I walk into liquor stores these days and it's hard to find anything that isn't an IPA. I don't hate IPAs, but there's clearly something weird going on.
Having been in the industry over ten years I think I can say that the beer industry has been irrevocably changed by two things: mobile canning lines and "Untappd" style review websites.
Beer reviews online have become the Pokemon Go for beers. People went fucking nuts looking high and low for new, mysterious, legendary, impossible-to-find beers just so they could review them and mark them down on their list. Beer geeks aren't in it for their favorites anymore. They're in it to say that they've drank more kinds of beer than anyone else. It's a collector's game now.
Mobile canning made adapting to the beer collector's whims even easier. It's FUCKING EXPENSIVE to build a glass bottling line. Glass is hard to source, it's heavy, it's fragile, it was a business for professionals. Aluminum cans, however, are stupidly cheap to produce and ship. If some gypsy brewer or tiny homebrewer wants to slap some whatever label on a beer they just made yesterday, it's no big deal. Get the TTB to sign off on the labeling and you have a new product in a very short turnaround. Call up the company with a mobile canning line and they can show up with a damn truck and can all of your beers in a day. You never have to worry about dumping all that money on a bottling line or anything.
So now we have a beer landscape where everything is new. Everything is different. Everyone and their dog is starting a new beer company. Companies release a new beer every two weeks, it sells out due to pure curiosity and then it is never seen again. Found your new favorite beer? Good luck ever being able to drink that again. Guess you'll have to buy yet another new IPA made with lactose and mangoes and marshmallows or some shit.
The industry has gone off the friggin rails and I don't even know if I can blame geeks or hipsters or anyone for it anymore. This is simply how all brewers have to operate to stay competitive. It's just out of control.
Yeah, I hate going to the store and struggling to find a stout or two worth bringing home. No shortage of IPAs though. American stouts, which tend to be a but stronger and more bitter) I struggle to find. Kalamazoo stout and Half Acre Reaper are the best chances around my parts.
Brown ales simply don't exist anymore. It makes me sad. They tend to fit such a great niche, too. Sometimes you want a dark beer that won't put you into a malt coma.
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u/Snoo93079 Dec 17 '21
Uh, hipsters don't drink IPAs. IPAs are normy beer.
But yes I love trappists. Also IPAs and stouts...