It also doesn’t help that the craft beer scene turned into a competition to push the most over the top bitter IPAs possible. A lot of the appeal of craft beer went away for me when 3/4 of the taps became unremarkable IPAs. A good IPA is wonderful, but the vast majority of what you run into isn’t that.
It’s only marginally more interesting than when the landscape was dominated by lagers.
Hops are really awesome when used correctly, but many breweries just toss in hops to cover up bad bases. I’m lucky to have a few breweries around me that make really goods stouts and sours.
At least around me that has improved. Ten years ago it was just a dick-measuring contest about who could make the bitterest beer. Once you hit 90+ IBUs you’re not even pretending to make something good.
Since then, craft breweries here have course corrected. Most of them here are focusing on making a well- balanced IPA as their flagship, then experimenting with sours, stouts and saisons.
A brewery near me is owned by a guy from India, and has been very creative with spices reminiscent of different foods from that region, that I just haven’t seen anywhere else! Maybe it’s a sour or has tamarind or a juicy IOA with different fruit notes, or a mango lassi dessert beer, etc
Oh god I love those sorry, it’s probably my fault. A regular old bitter IPA or with citra is perfect for me, and lately everywhere I go has like 10 beers I want. It’s amazing and I’m very happy.
That might have been the case 10-15 years ago (and I guess maybe it still is in some areas that are slow to follow the trends of craft beer) but these days that’s just not the case for most of the small scale craft beer.
Sure, IPAs have become the iconic style of American craft beer and they’ll likely be overrepresented in the US craft market for at the very least the next several decades, but for the past 5-10 years things have moved away from there over saturation that those who dislike the style still like to pretend dominates the scene.
Since the peak of ultra-bitter-IPA-mania, we’ve seen similar (if smaller) fads/trends for sours, NEIPAs, and most recently hazy IPAs (the latter two of which are not in the excessively bitter trend of the IPAs most think of). We’ve also seen fruit beers and seltzers take over, maybe even beyond the degree that IPAs ever did.
In the meantime, we’ve seen these extreme hop bombs relegated to the sidelines of the modern craft beer scene. My personal theory being that lots of brewers wanted to get in on that trend, tried, and found out just how tricky it can be to craft a good imperial IPA, and once people found good ones with wide availability, they stuck with them and the rest of the market dried up. While there’s nuance within hop bills, it’s still all hops. With fruit beers, it’s far easier to do something that nobody else is doing.
It also doesn’t help that the craft beer scene turned into a competition to push the most over the top bitter IPAs possible. A lot of the appeal of craft beer went away for me when 3/4 of the taps became unremarkable IPAs. A good IPA is wonderful, but the vast majority of what you run into isn’t that.
It’s only marginally more interesting than when the landscape was dominated by lagers.
Hops are really awesome when used correctly, but many breweries just toss in hops to cover up bad bases. I’m lucky to have a few breweries around me that make really goods stouts and sours.
I mean… over roasting your malt and using Brett covers those flavors too
At least around me that has improved. Ten years ago it was just a dick-measuring contest about who could make the bitterest beer. Once you hit 90+ IBUs you’re not even pretending to make something good.
Since then, craft breweries here have course corrected. Most of them here are focusing on making a well- balanced IPA as their flagship, then experimenting with sours, stouts and saisons.
A brewery near me is owned by a guy from India, and has been very creative with spices reminiscent of different foods from that region, that I just haven’t seen anywhere else! Maybe it’s a sour or has tamarind or a juicy IOA with different fruit notes, or a mango lassi dessert beer, etc
That sounds awesome! Does he only sell within the confines of Michigan? I’m in Chicago myself, that sounds like an amazing brewery y’all have there
Sorry if implied Michigan …. Massachusetts
No worries dude, that could’ve been my bad for all I know
Where is this brewery, my good sir?
https://www.mightysquirrel.com/
Of course now they’re going to make me a liar with their current selection but I see a lager with lemongrass and an ipa with pineapple and mango.
Thank you for sharing. Their stuff does look very interesting and something I’d want to try!
Oh god I love those sorry, it’s probably my fault. A regular old bitter IPA or with citra is perfect for me, and lately everywhere I go has like 10 beers I want. It’s amazing and I’m very happy.
That might have been the case 10-15 years ago (and I guess maybe it still is in some areas that are slow to follow the trends of craft beer) but these days that’s just not the case for most of the small scale craft beer.
Sure, IPAs have become the iconic style of American craft beer and they’ll likely be overrepresented in the US craft market for at the very least the next several decades, but for the past 5-10 years things have moved away from there over saturation that those who dislike the style still like to pretend dominates the scene.
Since the peak of ultra-bitter-IPA-mania, we’ve seen similar (if smaller) fads/trends for sours, NEIPAs, and most recently hazy IPAs (the latter two of which are not in the excessively bitter trend of the IPAs most think of). We’ve also seen fruit beers and seltzers take over, maybe even beyond the degree that IPAs ever did.
In the meantime, we’ve seen these extreme hop bombs relegated to the sidelines of the modern craft beer scene. My personal theory being that lots of brewers wanted to get in on that trend, tried, and found out just how tricky it can be to craft a good imperial IPA, and once people found good ones with wide availability, they stuck with them and the rest of the market dried up. While there’s nuance within hop bills, it’s still all hops. With fruit beers, it’s far easier to do something that nobody else is doing.