I think I disagree with this statement about 90%. Or it should have some sort of time element to it - yes shitty brewers can start breweries, and do. And sometimes some of them even make it longer than a few years. But most don't last. More to the point, I feel like there are a shitload more "educated" (or whatever term you want to use) beer drinkers out there in the market now than there have ever, ever been. I cannot tell you how many times I've overheard dudes at the grocery store arguing the finer points of beer at the cooler doors, talking about who got bought by whom, etc. I guess what I'm saying is that it seems* to me that passing off shitty beer as "good" beer is getting harder and not easier.

Now passing off shitty beer as "experimental" beer, yes, I see a lot of that going on. Ohg, you figured out how ferment snow leopard semen, congrats... it still tastes shitty. Dogfish generally manages to engage in this sort of shenaningan while (and this is really important) still managing to turn out a finished product that tastes exceptionally good. That's the part that they get right, that others so often get wrong, and ultimately that will be the best single predictor or success. Not cool labels, not artificially high price tags. There's some marketing tomfoolery going on, but that kind of "whoa what's in this? I'll try it once" hype doesn't last, and if the beers don't ever have repeat buyers, the brewery will not make it.






*not scietifically verifiable, or even terribly defensible

Honestly, I don't think we really disagree on anything.

I think it's unquestionable that the American beer consumer is 100x more sophisticated than he was just 5 yrs. ago.

Here's where I slightly disagree with you. First, prior to the micro-beer revolution in the States, I don't think any one was really trying pass off beer as quality. Other than "tastes great, less filling." I think the marketing behind all macro-American brews has been (and mostly continues to be ) our beer is the easiest to drink on the market. They'd attached this message to some sort of lifestyle marketing (what you're black? you'll love bud light ice!!! See these black people dancing in the club while drinking bud ice!!!).

As American consumers have awoken to the notion that their beer actually taste like something, new breweries have had to try and find a reason to exist in comparison to well-establish and well-crafted european counterparts. We've mostly done this by resurrecting forgotten/neglected styles and by doing new things in beers because, hey, we're not beholden to our tradition because it sucked anyway. And for the first time, people are trying to market their beer as quality. I mean isn't that what "craft" really means anyway?

The groundswell of new consumers has caused a demand that has at least has allowed a lot of new manufacturers to enter the market. Now, as you pointed out, whether these manufactures can remain in the market is a whole other ball of wax. But from my stand-point in the grocery aisle looking at my beer selections. I see an entire aisle full of local beers that are quite shitty. I suspect that some sort of regional pride keeps them afloat for now. Is too much of something a bad thing? Probably not, but I've become increasingly irritable. Probably because I sleep 4 hrs a night and deal w/ screaming kids and clients all day long.

A couple from the past few weekends - July 4th in Charleston, SC and a guys weekend in St. Louis this past weekend.


Palmetto Charleston Lager - Fine but unspectacular. From Charleston, SC.


RJ Rocker's Bald Eagle Brown - I asked how this was before ordering and the waitress said "It's good, its like a Newcastle!" Not great praise going in, but its probably better than Newcastle. From Spartanburg, SC.


Thomas Creek Deep Water Dopplebock Lager - Thomas Creek (Greenville, SC) is probably one of the better recent breweries that have popped up in NC and SC. Or at least the most consistent to me.


Budweiser, Dixie - Had these two along with some really good crawfish and gumbo in St. Louis. Definitely hit the spot before the Cards game last Friday night.


Not beer beer, but had some Fitz' while eating lunch at Pappy's Smokehouse.

heh heh.

I also think there is a bedrock of beer consumers in this country that was the same in the 70's as it is today, relative size included. I mean the Bud Light crowd, and I think it's probably something like 85% of all beer sold by volume, and maybe 75% of all beer revenue. I don't think those guys give a flying fuck what new micro brewery pops up at the store (unless they make really watery good time nascar beer) - they're just gonna keep buying the big stuff. Maybe the shitty new guys in your hood are aiming for them? But they can't be, because half the point of bud light is the incredibly cheap price. And until you scale up to their size, you aren't coming anywhere near $12 a case. So I'm stumped.

I think my frustration lies in this: 1) I think these people have good intentions and want to brew good beer but lack the technical expertise to pull it off and never really tried to gain the required technical expertise; 2)I'm super jealous I'm not out there making shitty beer with good intentions and instead continue to ply along in this day job.

Kyle, the true head scratcher is Heiner Brau. The brewer is real German Brewmaster who started brewing in Germany at the age of 10. See his profile here http://www.heinerbrau.com/dynamic.php?pg=Brewing He knows how to brew and Heiner Brau's beers are well-crafted if a little forgettable. But his labels looked absolutely terrible and no one ever bought his beer outside a very small base.

Then someone convinced him to create a 2nd label called "Covington Brewhouse," which have very slick labels. But the beer is terrible. I can't figure it out to save my life why this guy can't brew good beer and do half-decent marketing.

What's crazy is that even the Bud Light's of the world are now pretty fucking expensive, at least compared to what they were a decade or so ago while the price of "good" beer has only nudged up slightly (I give that nudging up some leeway too when factoring in the higher ABV of some of the beers. You wanna charge more for something is equal to 2.5 or 3 regular beers? Sounds like a bargain.

Anyway, the Occasional Sipper weighs in after some sips...

Bell's Oarsman - Holy fucking light and fruity and delicious; A summer drinking beer de force

I mentioned before enjoying Bell's Oberon; I will say that it has the one weakness of becoming a little too bity and carbonated tasting as it gets warm. Sort of disappointing for a summer brew.

Brooklyn Summer Ale - Kyle rated the canned version the winner in his summer beer shoot off but I was unimpressed. I miss a lot of what's good in these beers having not really drunk good stuff in years so it's to be expected. Not bad by any stretch, just not really great.

North Coast Pranqster - Really nice. I very much enjoyed the flavors, but alas, a bit to strong in the alcohol department for me.

Yeah, I had a discussion about this with some of the homebrewers this weekend. One of them bought a 12pk of Bud for one the guest at his fourth of July party and couldn't believe how much it cost these days. I recently noticed that the neighborhood convenience store is now selling a 12pk of Busch Light for about a $1.50 more than they were roughly one year ago, and that six packs of domestic beers are about a buck more on average at nearly every grocery and liquore store in town. There also seems to be an increase in the number of people consuming truly low brow beers like Boxer Light and Mountain Crest Lager.

On the one hand, this is completely unfair because there is tons of crap in just about every product category. On the other hand, I think I agree even to the extent that I probably wouldn't be willing to wager that I'd prefer a random craft beer off the shelf of a local store to a Bud. Most taste at least a little better but very often not enough to overcome frequent issues like overpowering hops, too much carbonation, or just being very heavy without enough of a distinguishing flavor palate to justify it. Just a guess but I kinda feel like the craft beer making world maybe suffering through some of the same issues that bordeaux style winemakers do -- they compete so much to make bold products that stand out that they can lose sight of the idea that at the end of the day they are supposed to be making a drink that is at least to some degree refreshing and complementary to food rather than overpowering of it.

That said, there sure are a lot more exceptional beers today than there were back in the day when I drank a lot more beer.

I think the growing Cicerone movement here in America is beginning to keep everything in check. Plus, the Great American Beer Festival still requires most top notch craft brewers to produce a certain number beers according to strict style guidelines.
The Big experimental beers are being made for Extreme Beer Festivals and are basically a way for brewers to push the limits of their craft. There are certainly a large number of folks affiliated with Beer Advocate who prefer a hop punch to a more delicate or classic style of beer, but there are also a great number of home brewers focusing on food pairings and gourmands seeking out Cicerones to have multicourse beer dinners and beer/cheese parties.
With all that said, the Beers of Fame list on Beer Advocate is evidence of the fact that most craft beer drinkers prefer really big beers.
http://beeradvocate.com/lists/fame

I wasn't trying to knock big beers or Bordeaux style wines. Bordeaux is my favorite style of wine, and i have a big and growing stockpile of Pliny the Elder. The bolder the style though, the larger the room there is to miss the mark. Believe me, there are very strict guidelines in winemaking too but that doesn't mean there isn't a large variation in wine quality. Just as there are a lot of heavily tannic, poorly balanced and structured Bordeauxs that seem to have little flavor other than the oak barrel, there will probably always be a lot of big beers that are over hopped with little to no subtlety in their flavor profile. I think it is the result of the popularity of the style combined with a lot of brewers' ambitions exceeding their capabilities.

Well dern. Maybe the difference is that I didn't pour any of them out of the cans? Maybe it makes a difference. We packed all but 3 or 4 water glasses up like a month ago when we thought we were moving at the end of June instead of the end of July... I haven't used a beer glass in a month.

I'm not dismissing it out of hand, I just expected more (or maybe even less as it were)--I'd love to give it a shot in a can but that wasn't an option.

FEMGAR be lovin Pranqster. I be lovin the high alcohol content (heh heh)

Tanner - one thing you miss in this discussion is that there was a strong pre and during prohibition, even into the period before the 1950s that regional breweries were king. We didn't have the packaging and distributorship for massive beers ala Bud and Miller before then, and they also didn't have the capacity to have 14 breweries. Remember Smokey and The Bandit is about a run to Texarkana for FUCKING COORS, fer chrissakes.

So, there is a long tradition in American Brewing that was stamped out over many many years of high consumerism and ease of market entry. Think about your comparison of Ferran Adria -- 5 years ago NO ONE ate Spanish food, much less had Tapas restaurants, and now there's a (shitty) Tapa joint in Montgomery. Or take Sushi - 98% of Sushi places are sticky rice with Mercury Meat joints that are probably 1/2 a step of from McDonald's in terms of quality and taste. But those don't keep me from enjoying the one place here that's good.

There's a ton of places throughout the country where a guy worked at Chili's, went to CIA, and then got a massive bank loan to open a restaurant featuring "A back to basics fusion of New Orleans Cajun, South Asian, and the finest dog shit from local sources" that fail because they can't bring out a medium rare steak on time EVERY TIME. And that's what will happen with 4 of those 5 NO Breweries.

The market will correct itself or it won't. Same with the restaurant (or any other industry).

Leave me my misplaced anger that I can't buy Bell's but have to settle for Bayou Teche.

I think it's perfectly justified. Not being able to buy Bell's leaves me with a cannon of rage that I need to point somewhere.

Loved him with the Dolphins.

(good post btw)

I have to drive to Iowa to buy Bell's, but can't get Deschutes or Stone here.
I'd settle for not having to drive anywhere to get one of those beers, but I still get a good selection of top notch imports thanks to Shelton Brothers.

Damn, there's a hole in the wall called Kwicker Liquor in Panama City Beach, FL I stumbled into that had 4 or 5 varieties of Bell's and a pretty decent overall selection. Redneck Riviera gettin' classy.

Just wanted to say that I miss good beer really bad. Most of the beer here in Korea is brewed from rice. Imports, other than Bud, Miller, and Coronoa, are really hard to find outside of a few bars in the foreigner area. Can't wait to get back and have a good selection and no more shitty rice beer.

I'm drinking some sketchy import beers tonight, most of which barely cost either me or my brother $2 a bottle in Des Moines.

Tusker Lager from Kenya
Alpah Hellenic Beer
Griesekirchner Weisse Beer from Austria
Karapackie Super Beer from Poland

I'm going to a tapping party for this beer tomorrow night. It was released this week by Boulevard as part of their Smokestack series and it is a collaborative effort with Deschutes.

Also, you never know if one of those new breweries or restaurant will be fucking incredible. If you aren't good, then find your niche. Barring that you'll fail. I actually like having a shitload of variety. There are 2 places opening within 200 yards of my place this Fall and I'm praying that both are excellent but that's probably not realistic. Still, I'm happy people are still trying.

If the demand wasn't there (which it is) all these places wouldn't be popping up.



Seriously. When I was in Orange Beach last Spring, the freaking Publix had a mix and match section with stuff like Bell's, Dogfish, Founder's, Lagunitas, among others. I was like WOW, this shit IS taking over.



I picked up a mix and match sixer at lunch. Reviews to come:

Bell's Kalamazoo Stout
North Coast Brother Theolonius
North Coast Pranqster
Wild Heaven Ode To Mercy (had this but I just love it)
Orange Blossom Pilsner (Brewery?)
New Belgium Somesault

Also picked up a big boy of:

The Bruery - Orchard White

had this last night. Tasty, well-balanced, not too much hop like American IPAs, but in the end, not totally essential

Yeah, the Publix has a pretty nifty selection as well.

Also, we went to a serious dive bar the other night (the kind of place that sells buckets of Busch cans) and at the end of a list of the standard shit beers, the bartender said "Sweetwater 420"

God bless their distribution.