Craft Beer

[nebport5]

They seem to have a wide variety of IPA's and lower alcohol fruity beers. I'm looking forward to checking it out later this summer.

This is almost every craft brewery anymore as IPAs(and now dessert beers) have turned “craft” into a pejorative term.

[WorldStreet]

They seem to have a wide variety of IPA's and lower alcohol fruity beers. I'm looking forward to checking it out later this summer.

This is almost every craft brewery anymore as IPAs(and now dessert beers) have turned “craft” into a pejorative term.

Good point. Now that you've mentioned it, it does seem like IPAs are now dominating a lot of beer menus. I am glad though that I can more easily find lower alcohol fruity beers around because my wife is a lightweight when it comes to alcohol.

[nebport5]

They seem to have a wide variety of IPA's and lower alcohol fruity beers. I'm looking forward to checking it out later this summer.

This is almost every craft brewery anymore as IPAs(and now dessert beers) have turned “craft” into a pejorative term.

Good point. Now that you've mentioned it, it does seem like IPAs are now dominating a lot of beer menus. I am glad though that I can more easily find lower alcohol fruity beers around because my wife is a lightweight when it comes to alcohol.

IPAs have been dominating the craft world for some time which I think is unfortunate for a number of reasons. That however, is for another thread and topic. I have not had anything from Big Grove, nor have anything against them. The space looks nice and I’m sure they’ll do well here.

[Brad]

They seem to have a wide variety of IPA's and lower alcohol fruity beers. I'm looking forward to checking it out later this summer.

This is almost every craft brewery anymore as IPAs(and now dessert beers) have turned “craft” into a pejorative term.

Good point. Now that you've mentioned it, it does seem like IPAs are now dominating a lot of beer menus. I am glad though that I can more easily find lower alcohol fruity beers around because my wife is a lightweight when it comes to alcohol.

IPAs have been dominating the craft world for some time which I think is unfortunate for a number of reasons. That however, is for another thread and topic. I have not had anything from Big Grove, nor have anything against them. The space looks nice and I’m sure they’ll do well here.

Saying you had an IPA is like saying you had a Pizza....

Its such a diverse group. New England, American, West Coast, Imperial, Black, etc.

Then when you get in to one category, say New England for example, they are all different depending on the Hopps, grains, and yeast. Many people think of IPA's having Citra and Mosaic hops, but many others like Nectron, Idaho 7, Sabro, Nelson, El Dorado, and on and on and on. Omaha Cowboy's favorite Treehouse Brewing adds oats to their beer, Kros Strain uses a London yeast for the DDH Fairy Nectar. So while they are all IPA, there are so many different beers.

And if you are one of those people that say IPA's are bitter, you are drinking the wrong IPA.

[Omaha Cowboy]

They seem to have a wide variety of IPA's and lower alcohol fruity beers. I'm looking forward to checking it out later this summer.

This is almost every craft brewery anymore as IPAs(and now dessert beers) have turned “craft” into a pejorative term.

Good point. Now that you've mentioned it, it does seem like IPAs are now dominating a lot of beer menus. I am glad though that I can more easily find lower alcohol fruity beers around because my wife is a lightweight when it comes to alcohol.

IPAs have been dominating the craft world for some time which I think is unfortunate for a number of reasons. That however, is for another thread and topic. I have not had anything from Big Grove, nor have anything against them. The space looks nice and I’m sure they’ll do well here.

Saying you had an IPA is like saying you had a Pizza....

Its such a diverse group. New England, American, West Coast, Imperial, Black, etc.

Then when you get in to one category, say New England for example, they are all different depending on the Hopps, grains, and yeast. Many people think of IPA's having Citra and Mosaic hops, but many others like Nectron, Idaho 7, Sabro, Nelson, El Dorado, and on and on and on. Omaha Cowboy's favorite Treehouse Brewing adds oats to their beer, Kros Strain uses a London yeast for the DDH Fairy Nectar. So while they are all IPA, there are so many different beers.

And if you are one of those people that say IPA's are bitter, you are drinking the wrong IPA.

Correctamundo Brad..

So many varieties of IPA- even within one style- like New England. As Brad knows, we both enjoy other styles of beers like Bourbon Barrel aged Imperial Stouts, German Hefeweizens etc..

The pizza analogy for IPA is spot on. I love the variety of different breweries and different takes even within a particular style..

I drink beer for the flavor and taste, not to become inebriated..quite a twist from my college days, LOL..

Can’t wait to sample Big Grove…

Ciao..LiO…Peace

[nebport5]

They seem to have a wide variety of IPA's and lower alcohol fruity beers. I'm looking forward to checking it out later this summer.

This is almost every craft brewery anymore as IPAs(and now dessert beers) have turned “craft” into a pejorative term.

Good point. Now that you've mentioned it, it does seem like IPAs are now dominating a lot of beer menus. I am glad though that I can more easily find lower alcohol fruity beers around because my wife is a lightweight when it comes to alcohol.

IPAs have been dominating the craft world for some time which I think is unfortunate for a number of reasons. That however, is for another thread and topic. I have not had anything from Big Grove, nor have anything against them. The space looks nice and I’m sure they’ll do well here.

Saying you had an IPA is like saying you had a Pizza....

Its such a diverse group. New England, American, West Coast, Imperial, Black, etc.

Then when you get in to one category, say New England for example, they are all different depending on the Hopps, grains, and yeast. Many people think of IPA's having Citra and Mosaic hops, but many others like Nectron, Idaho 7, Sabro, Nelson, El Dorado, and on and on and on. Omaha Cowboy's favorite Treehouse Brewing adds oats to their beer, Kros Strain uses a London yeast for the DDH Fairy Nectar. So while they are all IPA, there are so many different beers.

And if you are one of those people that say IPA's are bitter, you are drinking the wrong IPA.

Actually, I’d say most are too sweet or rich. I enjoy bitterness more than fruitiness. The long repeated nonsense of comparing Guinness to a meal is more appropriate for many modern IPAs. Particularly, many hazy IPAs are so damm big(syrupy sweet) I don’t know how people drink even half of one. One Denver brewery known for hazies is said to even use flour to thicken their beer.

Classically I prefer a more West Coast profile so most of the lauded New England IPAs don’t do much for me. I haven’t had Tree House but Heady Topper, Sips of Sunshine and the like?…meh. But yes, I can recognize there are some very good, well made hazy IPAs out there. I can appreciate a hazy like Industrial Arts Wrench, which I find to be very balanced and gets bonus points for not giving me instant indigestion like most.

Full disclosure I’m a former buyer for retail so I’ve been exposed to about every kind of IPA via breweries, trade shows, and sales reps leaving me way too many samples on a weekly basis. I’ve watched the beer industry become oversaturated years ago and yet IPAs probably kept way too many breweries around longer than they should’ve. IPAs can be produced in a fraction of the time it takes to make a good lager. There’s the old industry saying, “Yeah, but can they make a good lager?”. With the amount of brewery samples I’ve tried over the years the answer is usually no. I’ve had a parade of sales rep sheepishly drop off yet another hazy IPA or whatever gimmicky trend was popular that allowed the brewery to keep new product on the shelves every few weeks to try to stand out in an over-crowed market. Usually that means the same base recipe or two, and rotating the hops and/or adjuncts with new packaging. Brewers honed in on hazy IPAs with their lower bitterness profile to appeal to the broader American palate with fruit forward, tropical notes or e.g. sugar. New England IPAs have been dominating the market for years though west coast IPAs have since made a resurgence. Of course, IPAs have also become so hybridized with juicy west coasts and piney, dank hazies. It’s become so much about doing something different than the next brewery all while staying in the realm of an IPA backbone to drive sales turnover.

The perpetual over-saturation of too many breweries chasing the money and next big thing led to more experimentation and more adjuncts, like the grotesque use of lactose, to make beer taste even less like beer and more like milkshakes, ice cream and pie. There’s also a whole sub category of IPAs that taste like gummy candy. Brewers have become very good at making beer taste like sweet treats. Whether you think that’s a good thing is obviously subjective. For me it’s sad that self-parody among the industry probably will equal decent sales. That and good packaging will still sell a bad beer and vice versa. Seriously though, have we reached the point of someone making a kale pale ale? or double dry-hopped broccoli brett cheddar sour IPA?
Many passionate, talented brewers have left the industry because it became too much about money and cheeky marketing vs actually making good beer.

Sure, If you’re a hop head I suppose there’s enough diversity and reasonable innovation to be excited. I can appreciate different yeast strains and hop varieties but balance is still more important and often lacking in most IPAs. Admittedly, I was never a hop head, but I always tried about everything to understand what was popular and what I was selling. I wouldn’t ever turn down a Pliny The Younger but generally I will always opt for a proper Czech or German lager over anything else.
Or you know, beer that actually tastes like beer.

[Brad]

End of day, New England IPA is my go to. I do like many stiles, but currently NEIPA is my favorite. I do like bouncing from NEIPA to NEIPA with all the different hops.

A brewery adding flour to an IPA to make it hazy seems like something a Macro brewery would do, not a microbrewery or nanobrewery. Its like Anheuser-Busch using "Beachwood Aging" to speed up production of Budweiser. It sounds fancy, but was actually done to speed up production.

That said, I do like a lot of different styles of beer. You mentioned you like a good lager, and I don't mind a good lager, but when lager isn't good, its hard to drink. My light beer go to is a Pilsner. Scratchtown, Kros Strain, Corn Coast and other all have a great pils. I'm a big fan of Browns Porters and Stouts too. I really like the earthy taste of a good traditional stout and also the flavor of a good barrel aged stout.

I don't think the microbrewery or nanobrewery market is over crowded. Where I see the problem is with the original micro breweries that got really big. Stone, Sierra, Odell, Sam Adams, New Belgium, or even Nebraska Brewing. The smaller local microbrewery or nanobreweries seem to do will serving their regular customers with no or small distributorship.

There are a few things with the craft beer world that have annoyed me lately. First, prices have gone sky high. Paying $20-$25 for a four pack for a good NEIPA is a turnoff. I was joking with my wife the other day saying I would save money if I switched to Bourbon. That statement would seem crazy 10 years ago, but not its not. Second, breweries sending less and less to the grocery stores and bottle shops, making more stuff tap room only. Third, breweries limiting their to-go options. Seems like fewer and fewer doing crowlers or growlers anymore. I like to stop in to the breweries and get stuff to-go, but the selection on to-go stuff is often limited. I don't always have time to sit in a brewery and drink a beer, but I do have time to sip on a beer in the evening after I get the kids to bed.

I do like craft beer and the community around craft beer, but I did enjoy it more a few years ago.

[nebport5]

End of day, New England IPA is my go to. I do like many stiles, but currently NEIPA is my favorite. I do like bouncing from NEIPA to NEIPA with all the different hops.

A brewery adding flour to an IPA to make it hazy seems like something a Macro brewery would do, not a microbrewery or nanobrewery. Its like Anheuser-Busch using "Beachwood Aging" to speed up production of Budweiser. It sounds fancy, but was actually done to speed up production.

That said, I do like a lot of different styles of beer. You mentioned you like a good lager, and I don't mind a good lager, but when lager isn't good, its hard to drink. My light beer go to is a Pilsner. Scratchtown, Kros Strain, Corn Coast and other all have a great pils. I'm a big fan of Browns Porters and Stouts too. I really like the earthy taste of a good traditional stout and also the flavor of a good barrel aged stout.

Yes, bad lagers can’t hide the flaws and are just as undrinkable in my book. There’s still a few of the local pils(lagers) I need to try since moving back. Though they can be a tough sell I’m usually more of a fan of black IPAs than the usual over-hopped, over-malted mania. Speaking of roasted hops, I also love porters and stouts but I'm really sick of the adjuncts. It’s so hard to find a classic well made porter or stout without vanilla, maple syrup, chocolate, coconut, coffee or bourbon. Again with the make beer taste like something other than beer nonsense.

I don't think the microbrewery or nanobrewery market is over crowded. Where I see the problem is with the original micro breweries that got really big. Stone, Sierra, Odell, Sam Adams, New Belgium, or even Nebraska Brewing. The smaller local microbrewery or nanobreweries seem to do will serving their regular customers with no or small distributorship.

Yeah, probably not the local market. I was commenting based upon the US market as a whole and my time working in Denver.

There are a few things with the craft beer world that have annoyed me lately. First, prices have gone sky high. Paying $20-$25 for a four pack for a good NEIPA is a turnoff. I was joking with my wife the other day saying I would save money if I switched to Bourbon. That statement would seem crazy 10 years ago, but not its not. Second, breweries sending less and less to the grocery stores and bottle shops, making more stuff tap room only. Third, breweries limiting their to-go options. Seems like fewer and fewer doing crowlers or growlers anymore. I like to stop in to the breweries and get stuff to-go, but the selection on to-go stuff is often limited. I don't always have time to sit in a brewery and drink a beer, but I do have time to sip on a beer in the evening after I get the kids to bed.

I do like craft beer and the community around craft beer, but I did enjoy it more a few years ago.

$20-25 a 4pk is a lot even for hop heads to stomach. Somewhere along the line IPA pricing started to correlate with ABV. I used to regularly watch customers(usually younger) do the math on how much buzz per buck they could get. People got used to paying more for higher ABV IPAs whether justified and usually not. Sadly, there’s also an average beer drinker perception of not paying “too much” for a lager. A good well-made lager(sometimes six weeks to six months in the making) priced $15-17 a 16oz 4pk is much more justified than your average couple of weeks IPA. I guess you can partly blame this on decades of mass market macros making |expletive| and |expletive| light. Is Michelob Ultra the original seltzer? Talk about beer flavored sparkling water. And at 95 calories that’s still less than your average popular hard seltzer. I often wonder if people actually enjoy drinking an Ultra or if they enjoy still drinking a “beer” and feeling less calorie guilty.

[ChadJK]

Here's a rather depressing article on the current state of Craft Beer:
https://www.craftbrewingbusiness.com/bu ... s-brewers/

[ChadJK]

I heard Rogue (Oregon) abruptly closed.

[nativeomahan]

The long term trend, at least in the U.S., is for the public to consume less and less alcohol. It’s been going on for a decade or more. Less wine is also being consumed. More low alcohol and non alcoholic beer and wine is being consumed, but less of the “regular” strength beer and wine. I have started buying more lower alcohol wine, and so far I have enjoyed every bottle I have tried. I haven’t tried (or even noticed) lower alcohol red wine, but maybe it’s out there somewhere. I think that the softening economy is playing a part in the slump in beer sales. The cited article says as much.
All in all, it’s not a good time to be opening up any business that focuses on the sale of alcohol. There is already a glut of such establishments. Hy-Vee learned that lesson the hard way.

[Brad]

I heard Rogue (Oregon) abruptly closed.

Apparently over a half million behind on rent/taxes.

It still seems to be the independent Large breweries that are struggling the most. The smaller breweries the don't distribute or have a very small local distribution seem to be doing ok.

[Brad]

I heard Rogue (Oregon) abruptly closed.

Two more craft breweries with a large distribution footprints making changes. Defiance Beer is going out of business while Upslope Brewing has sold out to private equity.

[ChadJK]

I read that 2024 was the first year since 2005 that more craft breweries closed than opened.

Note to Admin(s): Can we change the name of this thread so when you reply it's not "Re: Re: Craft Beer"?

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