Those was something that was a surprise, seeing real numbers. It is hard to find a Sierra Nevada tap around here, all of the new breweries of questionable quality have taken those handles. I wondered how they were doing.
Is Homebrewing the canary in the coal mine? Reading this one wonders if the predicted shake out will happen in the next few years. Will nationals with excess capacity drop prices to maintain volume? Interesting times!
I was thinking the same thing. The excess of mediocre (or worse) stuff can only take up store or tap space for so long.
But people get all fanboy for locals. A newish brewery near me is complete garbage. GARBAGE. Zero redeeming qualities. 4+ stars on yelp.
Oh I know. It’s the same here - about 80% utter crap to good beer. I’m assuming (or hoping) that the young twenty somethings will eventually try enough actual good beers to be able to tell the difference. Or not. Evidently crap beer served in a cool outdoor biergarten or patio is enough around here.
This is true for sure. I try out all the new places around here and only 1 of them have I returned to many times because their stuff was genuinely good. Most are just OK and some are terrible, but somehow they stay in business…
Likewise, I don’t drink many home brews aside from my own, but when I was at a buddy’s place he had something from one of his coworkers which the guy claimed was really good. It was all solvent and band-aids. If that is the product profile that is being accepted by home brewers and the small brewers then it is no surprise that there will be a “correction”.
I’ve had the “chlorophenols do not = house character” argument too many times.
I took it as a compliment when they had a bomber of that other guy’s stuff and a bomber of my Kolsch side by side, took a sip of each and then poured his bomber down the drain. Small victories.
Personally, I can’t wait for this to happen. There’s a considerable amount of dreck being put out locally right now. The hard part is that some of these breweries will make one fantastic flagship beer and the other 3-4 are awful.
Exhibit A - I went to a local place a while back and sampled a flight of their stuff. Mostly light and insipid, nothing very flavorful or worth buying a pint of. Fermentation flaws in some of the beers. The brewer (maybe 25-26ish) said that he’d started as a homebrewer and that his parents had bought the place for him. So he was literally learning to homebrew in his own pub. Since then the beer has improved but not a lot IMO, though I’ve talked to young beer drinkers that think his beer ‘rocks’. Kind of mind blowing.
Love it:) this may literally be the case for me. i still find time and love all aspects of Homebrewing even though i have had a lime sized cancerous brain tumor removed Oct of last year. Homebrewing is living in my book and have brewed my share since that date:)
A lot of mediocre at best breweries opening up around here to.
Good for you. I hope all is well.
Bwahahahahahahaha. ;D Awesome, Keith.
I’ve found that I’m so busy since I retired that I actually have less time to brew than when I was working.
Love it! Did you do that one?
Well, that’s what drive, creativity and ambition, plus a partner with at least the ambition part will get you
Nah there was a beerfest in Nashville someone was selling them.
There’s no surprise to any of this. When the economy tanks, DIY goes up. When the economy improves, DIY goes down. Homebrewing also got caught up in the waves of everything local plus craft beer. Lots of people were going to abandon homebrewing when they could start affording/justifying $10 six packs of beer. Plenty of people got the starter kits as Christmas gifts and brewed a couple of times only to decide they didn’t like cleaning, waiting for the beer, etc. You can only sell those starter kits so many times.
There is a correction but it’s a good thing. What’s being lost in breadth of new brewers is being made up for in depth of knowledge, experience and technical expertise.
I love IPA, but I have to homebrew because I can’t get the good beers I like to drink. They only seem to sell swill and IPA in the stores anymore.
Thus the reason there are so many microbreweries popping up all over the US.
My hats off to microbreweries and their artistic skill set.