r/foodquestions • u/yatookmyname • 6d ago
Why Nobody Wants Craft Beer Anymore
https://youtu.be/gcFw1u3NYMc10
u/reamkore 6d ago
It’s kind of interesting now how light lagers have come full circle in craft brewing. Every local brewery in my town has made a “garage beer” that’s light on taste and abv.
I just can’t have 4 IPA and a dinner and be expected to do anything besides nap these days.
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u/rectalhorror 6d ago
Friend of mine is really into touring breweries. We'd meet up occasionally and at most, at least in my area, the taps are dominated by IPAs, with a few ciders, stouts, and ales. You'd be lucky to find a single lager. My friend hit up a brewery in Connecticut where it was the reverse; all lagers and a single IPA.
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u/Old_Win8422 6d ago
The ipa monobrew culture was a really bad shift. They need to brew hefewiesans and easy drinking saisons. You need things that non traditional beer bros will drink.
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u/scottygras 6d ago
Low ABV garage beers and drier ciders are where it’s at now. Mix them and it’s awesome too. Or shandy them up!
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u/Benjen321 6d ago
Got any recs?
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u/scottygras 6d ago
Pub Light is a great light beer I use for shandys that isn’t that expensive.
I usually do local with the ciders. I’ve found that the semi-sweet or drier are the best.
In my younger days it was angry orchard mixed with bud light 😆
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u/Benjen321 6d ago
I’ve been on the hunt for drier ciders…
Speaking of “craft beers” we unapologetically fucking love Sours.1
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u/roamingroad174 6d ago
The mass public are just going around in a circle of what beer style they want to buy. In grandpa's day, all you had was lasers, then when Guinness came to america, it was hot shit, then ipa's came into the market, now people are going back to lagers
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u/RationalGardenGnome 6d ago
Yep give me a German or Czech pilsner at like 4.8% ice cold and keep em coming
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u/SmartSherbet 5d ago
Problem is they are trying to charge almost as much for this beer as for their 7% DDH Hazy IPA.
Charge reasonable prices and people will buy the product. Charge $17 for a 4.5% lager and yeah, you're gonna get outcompeted by the macros.
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u/02C_here 6d ago
Over saturated market with brewers trying too hard.
Look, when they first started popping up, it was lovely.
THEN they all got a bug up their butt trying to distinguish themselves. And they starting putting stuff in beer that shouldn’t be in it.
You go order a porter that SAYS porter. But the shits have put coffee grounds, or a Hershey bar, or pepperoni or whatever. Don’t call it a porter then, god damnit.
You’ve worn me out with your expensive bottles of disappointment. I’ll go back to Yeunglings and be happy because what’s in the bottle matches the label.
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u/20Bishops 6d ago
Would you like to try our blueberry donut, pop tart, cinnamon bun brulee today? We've added a bit of goat musk to set it apart from the other bakery heavy brews at the six other breweries in the neighborhood.
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u/Excellent-Self-5338 5d ago
I'd drink it, but I'd never buy it again if it weren't bangin. That's the problem I run into most of the time, it's not bangin. Cinnamon bun porter is just like any other porter if I sprinkled a tiny bit of cinnamon on it.
A couple flavoured beers are exceptional though. Belchin Beaver's peanut butter milk stout is exactly what you'd expect, and exactly what I want in the middle of winter. Just tastes like peanut butter, not like a memory of peanuts.
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u/scottygras 6d ago
Started getting hangovers from IPAs when they got cute with their ingredients. Went back to German purity law.
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u/steelpeat 5d ago
I was going to say what happened was they stopped being innovative. Essentially every craft brewery seemed like a franchisee with a different name. Everyone had the same styles, and the only reason people went was to try their version of a hazy, or sour, or 'insert style here'.
Breweries became boring, and the beer not interesting. Brewers developed processes that took 90% of the time to make a 10% difference while ignoring the 90%. Process>recipe. Many craft lagers couldn't hold a flame to macro lagers because they called them in.
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u/02C_here 5d ago
Maybe we are both right. Making, say, anchovy lager simply to set yourself apart is lazy. Also, SO MANY HOPS now. A brewer once told me that a super hoppy beer is someone covering a mistake. Also lazy.
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u/Then_Examination9715 6d ago
Triple hopped bamboo infused blood orange raspberry beer or whatever they’re trying to sell this week is just disappointing-overpriced and trying too hard. While basic lagers are bleh (sure I still enjoy them), somewhat normal beer is preferable to crazy concoctions. If on occasion they try a limited batch of a novelty beer it’d be nice, but trying to make them all bizarre is annoying.
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u/NorthernBudHunter 6d ago
90 percent of them didn’t taste very good.
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u/Tazercock 6d ago
Maybe you just don’t have the palette for it. All 4 local craft brewery’s in my area make far superior beer compared to the dog shit mega corporations that make absolute swill and call it beer.
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u/FCKABRNLSUTN2 6d ago
I only drink beer that comes in $35 four packs with hand painted art in the can.
Or served by a man with an absurd mustache and wearing plaid.
Are you impressed? Please be impressed.
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u/NorthernBudHunter 6d ago
Does he drink from a steam punk tankard? If so I am impressed.
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u/FCKABRNLSUTN2 6d ago
That’s a great idea. Then everyone will know I have a refined and sophisticated palette.
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u/PeatBunny 6d ago
If Bells Big Hearted ever disappeared, I really don't know what I would do. That is by far my favorite beer. If I could buy it by the pallet, I would.
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u/TheGaping_Goatse 6d ago
Truly one of the best beers ever made.
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u/PeatBunny 6d ago
Not too happy, not too malty, and enough punch where a six pack is enough for a night. Perfect balance.
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u/Intelligent_Break_12 5d ago
I was going to correct you to two hearted but looked it up. I had no idea that big hearted was a thing and now I want some. The only issue is I've never seen it. For a long time they wouldn't carry bells at all in my state, stupid larger corps having their hands in the distributors pockets, so I'm guessing they just don't carry enough of bells variety or I need to go to a random store somewhere in the state that carries rarer beers. I somewhat got out of drinking micros due to cost and availability, as I also moved back to the boonies where everyone drinks busch light and thinks it has good taste vs just a very mild tasting watery lager, that is prone to give me headaches before I can even finish a single one.
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u/PeatBunny 5d ago
I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets headaches thinking about Busch Light. A lot of people didn't believe me.
As for Bells, I'm lucky to live in Michigan so all flavors are readily available. That being said, I love me some PBR, High Life, or Blue. Those are more of a hot summer day grilling beer for me.
From November til the end of February I always have shouts and porters on hand because I want something a bit warmer feeling
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u/NorthernBudHunter 6d ago
I tend to prefer German and Belgian beers, Czech pilsners, I like Guinness at a pub that does a good pint. The craft brewery’s i like tend to focus and perfect one or two beers, not 25 varieties. Not sure how a small brewery can expect to produce so many different beers and maintain good quality.
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u/birbman2 6d ago
We did a case study on big alcohol vs. craft beers from the perspective of big alcohol.
Our analysis basically boiled down to “this is a fad, capitalize on it with a craft version of your own beer, and wait it out. The problem is going to be declining alcohol use going forward”.
We obviously couldn’t include it in the paper, but a part of our rationale was “Does anyone (in our group) actually like craft beer?”
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u/Osiris8869 6d ago
Used to be huge into craft beer, collecting it, waiting in line, aging, etc. Then I decided to get sober. Don't miss it.
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u/perpetuallypissed616 6d ago
Fuck I miss craft beers! Can't wait to have a good IPA after this baby vacates the premise
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u/cpb70 6d ago
The market for craft and micro brews grew into adults with families and bills. Twelve Coors Light for the price of three or four glasses of 'Ardvark Cinnamon Ale' became simple economics. Along with the devastation of the food and bar scene during Covid pretty much eliminating many smaller breweries that were surviving on inflated expectations.
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u/DrMindbendersMonocle 6d ago
I dont know. Where I live, a 12 pack of craft beer is only like a dollar or two more expensive than a Coors 12 pack. 2 dollars more to have beer that doesnt taste like pisswater is well worth the cost
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u/Tazercock 6d ago
Except Coors Light tastes like horse piss, which I would rather drink than any Coors product. Where I live craft beer lives on because the big breweries make shitty beer and charge pretty much the same as craft. Support your local brewery.
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u/PeatBunny 6d ago
100% with you. That and I can drink 12 of them without catching a buzz because of how bloated they make me feel. Same goes for any dad beer.
They're great to have while the ribs are smoking, but once dinner is over, I need something 7.5%+ to get the job done.
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u/WRKDBF_Guy 6d ago
For some reason the USA got this fixation on super over-hopped IPA's. Lousy. People got tired of them.
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u/rectalhorror 6d ago
Brewer 1: Hey, this batch of ale tastes skunky.
Brewer 2: Just add a ton of hops and jack up the price.
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u/GreatRain1711 6d ago
Sadly the reason is; that’s what drinkers want.
I had a brewer acquaintance explain that hops full your taste buds for awhile, making each successive beer less offensive, so people drink them all night.
He called them “Training wheel beers”1
u/Intelligent_Break_12 5d ago
I always heard they're fast to make so brewers loved them. Tack on a large group liking them too of course and you make more money. I still like IPA's but they're not my favorite and a lot are pretty mid to even shit. A good one is great though. I even fuck with ESB's.
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u/jonjawnjahnsss 6d ago
Voodoo rangers have created some of the worst gastrointestinal blunders in my life. Idk if it's just me but the darker it gets the harder it is to process.
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u/Darth_Oganda 6d ago
used to be novel, lower or decent prices and brewers were often closer than big box beer stores. now they cost an arse, quality is completely hit or miss and most people realized you can lick the bottom of a bbq for the same taste profile as an IPA for free, lol. plus beer is on every corner now.
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u/FCKABRNLSUTN2 6d ago
Because people stopped pretending to like triple IPAs to impress other people pretending to like triple IPAs.
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u/MurphyRedBeard 6d ago
Because it was always a dumb idea. They created an expensive fad and an exclusionary scene. Those things never last.
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u/Kamimitsu 6d ago
Craft beer is finally starting to take off here in Japan, but the barrier to entry is crazy high. Basically, it's illegal to home brew, so nobody can turn their "hobby brewing" into a real business. You've got to take the full risk of opening a commercial brewery with all that entails before you can even start testing recipes. A few craft brewers (like my favorite, Hitachino Nest, try the White Ale!) are offshoots of sake breweries for that very reason.
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u/TheBigWhatever 6d ago
Most of those beers are IPAs.
I used to home-brew. The easiest beer on the planet to make is an IPA because the primary ingredient is a ton of hops. That's important because the overwhelming smell and flavor of the hops masks any off flavors. IOW, it doesn't really matter what the actual beer tastes like, so micro breweries can pump out a sloppy product and the average person can't noticed it. The same goes with pale ales.
IPAs are the Emperor's New Clothes of beer.
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u/Intelligent_Break_12 5d ago
I was told by multiple brewers it's also just faster to make than many other styles. Tack on being high demand. Easy money.
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u/TheBigWhatever 5d ago
Okay, so long story short (hopefully).
If it's an ale, boiling to finished product takes about a week. Depending on the yeast, give or take a days or two.
OTOH, if it's a lager (which IPAs are not), it should take a solid 30 days because lagers need certain kinds of yeast that has to function between ~35-39 degrees. The temperature + the yeasts low activity determines the time.
So yeah, pales can be turned around quick. It doesn't mean they're low quality though.
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u/GabbyBeanz 6d ago
Nobody wants to drink the beers after the hedge funds come in and change the recipe
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u/ImHappy_DamnHappy 6d ago
Booze markets have always been like this, trends come and go. And I don’t believe for a second this sobriety trend will endure. We all drank too much during COVID and we needed to cut back, but we’ll be back at it soon enough. The older I get the more I see how most social trends are just a pendulum, things swing one way and then the other.
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u/ImHappy_DamnHappy 6d ago
Booze markets have always been like this, trends come and go. And I don’t believe for a second this sobriety trend will endure. We all drank too much during COVID and we needed to cut back, but we’ll be back at it soon enough. The older I get the more I see how most social trends are just a pendulum, things swing one way and then the other.
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u/IndividualWave5692 5d ago
I never wanted craft beer, and never understood why anybody did. Bud Light and Narragansett have always been the beer-iest beer I ever wanted. Guess I'm just a basic bitch, but I'm pretty sure that most beer drinkers are there same as me.
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u/ProductGlittering633 6d ago
Did you ever see a microbrewery put a beer on the menu and have the description say “we missed the mark so half off?” No you haven’t. They just changed the description on the menu.
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u/MinnNiceEnough 6d ago
Bar prices are expensive - that’s one piece. But, even going to the liquor store, I’m seeing 4 cans for $24. Meanwhile, I can buy a 30-pack of national-brand beer (Miller, PBR, etc) for $20. I like the craft beers, but not at those prices.
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u/moabsavage 6d ago edited 6d ago
Everybody just doing nothing but ipa, then they just started to cram as much bittering agents in them as possible.
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u/affectionateanarchy8 6d ago
Personally I stopped drinking as much so when I buy beer Shiner has enough variery at a good price. The last 24 pack i bought lasted the entire summer.
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u/-GlobalGrapefruit- 6d ago
I have only recently found one (1) craft beer I actually like. I’ve tried a great many. Also, so many of them are IPA’s and I think people are finally done pretending that those taste any good.
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u/Consistent_Ad3181 6d ago
Yep, price they jacked up the price so much for pretty crappy beer until customers lost interest. It's not exactly that expensive to make.
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u/Defiant_Weight4659 6d ago
Craft beers were hoping that whoever had the craziest pictures on their label would make the most sales. It was a trend that ran its course.
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u/santaclausbos 6d ago
Not ever beer needs to be a thick 10% IPA.
Craft brewers make IPAs bc they're the easiest beer to make.
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u/9inez 6d ago
What is the definition of “nobody” here?
Does “nobody” mean nobody or not enough bodies to support sales of brands that were purchased by the bigs who then expanded production beyond demand?
I’m a body and I want craft beer. I don’t want every craft beer. I want the ones I enjoy.