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/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.