Craft Beer

[u/innsource]

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?

[u/[deleted]]

"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.