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/barley_wine]

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.

[u/TheDrMonocle → u/barley_wine]

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.

[u/barley_wine → u/TheDrMonocle]

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.

[u/ridethedeathcab → u/barley_wine]

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.

[u/TheDrMonocle → u/ridethedeathcab]

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.

[u/ridethedeathcab → u/TheDrMonocle]

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".