I present to you, my propositions about the craft beer industries ca. 2018…
- Beer has probably never been better now than in all of beer history
- America is a leader in beer innovation
- As an industry, all things craft brew are a vital business interest
Having said that, here are some caveats:
- Really good craft beer is not nearly as common now as craft brewers
- Large scale brewing is not totally devoid of great beers
- Many people don’t have enough of a well-developed palate to tell the difference between a mediocre and a great beer
- There are a lot of mediocre craft brewers, not bad, not great
- There are a lot of mediocre craft beers, a few of them very bad
- A lot of people will compromise their judgement of a beer upon the suggestion that it is a ‘craft’ beer
- Some craft brewers have a palate that is no better developed than their impressionable customers
- Craft brewers are definitely egotistical and some are not receptive to much of the aforementioned. They came to pursue the art of beer, but they stayed for the money
Furthermore:
- Endless experimentation in craft-brewing detracts from great beers. There are no standards for an experimental beer
- If a great beer is made, it may be shelved because the brewer and or the customers move on, are never content, and demand endless experimentation
- Hop-addiction is Americas great contribution to beer and it may also be its downfall – great beer is more than the sum of its hops
- Some American beer makers and drinkers should re-learn the meaning of great-beer traditions from Europe
Each of these propositions could be an article of its own. I’ve formed these opinions after drinking many beers from many breweries in many places. Every beer does not have to be a home-run, knocked out of the park, but the few that really rise to that occasion highlight how many of the others are just okay. What is more baffling, is to see beers that have obvious errors in conception or execution to be slurped up by the mass of new converts to craft beer. Meanwhile those who just made a switch from ‘big’-beer will declare said flawed beer great, just because its not made by ‘big’-beer.
Craft breweries are popping up like mushrooms everywhere. That’s good and I support it. But there seems to be an attitude that quality is in inverse proportion to size. The smaller the brewery, the better the quality. This is not accurate. While the mega-breweries should be and have been schooled by craft beer for making watered down pap for generations and other industrial shortcuts, many of the best beers come from mid-sized but experienced brewers. Dilettantes flocking to small breweries tend to overlook this and skew their opinions based on size, not quality.
So who am I to judge another’s taste? While I can’t knock any one individual for liking any one specific beer, I can make some macro judgements. If I go into a place and there is mono-taste or equal defects across all styles, for whatever reason, then I must declare the apparently contented clientele as sorely uninformed. If I see a brewery leaning on a hop-crutch for a majority of their styles – particularly styles that are not supposed to have high IBUs, that brewery is faking it or they’re grossly misinformed about beer styles. If I go into a brewery and it seems apparent that the beers have the same yeast profile – either intentionally, or accidentally because of cross contamination, that is a sure sign that the brewers don’t have a clue, don’t have a palate, or that they’re counting on you not having one…but they’ll still make their margin. When I see an endless parade of ever wackier beer style experiments that have no defined benchmark of excellence, it is too often just hides poor beer-making. With clientele that expects no standards, the brewer will hit the mark 100% of the time.
So how does beer-dom get out of these new ruts? Craft converts need to get an education and buy a few highly regarded beers in a bottle; (just make sure it’s not past its shelf life). Try a new style each month from a recognized world leader. If enough people do that, Darwin could take care of the brewers that are not correctly evolving. Having said that, I think some breweries will snuff themselves out from over-population first. Messy. Less ego would help, but this will be a hard to find in towns where brewing is a lucrative growth industry, Real craft guilds might also help. If we’re going to return to local economies (a very good thing), lets adopt the whole system before industry scrubbed it away 100-200 years ago. Cheers!
These heretical thoughts brought to you by,
Lee Jones