocolate. Finally our IPA one, this one is BITTER and will be compared to a divorce or a kind of woman we don’t like who is angry.
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u/Ehloanna Beginner Jun 12 '21
Me: I just want a decent, typical Belgian or German style
Breweries: Best I can do is 10 different versions of IPAs
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u/beetrooter_advocate Jun 12 '21
That is what I was finding with wheat beers here in Australia. They were all the rage 10 years back, every micro brewery had one. Now I just do a 50-50 pils-wheat every few batches to scratch that itch.
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u/Ainjyll Jun 11 '21
Its all about the adjectives. The more words you have to say to tell someone what it is, the better. It makes things seem fancier or more important if you use a lot of words.
Why say it’s a BLT on wheat with mayo... when you could say it’s local heirloom tomato and butterhead lettuce complimenting perfectly cooked thin-slices black pepper and maple-cured pork belly on two pieces of sunflower seed and oat crusted whole grain wheat bread with a creamy avocado oil emulsion?
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u/TheSunflowerSeeds Jun 11 '21
Sunflower kernels are one of the finest sources of the B-complex group of vitamins. They are very good sources of B-complex vitamins such as niacin, folic acid, thiamin (vitamin B1), pyridoxine (vitamin B6), pantothenic acid, and riboflavin.
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u/mirthilous Jun 11 '21
Plus, you can charge more for the one with the second description. Which might be part of what is going on here.
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u/GivemTheDDD Jun 11 '21
If the internet has taught me anything, it's that there seems to be a snob community for everything. You might as well open a California winery if that's the community that's gonna critique your product.
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Jun 11 '21
Exactly. (Well except I think you mean disenchanted v disenfranchised, I know I'm a dick)
I tolerate it in the home-brewing community that, particularly beginners, want to experiment with putting every ingredient in a restaurant into their beer, but I just don't get why producing a well made beer of a tried and tested sort is considered not worth it.
I have a beer club box that gets delivered as I mostly drink my own and like to have a change and live in the middle of nowhere, and whereas once upon a time I'd crack them all pretty quickly, now there's always a few that suit there for weeks before being begrudgingly drunk as a dessert or whatever. Can in there now that's a milky chai stout or something. Maple pecan Danish something and a fruity milk smoothie IPA. Frankly it's rather a pilsner urquel to any of them any time
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u/chicknsnotavegetabl Jun 11 '21
Trying to stand out in a crowded market
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u/thingpaint Jun 11 '21
It works, I've ordered more than one beer because "that sounds insane, I have to try it"
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u/warboy Pro Jun 11 '21
As an actual professional brewer I'm getting more and more sick of a overly vocal minority bitching about "the definition of craft beer."
First off, lagers are huge right now as are session beers. If you want to bitch about haze bros then maybe put your money where you mouth is and buy clear beer. There isn't a single brewery that's successful that puts out a product that doesn't sell. Those would be failed breweries. What successful breweries make is driven by the consumer. You as a retailer should know this the best.
No one wants to yeet $1000+ of hops into a tank and loose 30% of the batch. Breweries are not doing this because they want to. Same thing with the stupid adjuncts.
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u/tato_salad Jun 11 '21
I like good beer.. A nice simple altbier or stout with some character will do it for me.
I also like weird beers.. Sure I"ll try a raspberry stout with Marshmallow or whtever. You have a Chai Tea brewed wahteveritis sign me up. but not going to buy a 6er of it. Jalapeno Cream ale.. sure hit me up. I have 2 local beer places that have a metric ton of craft beer from all over. It's how I learned to love TOOL CYMK and bought them out of it (like 7 bottles). I also hate sour beers and HOPS MAX 12,000Hour IBU BURNER,l and HAZEMAX SUPER FRUIT SMOOTHY!
Good news for me is my friends love everything I brew and they love my stuff so I'llkeep doing it. They're not picky even my "boring" beers they love and say I should sell.
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u/stiffpasta Jun 11 '21
What the fuck is up with vanilla in every sour out right now!
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u/michaeltheobnoxious Jun 11 '21
the same thing that drives breweries to add lactose to literally every-fucking-thing!
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Jun 12 '21 edited Jun 12 '21
Just do something simple, made from local ingredients and brewed well. If it’s good enough for Gordon Ramsey to base a career on its good enough for you. Don’t change for trends. Just do a good job.
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u/Acey_Wacey Jun 11 '21
I’ve been so bored with craft beer lately, that really all I am looking for is something that suits my tastes now and affordable. These brews with a million different flavours always taste very “sameish” to me now. It’s kinda like using every colour in a crayon box on one section of you’re picture. It always ends up being brown.
Anyways my tastes have changed, sours got me into beer and brewing, but now when I can finally brew again I am going to try and make pale ales. Super boring but it’s what I’m enjoying.
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u/dccabbage Jun 11 '21
I serve in a beer bar in Portland Or. I have been a home brewer for 15 years, and am a style nerd. I love a nice west coast ipa, schwarz, or Belgian double.
But my manager can hear my eyes roll when I walk into work and see a fruit infused, sour, milk shake, double hazy ipa on.
We've strayed to far from the source and the signal is getting weak.
I'm all for people finding a beer they like, but if they say they want an ipa and that is what they like, then they don't like ipas.
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u/Simpsator Jun 11 '21
And I bet you dollars to donuts that hazy DIPA sells 2-3x more than an old school west coast IPA in your bar. I mean, businesses sell what sells, and stop selling what doesn't sell. The only reason all the craft breweries brew so much hazy IPA is because it sells far more than other styles. At the end of the day, they are businesses, and they have to do what's best for the business.
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u/Perfect_Line8384 Jun 11 '21
I’m all for the hazies, but when we got to fruited lactose bombs... you don’t like beer if that’s all you drink.
Also jfc beer is calorie laden on its own.
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u/Hadan_ Intermediate Jun 11 '21
milk shake
lactose in beer cant go the way of the dodo soon enough! its silly in stouts and its only downwards from there
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u/Rsubs33 Jun 11 '21
You realize that lactose has been added to beers for over 100 years right? The first milk stout was brewed in 1907.
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u/navidshrimpo Jun 11 '21
The irony of this is sentiment towards beer purity, fixating on "classic" recipes, and "beer flavored beer" is that it's defining "beer flavor" as beer that tastes like 20th century industrial beer, which, throughout most of beer's history, represents only a small fraction of what "beer" actually is.
Beer is a canvas, and as brewers you guys should appreciate this. Not only is it a canvas for modern flavors and experimentation, it has an even older history associated with medicine, magick, and even just plain sustenance. In other words, probably even weirder than a marshmallow stout. Beer archeologists have helped bring some attention to these old beverages. What do you think an ancient Mesopotamian alewife would have to say about your "beer flavored beer"?
Nevertheless, culture evolves. IPA is the "beer flavored beer" of many modern cities, and it you would have to be in denial to say otherwise.
That said, I don't like that these modern flavored beers are always so sweet. They're pretty much diabetes bombs with little to no nutritional or medicinal qualities.
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u/BrotherChris Jun 11 '21
I read what people are brewing now a days and I just can't get into it. I guess I am an old stuck in the mud old fart. I brew just the classic styles and nothing else. No umbrella on top of my beer glass...
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u/zeethreepeeo Jun 11 '21
Just stick to your guns. I gave up on catering to people’s tastes with my brews a long time ago and I’ve enjoyed my brewing so much more. Focus on what makes you happy and it will show in your beers.
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u/Draano Jun 11 '21
I've been seeing a bit of the opposite - breweries around the state have begun brewing & canning beers to style - bohemian pilsners, porters, IPAs - but they're lackluster examples of the style, almost like they're dumbing it down for the Corona crowd. The color's right, the hops are roughly to style, but they're lacking... something. Kind of like Blue Moon vs. better-quality wits.
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u/Trub_Maker Jun 11 '21
It is truly sad when I go into a taproom with 50 handles and there is not a beer I want to drink. I just try to support the places that do have a good selection. And I always have a solid pale and a west coast IPA on tap at my house.
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u/beeps-n-boops BJCP Jun 11 '21
Yep. If I walk into a brewery and half the taps are some variant of hazy-something-or-other I just leave.
I love beer. Almost every style. And I want and expect variety when visiting a brewery or beer bar.
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u/Leven Jun 11 '21
Of course your lagers are boring, that's the definition of the style, nothing stands out so you can drink 15 in a night, throw up and then drink some more. And the best examples are usually found in 7/11 and the corner-shop, why should they think yours is amazing?
West coast, same thing except they made the public hate ipa's because most of West coast made are crap (with a few exceptions) and only taste bitter.. And don't get me started in the 'IBU wars'.
I've brewed many types, and the hazy dipa style are fun and challenging to make well. They are accessible and have great variations with nz hop combos and yes, even lactose. It's the same with Russian impstouts with adjuncts..
It's simply more interesting, something they hopefully haven't tried before, that's what they like.
Order some Other Half DDH dipas, find a good one and try to replicate it, I'll wait..
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Jun 11 '21
This is what happens when fucking hipsters start getting "in" to brewing.
They take a great thing, and Starbucks the shit out of it until it's barely recognizable.
My condolences OP. Don't worry. When the hipsters move on to whatever they want to ruin next, beer will still be here for us.
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u/Rene_DeMariocartes Jun 11 '21
So what you're saying is that you were into beer before it was cool? I hope that flannel is keeping you warm.
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Jun 11 '21
I was into beer en utero. I'll gate keep the shit out this beverage against hipsters. Water - Hops - Barley - Yeast. The end.
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u/Rene_DeMariocartes Jun 11 '21
I was into beer en utero
I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make fun of someone with FAS, but that does explain a lot.
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u/ridethedeathcab Jun 11 '21
Damn we better tell all the traditional brewers that /u/Impossible-asset doesn't think they were making beer because they were adding something other than those 4 ingredients. Spices, other grains, and fruits have long been added to beers.
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Jun 11 '21
Then they aren't beers. Are they bad? Probably not. Are they drinkable? Probably so. Are they beer? No.
Here you go fam. Nice chatting with you. Give my regards to the rest of the "we'll make anything we want and call it beer because we feel like it" hipsters.
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u/NervousMorning8107 Jun 11 '21
My brothers girlfriend from Mexico always laughs when we bring home the newest beer and it has a minimum of 5 description words in it. 😂
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u/FluxD1 Jun 11 '21
Lagers are difficult for me to brew due to not having temperature control. But when the heart of winter sets in and my root cellar hovers in the 30's I load up. We had a wild ice storm at the end of January and I made two of my best beers to date: a 5% Vienna Lager and an 11% Doppelbock
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u/barley_wine Advanced Jun 11 '21
W34/70 can handle higher temperatures to do to a pseudo lager, or you can always do a kolsh yeast won't be perfect but you could probably make drinkable lagers all year round.
I turned an old small chest freezer into a fermentation chamber, I always have some lager on tap these days. Funny how in my 20s, I was all about West Cost IPAs but these days I just prefer an ESB, Brown Ale or a Lager.
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u/Stiltzkinn Jun 11 '21
I will give you an unpopular opinion what really is important for lager types beer (or any beer) is the flavor profile and not "use only this lager type of yeast or ingredient" as gospel. I have heard people getting pleasant results using kveik for their lagers, if your kveik lagers nail the flavor profile of traditional lagers in my opinion that's a win.
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u/slimejumper Jun 11 '21
don’t get hung up on individual reviews, just go by the average score or total sales. i think reading untappd reviews must be soul destroying for breweries.
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Jun 11 '21
Not gonna lie, this has me intrigued.
I stick with the classic styles, though I certainly don't hate in the more out-there beers. I fear my pants won't fit if I start brewing stuff like Marshmallow Stouts, which I have to agree are ridiculously tasty.
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u/michaelotomus08 Jun 11 '21
Oh my word.. I think it would be cool to have a craft beer that would go after the Staples of beer likeness... Like summer time go after Corona... Hillbillies Natty light... Like a craft Corona or craft natty
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u/TonyKZ1 Jun 11 '21
Wow, that humorous recipe request would be interesting. Especially if you deleted everything after the New England and just made it a good IPA.
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u/bbacher Beginner Jun 11 '21
I was excited to read the recipe for "New England Double Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial"... then I kept reading and was disappointed
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u/MattTheTable Jun 11 '21
There's a brewery in my town that makes excellent lagers and real IPAs, but 10/12 of their taps are just jolly rancher kettle sours or hazy hopped oatmeal soups. It's disappointing because the brewer clearly has talent but this it what the market demands. Fortunately some places are embracing classic styles and even making session IPAs now.
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u/colonel_batguano Intermediate Jun 11 '21
This is why I home-brew. When I go into favorite beer store, and can't find anything I like in the fridge because it's all IPA, or I go to what used to be my favorite beer bar, and everything on the 24 taps is one of 12 varieties of IPA, with 2 or 3 taps with something barrel aged containing peanut butter, I am very happy that I can brew the styles I like.
What it seems we have now is what went on with music in the early 90s (I was in college at the time, so I'm dating myself). We had the mainstream people thinking they were edgy and cool listening to Nirvana because it was "grunge" and alternative to pop, then we had the hipster "indie music" kids who stopped listening to their favorite band because they met a few people who heard of them so they "sold out". Except in the beer world IPA=grunge rock and indie music = double imperial stout aged in old pirate ship ballast barrels infused with single origin vanilla beans grown by a mad hermit in Madagascar. The "mainstream" craft beer drinkers want to demonstrate that they are better than drinking budmilloors by drinking IPA, the hipster craft beer drinkers just want to drink something nobody else has had, even if it would make a normal person want to lick their cat just to get the taste out of their mouth.
Don't even get me started on the people who drive to 24 hours and camp out in line for a day on "release day" just to get a 6 pack of some rare beer and then brag about it on forums. I'd spend that time brewing and get 5 gallons out of it.
This is why I brew - I can keep myself stocked with what I like and not have to buy the dusty bottles of non-IPA at the bottom of the shelf in the store.
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u/ilikemrrogers Jun 11 '21
I'll go through a kick of making interesting, strange mixes. I'll then do a couple of technical styles – styles that require a lot more work to perfect.
Then, I'll take a break and brew some very solid, true-to-style, "boring" beers to somewhat cleanse my palate. Recently, I made a SMaSH cream ale, and I thought it was freaking delicious. You couldn't get more plain-jane that that beer, but I crushed it.
Me, personally... I highly respect a craft brewer to make a solid, accurate style that may be a little plain. They have a lot of passion and can make anything, yet they focused their attention on a helles. That takes some restraint, which I am a fan of.
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u/Dr_thri11 Jun 11 '21
With homebrew I do kinda like to brew stuff that's hard to find the equivalent in the store. My philosophy is if I want an IPA or traditional german lager I can probably buy one that is superior to anything I make. Though it's not all marshmallow stouts and such, sometimes a good belgian ale can be hard to find.
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u/EazyPeazySleazyWeezy Jun 11 '21
As someone who got burned out relatively quickly on the haze craze, the liquor stores for me these days are super depressing. Simple, well-crafted ales and lagers are the minority. If I take everything off the shelf that either had fruit, haze, sour (or combination thereof) I' left with very little. And most of the crazy beers aren't even well made. Breweries, if you're gonna throw in the kitchen sink at least learn how to balance a beer.
Where my brown ales, rye lagers, stouts with only 1 additive, delicious pilsners, and saisons at? But I'm just a grumpy beer snob that shakes his fist at kids....
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Jun 11 '21
"Craft beer" is no longer a thing for the narrow clique of zymurgists and zythophiles, and a lot of art and subtlety has gone out the window. During the first IPA craze, hops became the new capsaicin and IBUs the new Scoville units. We saw the same thing happen briefly with lacto-sours and berliners, and we're going through the same thing now with Juicy/Hazy IPAs. Beers trend, and that's good, because it gets more people buying beer from small breweries, and that's what's keeping craft beer alive. That said, a lot of things get made to suit popular tastes and make money, but it doesn't necessarily mean they're good.
We have three small breweries in our town, and the one that's almost exclusively doing the NEIPAs and Hazy Milkshake Creamsicle Half-Lacto Upside Down Cakes has a packed parking lot every night. Their brewing is sloppy, fast, and faulty, and their classic styles suffer because of it. I knew the head brewer for a few years before they opened up and his home batches were astounding, so I know he's capable of better. When people find out I'm a brewer and judge, they invariably ask me if I enjoy their beer, and I'll be honest: I don't. But a lot of people do because the styles they brew suit their taste in beer, and what's popular is popular, and business is business. Out of courtesy, I don't tell them that I know they're also serving faulty beer (Diacetyl butter balls and butyrate tainted hazy IPAs).
Conversely, there's an older place in town that makes world class traditional beers like Altbiers, Dubbels, Milds, etc. Every beer is clean and would be a BJCP 45+ beer. They do a few experimental beers with interesting ingredients, but their core focus is making really good approachable beer. They also have an incredible barrel aging program, so they still have some really unique offerings. They do OK, but they're rarely packed.
I do lament that the general public's taste in craft beers has gone so far away from mine, and the last time I was at the local liquor store there was not a single locally made ESB, Blonde, Witbier, or Lager of any type. Instead I rolled home with a sixer of Montucky Cold Snacks.
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u/smitty4263 Jun 11 '21
I hate when someone asks me what flavor my homebrew is, It's beer flavored! God forbid you offer someone a beer flavored beer.
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u/sinburger Jun 11 '21
Honestly I think it really depends on whether your brewery is catering to tourists, locals, or a combination thereof primarily.
We have 3 breweries of note in my town, which is located on the highway halfway between a major metropolitan city and a world class ski hill. One is literally the oldest craft brewery in the region and has been doing craft for a couple decades. The second opened up about 4 years ago, and was started by the old owners of a brewery in the city. The third also opened up around 4 years ago, started by a local guy one his own.
The first brewery basically just does variations on standard beers, (hop swapping recipes for their pale ales, pilsners, IPAs etc) with a few seasonal specials like fruity wheats in the summer, pumpkin spice ales in the fall and imperial vanilla or licorice porters in the winter. I think their most dramatic change was introducing hazy IPAs when those took off. They have the reputation and inertia to basically forge onwards with what they do and still make money. It's also helped by the fact that they are literally the largest restaurant in town and are integrated with a hotel, so if people aren't coming specifically for the beer, they are still coming for the food and drinking the beer anyway.
The second brewery really focuses on grabbing tourists. These guys spit out endless variations on the same hazy IPA and fruit sours, but with pithy names and funky can designs. They make good beers, but they also get super gimmicky at times, and honestly once you've had one of their IPAs you've pretty much had them all. Having said that, when they decide to put some pilsners or lagers in rotation they knock it out of the park.
The third brewery had a rough start and put out some not-great beer. However now that they have hit their stride it's interesting to talk to the owner. He has his bread and butter beers that the locals typically buy (cream ale, pale ale, IPA), some rotating taps of things that he likes to brew (saisons, wheats etc.), then he has fruity beers that he hates to brew but does anyway because it's what the market calls for. In general it's his bread and butter that keeps him in business though, because he makes a point of catering to the local blue collar tastes.
I'm not sure where I'm going with all of this. I guess at the end of the day, craft-drinkers / fancy alcoholics want to see what new and delicious things brewers can do with traditional recipes, and craft-tourists want a beer with bells, whistles, and cake recipes because that sounds fancy to them. Not everyone understands what "brett yeast saison dry hopped with mosaic and cascade" means, but they understand that "strawberry vanilla sour IPA milkshake!" has many adjectives and is therefore a "good beer".
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u/hornytoad69 Jun 11 '21
I feel your pain. I go to my local beer store and all I see are variations of IPA or a raspberry infused double mint stout.
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u/inbrewer Jun 11 '21 edited Jun 11 '21
I was taking abuse for "why don't you brew a hazy?" from a couple of customers, so I said I was planning a hazy, slushy, lacto, dry, franken berry, Moroccan spice NE DIPA and one customer said "wow, that sounds great!" WTF
Edit - we make 4 lagers that are on all time and they all sell as well as any other beer we make.
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u/Coloneljesus Beginner Jun 11 '21
I'm one of those "IPA bros". I used to be into the most hazy, fruity NEIPAs I could get but in the last year, I've weaned off of those. Too sweet, too dank, too intense... Now I mostly like "simple", crisp IPAs or Pale Ales with a nice bitterness. Those dessert stouts, I've never liked.
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u/MrRemoto Jun 11 '21
I remember 8-9 years ago when everything was a Belgium variant. Quad, Triples, peppered, table beers, etc. Before that it was all English style ales, porters, and stouts and no one even started all the chocolate, bourbon, vanilla, etc. stouts, except maybe Young's. Things come and go. I still have a Pete's Wicked pint glass. They were probably ahead of their time in retrospect.
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u/Chocolatebehavior Jun 11 '21
I love beer and here is my take on the fruit/chocolate beers. It is a gateway beer to the real stuff for those that drink beer with classic beer lovers. I have been on both sides of this coin. I still will pick up a chocolate stout or a clown shoes occasional for a good time. I am part of this group with the stuff to start brewing but haven’t taken the plunge yet. Hopping the inspiration with rub off on me:)
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u/t3stdummi Jun 11 '21
Isn't it funny how we all evolve?
I've been brewing for about 15 years, myself. When this hobby and craft beer appreciation began, I was super into the "wild" beers. Then as my craft grew, I could no longer stomach the idea of "flavor added."
Flash forward now. Occasionally I'll grab some unique brew if the style fits my mood (still can't do flavor added). But the reality is that the longer I do this, the more I appreciate simplicity. The classics.
Trend brews definitely grow on my nerves. I'm so sick of seeing anything with the word "hazy" in it.
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u/chucknorris10101 Jun 11 '21
My thought is that for every brewery that is putting out hazebro beers, there's about 6 with this attitude but without any brewing talent.
we made a wc ipa and no one wanted it.... yea it's because it's a caramelly mess!
We made a Belgian triple but no one ordered it!... Yea because it isn't attenuated properly.
There are talented brewers out there not making hazebro stuff, but imo talent seeks out boundaries and that's where boundaries are now. Our local hazebro places have several releases a month of classic stuff and it's always on Point. We also have the local places keeping it simple with the 4 recipes their founder made, but they also seemingly never hire any brewers with outside experience to challenge the mediocrity.
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u/troglodytes82 Jun 11 '21
I know there is a legal definition of craft beer that has nothing to do with quality and everything to do with the maximum you're allowed to produce a year.
However, to me craft beer means something artisanal and high quality. Living just north of Boston I can safely assume that any craft beer store will have the 50-60 locally produced IPA's, NEIPA's and kettle soured offerings. Styles that just do not exist in any selection of good quality are the super clean crisp lagers. I am dying to find some treasure trove of those west coast or Italian pilsners. I usually get choose between Luppulo from Oxbow or Star Jungle from Modern Times. Unless its the 9 months out of the year those can't be found and then I can go eff myself and get a NEIPA. Living about an hour from Allagash at least I can get my hands on some great Belgian and Farmhouse offerings (same with Oxbow).
I'm saying this as a NEIPA lover. I just don't want that style every time. Some of these breweries are doing amazing things with others styles. Do we really have to go brewery to brewery buying direct because liquor stores only stock what sells best?
Also, quick question about pricing when you do find a good lager. If a four pack of 10% DDH NEIPA costs $18/4 pack...whose decision is it to price a "craft" lager with no hops (the most expensive ingredient in brewing) at $15/4 pack.
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u/CaptThomasTew Jun 11 '21
This newbie (started 6 months ago) thinks you should start brewing first before you think about recipes. Do some all-grain conversions with a 10Gallon Electric brewer, use no extract and start with Amber beers and light hops. Like me, I believe you need to get some basic experience under your belt. Knowing that you have not brewed yet, you may like what you think you currently don't think you like. Lagers are cold-fermented, if you don't have special equipment, you are not doing one.
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u/mchammy Jun 11 '21
Kidding aside, current beer trends have strongly guided which local breweries I visit these days.
Stopped going to some old favorites when they jumped on the gummy worm kids cereal chunky fruit milkshake bandwagon.
If people want pre-diabetic beverages that’s great.
I still have a few places focusing on high quality classic styles and I’ll support them as much as I am able.
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u/curiousloafer Jun 11 '21
Tasted a craft beer from Montclair Brewery in New Jersey a while back. It was called "Black is Beautifull" both the original brew and the variation with baobab fruit. Never held any expectations and just took the plunge. This stout beer is rich in flavor but not too bitter and overpowering but on the lighter side which is pleasant for my palate. The baobab fruit twist added some crisp hint of sour into it. Overall it's a good craft beer to drink especially if you are just chilling the afternoon away.
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u/merlynmagus Jun 11 '21
i guess i'm a hazebro but i don't really care about haze at all. i keep brewing NEIPAs because it's a tough style to nail and I enjoy them when they're done well (they're usually not) and I have yet to do it what i would consider well. Once i get it dialed i'm sure i'll move onto lagers and ESBs. they're also difficult to do properly.
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u/JoeSicko Jun 11 '21
I would be much more likely to try a bomber of some candy beer, than I would dropping $20 on a 4 pack of 16oz cans.
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u/boostman Jun 12 '21 edited Jun 12 '21
I’m a great believer in simplicity done well. And I’m not a believer in ‘breakfast stouts’ or whatever other atrocities are committed in the name of beer (love NEIPA though).
The problem is, it’s hard for breweries to stand out making tasteful examples of known styles. They’ve already been done, and better. A comparison can be made with typography. We don’t really need new sans or serif typefaces, and if you make a newer, more ‘perfect’ one according to those rules, most people won’t be able to appreciate the difference. Who needs a redraw of Helvetica with imperceptible changes to the x-height? Make a highly decorative novelty type like Papyrus or Lobster, and there’s a visible niche for you.
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u/High_Life_Pony Jun 11 '21
Haha you got me! Tastes and trends are always changing and evolving. Sometimes I like to try the hip weirdo stuff and other times I just want a solid pale ale.