Quote:
Originally Posted by Via Chicago
i think it has more to do with that people are having 1-2 really good beers, rather than, like, drinking like someone who just got off their 3rd shift from the factory and pounding a half case of bud light
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For such a bleeding heart liberal you really like to shit on blue collar people. Why not say that people would rather have 1-2 really good beers rather than drinking a whole case of Natty like a frat boy on a "Thirsty Thursday" night?
Quote:
Originally Posted by eschaton
Speaking personally, yuck! I'm really happy that the "hop trend" is starting to recede a bit now and we're getting more interesting things like sours. I really hated it when I went into a brewery and everything other than maybe 1-2 beers was some variant on an IPA.
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The "hop trend" was the initial revolution that caught people's attention. You have to realize that most beer since prohibition, even in Europe, was not hop forward. The IPA itself is something of a relic of another time, a beer that was invented simply to try to stay fresh long enough to make long voyages. It was never brewed because people though "ah yes, super bitter beer, so delicious".
Come the advent of craft brewing in the United States and people are suddenly digging up old styles and experimenting. They quickly realized you could do some crazy shit with hops that would cut through to even the most grease and salt deadend taste buds of Americans. Suddenly the IPA comes onto the scene full blown as the most versatile hoppy style.
As the craft beer movement has matured, they have begun to go back to styles that were largely ignored because of the sudden enamoration with hops. As breweries have grown and more resources have been thrown at craft beer in the US, suddenly American craft brewers have started churning out much better versions of more difficult to brew/perfect (like Belgians or Sours) or subtle (like Pilsners or Lagers) styles.
I for one still like a good American hop bomb maybe 30-50% of the time depending on the time of the year, but find myself gravitating to lighter, easier to drink, styles like Pils or Lager with the occasional Sour now. They are still more rare than your typical hoppy beer, but you can find so many good pilsners that I drink almost exclusively pils whenever I have the option of a new or interesting one. Pils, ironically given the claim of many American macro piss waters to be a "pilsner", has become by far my favorite style.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Via Chicago
the ipa market has shifted too away from bitter/strong west coast IPAs, in favor of hazy, tropical NE style IPAs. the market has exploded with demand for these. they pretty much eliminate a lot of the bitterness people associate with the style, although theyre also insanely expensive to produce.
that said, 11.8% is an exaggeration, i havent really run across that. most ive seen max out around 8% or so (and thats for a double IPA). 12% is gonna be like, a bourbon barrel aged stout (which i think is also a fad that i dont really need any more of)
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11.8% really isn't an exaggeration. Lagunitas has multiple non-barrel aged hoppy beers that meet or exceed the 10% mark. I was just drinking some triple IPA there last week that was 11%.
A good Imperial Stout can easily exceed the low teens. I've got some bottles of Dark Lord that are 15% ABV "stock" with a special variant that is around 18% ABV. It's basically liquor with the consistency of molasses. Not something you want to drink every day, but a great thing to pull out to share for a celebration.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pj3000
I'm all for these breweries opening up, but what I am sick of about craft breweries is the prices. Those fuckers are bleeding us dry.
$6.50 - $9.00+ for a beer at these places (and bars who have lots of craft on draft).
Which now has resulted in regular domestics priced at $5 as the "cheap" beers on their draft list. Oh, maybe you can get a Miller Lite or Coors Light for $4.50.
It has normalized the up-pricing of crap beer and I'm fucking sick of it.
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Eh, I don't really see it and don't ever buy the crap beer so I don't care. Lagunitas taproom is $5 for every beer. They did just reduce the size for some styles, but I think that has more to do with "we don't want people drinking pints of 13% IBV High Westified coffee stout and getting totally blasted" than pricing.
Also, if you go to "real" parts of the United States like Wisconsin or Iowa, the dirt beer is still dirt cheap. The interesting thing is that the local crafts are going straight for the throat of the Macros. In Wisconsin New Glarus Spotted Cow is in every single bar right next to Miller Light and Budweiser and their pricing is creeping ever closer as they build volume. You can now get a Spotted Cow at a bar in rural Wisconsin for like $4 when they sell the Bud or Miller for $2.50... Spotted Cow has now become the top selling beer brand in Madison (state capital, more importantly where the best and brightest from all over the state go to learn how to drink for 4 years). Obviously this is even more interesting since Wisconsin is the home turf of Miller. If this trend continues it will only take the passing of the older generations whose brand loyalties are already set before Macro beers are a historical relic in much of the state. I've already seen redneck fishing rigs with "NEW GLARUS, DRINK LOCAL" Wisconsin logos right next to "MUSKY HUNTER" bumper stickers.
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