Beer in the new era

I don't drink enough in such establishments to notice, but I have to imagine it's economics, i.e. over saturation plus novelty wearing off = no one is ordering the Montanan lambic-saison hybrid and everyone is getting the famous microbre name ipa, and it doesn't make sense to stock kegs of 20 beers 15 of which no one orders.

but they're still stocking 20 kegs - it's just that 5 of them are session IPAs, 3 are pilsners or "vienna lagers," 2 are ambers, 2 are unremarkable wheats or witbiers, 2 are belgian (chimay and something else), 1 stout, 1 porter, and the remainder are local seasonals, 3 of which are not actually seasonal.

I'm sure it's economics - they're just avoiding carrying stuff that either doesn't have the right price / margin (I've noticed Boulevard's beers have all either gone up in price quite a bit or just plain disappeared from the tap) and the nerdy stuff that takes forever to kick (imperials, sours, nitros, hard-to-describe saisons). So you end up with a very limited range which is highly annoying when you look at the entire list and there's nary a double IPA in sight.

going into places where I used to be able to order a Small Craft Warning or a Wookey Jack on tap and discovering basically the same range of options that you can now get on many airplane rides is just a tad disappointing. It also points to the tremendous improvement in airplane beer options since AB InBev bought Goose Island and Sam Adams starting canning, but that's not the point!!

Distributors might have a hand in the problem.

I do suspect there is now a division between the brewery-specific guys (like the boulevard dude, for example) who are tailoring their approach to "taphouse" places that focus on the beer variety over the food, and are willing to suffer possibly ugly margins, against the wholesale distributor guys, who will just bring you a lot of New Belgium and Dogfish Head and Goose Island and probably negotiate price based on quantity, and if you're a middling bar manager who puts most of your professional reputation on moving simple cocktails with funny names, not craft beer, you'll just run with what the distributor suggests. And then run out of the only actual IPA on tap within four days because who cares, we're not a beer place.

My impression is that two years ago bar managers were encouraged by their superiors to put neat stuff on tap and try to distinguish their bar based on the draft list, not just on cocktails. Economics have clearly intervened and bar managers are now being encouraged to get kegs of stuff that kicks quickly and can be bought in quantity on the cheap - so IPA drinkers who don't mind going for the "session" edition (i.e. we literally took our cheapest IPA recipe, added water, and then more carbonation) are good to go. I feel like there's a good metaphor dealing with music genres just waiting to go here.

I'm amazed that New Belgium and Sam Adams (right?) remain independently owned, the former 100% employee owned, I think. Given their ubiquity.

It seems weird to me that bars wouldn't have some IPAs on tap, doesn't everyone still love IPAs? Or has everyone moved on to session IPAs? I can't keep up.

Felt like session IPAs were being pushed hard for a while, but no one really wants session IPAs. At least not when the weather gets cool. And then for a while trends seemed to be shifting a tad toward sours, but no one really wants them, either. So yeah, IPAs, ales, lagers, pilsners ... drinkin' beers.

I wonder if all day is still founders best selling beer.

considering the stack of All Day 15-packs that's taller than I am at my local liquor store, I'd say probably.

I'm amazed that New Belgium and Sam Adams (right?) remain independently owned, the former 100% employee owned, I think. Given their ubiquity.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, November 24, 2015 5:09 AM (10 hours ago)

Nope: http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/sam/ownership-summary

session IPAs are useless to me tbh, even if I've had plenty that are pretty good. If I want an IPA I want a real one, and if I want a 4% beer I'd pick something else in a style that is like traditionally a low abv beer

http://www.boston.com/business/2015/11/24/somerville-brewery-pretty-things-beer-ale-project-shutting-down/7SPBj2TmQCCnPimZq2w7uJ/story.html

this is really bumming me out, their business model was quirky but a craft scene that can't support pretty things is confirmed in my mind as being completely useless.

ahhh that sucks, I buy pretty things all the time and I've always felt they've been a voice for good too

session IPAs are useless to me tbh, even if I've had plenty that are pretty good. If I want an IPA I want a real one, and if I want a 4% beer I'd pick something else in a style that is like traditionally a low abv beer

― marcos, Wednesday, November 25, 2015 12:48 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

exactly.. I dont want the bud select version of what I actually want to drink

I've got such a rant about American microbrew all ready to go, I'll spare the board, though

do it

It's probably a total challop but I perceive this kind of mad scientist mentality w/r/t ingredients and recipes etc which is admirable of course.. but I feel like "basic-ness" for lack of a better term is scarce. It's like we're in the Oasis - Be Here Now era of beers. Everything is all turbo hopped up and flowery and has millions of notes. Just seems a little outa control, a runaway train. I'm a native Californian.

I'm a Hefeweizen worshipping philistine too, fwiw, so I'm probably not even qualified to opine on beer

Don't even ask me about west coast wheat beers

preach it, I'm a hophead but I can dig yr criticism, it'll be interesting to see how many of these 30-tap bottleshop/growler places are still around in 5-10 years. sometimes it's just all too much.

o and also, at least in the Pac NW, I am seeing more single hop styles which is kinda nice

This year's batch of BCBS is pretty nice off the bat, seems like previous years had a bit more heat when fresh.

Also, the 15 Prop sounds not as tasty as 13-14 imho.

Heard too sweet. I'll happily judge for myself.

It's pretty darn sweet, but I like sweet.

exactly.. I dont want the bud select version of what I actually want to drink

I like F-W's Easy Jack, and (in my dotage) find lower alcohol IPAs that are still beers I want to drink a very good thing.

i left out the part about the "hops race" etc shit being emblematic of American insecurity w/r/t its own culture... connect it to the "you're supposed to eat/drink it with/like this" American affectation I swung my cane around about last week

yeah, i think it's a certain generation of american brewers feeling beholden to certain styles/classic examples and not having a strong background in european styles.

Everything about this year's Bourbon County release seems like a paradox push to make bottles more available, less practical and even less of a deal. First there's the decision to get rid of the 4-pack (the ideal way to sell/drink that beer, imo) and package it as weirdly shaped single bottles. Then the prices per bottle have really gone bad. From Binny's:

Brand Stout - $10
Barleywine - $13
Coffee - $13
Rye - $24
Prop - $24
Rare - $65

Someone did the math, and per case, it's something like a 30% drop in volume, for those slightly inflated prices. I dunno, man. I like the beer, but the whole thing is annoying. On the plus side, it all seems to show up on tap pretty often.

Not even gonna sweat getting any, it's not worth my time.

Got confirmation I'm getting the option to buy the full suite from my local. They have a Dutch auction with reward points you've accumulated by buying stuff there. Clearing bid was 710 points. I bid 3600, so I was pretty sure I had it.

For some reason my local grocer has Troubadour Magma Special Edition 2013 "Galaxy" on sale for like $10 / 750ml. This is 1. crazy? where did they find this? 2. Fucking Awesome

I picked up a pack of the Anchor Steam 2015 christmas brew, but haven't cracked one open yet. Gonna wait till tomorrow.

Picked up barrel aged Narwhals out in prairie-ass Minnesota, really good! Also found NG Milk Stout in Wisconsin but haven't tried it yet.

I love going to rural stores with good selections. Dudes are carrying out 120 cans of Coors Light and I get my pick of stuff that disappears within hours of hitting the shelves in Chicago. And so cheap!

Let us know about the Anchor Steam, I may break down and get one of the 3 liter bottles, because it'd look cool on my shelf.

FYI, Jeff, Rare is solid but not worth the $60, imo. You get a bit more of the oak, but to my tastes was not as radically distinct as, say, Prop or Rye. Cool souvenir to have, though!

drank regal rye and this year's coffee tonight, both were tremendous

^^^ Yep, both awesome. Also Rare 15 which is not in the same league as Rare 10 imho but a decent BBA stout with serious upside, I'm not gambling on that though.

i really enjoyed how different they were. regal was thinner and more tart than the earlier fruit variants. i think the salt was doing something really interesting in there.

coffee was not an attempt at a fresh coffee stout at all, more like a thick coffee milkshake. totally decadent and awesome.

Boy the Anchor christmas brew is damn good this year. Last year's was more flowery, this year's is more chocolately and malty.

Bourbon County release handled as well as can be at Costco. Four bottles of regular per customer, I believe $7.99 each, and they wrote down your member ID with purchase and then checked all purchases against that list to thwart double-dippers. And thwart they did.

Dang, that's the cheapest I've seen.

I'm only getting 2 bottles of reg from my place, hope to stumble on a few more. I love having it saved to drink throughout the year.

Whole Foods release is ... 12/4 I think?

today i hit a few different places and got 6 regulars, a coffee, and a barleywine. missed a bottle of regal by one place in line.

session IPAs are useless to me tbh

I kind of felt that way until I tried the Otter Creek Over Easy. It's like a weird cross between a piney, skunky American IPA and a crisp, refreshing pilsner. It shouldn't work but it does.

The funny thing, if you focus for a while on high ABV beers, then suddenly 7% seems reasonable.

haha true

xxp otter creek in general is really good