81–90 of 309 posts
They did an ungodly-bad rebrand and suddenly just looked like every other beer.
Counterpoint, I'd wager they were already on a downward trajectory which is what drove both the sale to Sapporo and the rebrand. The alternative to the rebrand might not have been sticking with the existing style forever, but shutting the place down.
I live in New England. There isn’t a single brewery in any New England state that would cause an uproar if it ceased to sell beer tomorrow. Sure I have some preferred beers but they are all interchangeable in the big picture. Such is progress - there is no more regional taste, only trend. Even the bottle conditioned beer you stand in line for on vacation - a bottle of Duvel will be reliably better and probably cheape…
Can you tell that to Yuengling, I would really like to partake in their beer without having to fly to Philly
>sold to Sapporo in 2017 Ah, I was wondering where the pressure was coming from. The idea that this 150 year old brewery is closing down a truly cornerstone beer in craft beer history because the label art is expensive - despite weathering untold recessions and tough periods - strains credulity
Ballast Point had a similar trajectory. They got bought for a gigabuck and now are just gone.
Why the hell would you buy a company and then screw it up? In the case of Ballast Point, all Constellation Brands had to do was leave the bought company alone.
And, no, I don't believe that the issue is because you can buy great beers in every market. Hogwash. Maybe I can buy IPA, IPAer, IPAest, and IPAestest in every market--maybe. However, dark, heavy porters like old school Victory at Sea seem to be very thin on the ground nowadays.
(Side question: Why is everything in craft brew now shipping in cans instead of bottles? When did that happen?)
>sold to Sapporo in 2017 Ah, I was wondering where the pressure was coming from. The idea that this 150 year old brewery is closing down a truly cornerstone beer in craft beer history because the label art is expensive - despite weathering untold recessions and tough periods - strains credulity
What is happening in the craft beer market? Ballast Point had a similar trajectory. They got bought for a gigabuck and now are just gone . Why the hell would you buy a company and then screw it up ? In the case of Ballast Point, all Constellation Brands had to do was leave the bought company alone . And, no, I don't believe that the issue is because you can buy great beers in every market. Hogwash. Maybe I can buy IP…
Craft beer grew quickly since the mid 2000s, helped along by PE money, and now it's time to cash out
Apparently 2023 is the year to cash out
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sam Adams and and Trillium would both probably cause a bigger uproar than this Anchor Brewing company, which honestly I have never heard of not being in California.
Some of the younger readers might not realize that Anchor was at the forefront of the American craft brewing renaissance. Back then Canadians would laugh at USA beer as all tasting like water. Only Europe had craft brew. Fast forward to now and the market is saturated. There are more craft breweries per capita in the USA than in Germany. We’re beyond peak craft brew.
Peak craft beer implies that the trend is now on a downward trajectory. I don't know if that is the case, craft beer feels really ingrained in the culture at this point.
1. Is there a decrease in craft breweries being started, or total gallons of craft beer being produced?
2. Is there a decrease in beer brewing hobby supplies?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> trying to out do one another across different dimensions (though mostly hops) In places with younger craft markets, it's like an even split between hops and extreme naming/label graphics. Here in Seattle, beer names are like Obscure Mythology Reference and you might enjoy the Wikipedia hole it starts you on while you imbibe. The first craft brew I remember seeing visiting my original home state, Virginia, was liter…
I was just thinking that this weekend in the Seattle area as we wandered the aisles for six for the wife. It’s either an attempt to put the scariest-looking skull(s) on the label, or $SOMETHING $SEXUAL_REFERENCE $FARM_ANIMAL (e. g., Ass-Kickin’ Horny Goat Stout).
One of the people behind Liquid Death water was on NPR some weeks back, and basically their entire deal, as told by him, was just taking canned water and applying craft beer branding.
Not to knock it, evidently it worked and, as far as the product and concept, was all they needed. Just thought it was funny—yeah, why not put an edgy name and skulls all over water?
I live in New England. There isn’t a single brewery in any New England state that would cause an uproar if it ceased to sell beer tomorrow. Sure I have some preferred beers but they are all interchangeable in the big picture. Such is progress - there is no more regional taste, only trend. Even the bottle conditioned beer you stand in line for on vacation - a bottle of Duvel will be reliably better and probably cheape…
> Such is progress - there is no more regional taste, only trend Can you tell that to Yuengling, I would really like to partake in their beer without having to fly to Philly
I live in New England. There isn’t a single brewery in any New England state that would cause an uproar if it ceased to sell beer tomorrow. Sure I have some preferred beers but they are all interchangeable in the big picture. Such is progress - there is no more regional taste, only trend. Even the bottle conditioned beer you stand in line for on vacation - a bottle of Duvel will be reliably better and probably cheape…
> Such is progress - there is no more regional taste, only trend Can you tell that to Yuengling, I would really like to partake in their beer without having to fly to Philly
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Water is an important ingredient in beer that affects the taste. Soft water is best for some beers, like Czech pilsner and similar traditional lagers, where as hard, mineral-laden water produces the best dark beers. The water in Dublin, Ireland is, for example, famously alkaline. Of course it's possible, to a limited extent, to alter the mineral content of the water, but it gets expensive. Hops, of course, are a key…
It's trivial and cheap to make water harder, home brewers do it all the time to replicate specific styles. It's more difficult to make hard water soft. Also while hops have terroir, hops are dried and vacuum sealed and kept cold so that they can be shipped with no change in flavor. (Except of course for once-a-year wet hop beers which truly are very local)
I'm aware of this. I did it for my ribbon-winning brews. It is cheap at the home brewer scale, but at commercial scales, maybe not so much.
> can be shipped
Sure, it's possible to get genuine Saaz hops shipped from the Czech Republic to California. Again, A home brewer might be willing to shell out top dollar for a few ounces, but cost and availability is going to be a much larger factor. I've know craft brewers to abandon making certain styles because of uncertain supplies of key hops, and being unwilling or unable to switch to a similar variety.
There's a reason why so many the American West Coast IPA became a style defined by Centennial, Cascade, Mosaic, Amarillo, Chinook, Simcoe, Strata or Citra, and not like English IPAs and their Target, First Gold, English Goldings and Fuggles
>sold to Sapporo in 2017 Ah, I was wondering where the pressure was coming from. The idea that this 150 year old brewery is closing down a truly cornerstone beer in craft beer history because the label art is expensive - despite weathering untold recessions and tough periods - strains credulity
What is happening in the craft beer market? Ballast Point had a similar trajectory. They got bought for a gigabuck and now are just gone . Why the hell would you buy a company and then screw it up ? In the case of Ballast Point, all Constellation Brands had to do was leave the bought company alone . And, no, I don't believe that the issue is because you can buy great beers in every market. Hogwash. Maybe I can buy IP…
I'm totally with you, though my personal love is sour beers. IPA rules the market, to the point where I have trouble distinguishing between whichever super-hoppy IPA is currently the best. But good sour beers are not nearly so common. If someone ever buys Cascade Brewing and kills it, I will be wildly irritated.
I do see that I can buy their good stuff in cans now. I actually think that's alright. They still sell it in bottles, too, but the upside of the can is that it's 250ml, versus the 750ml bottle. One bottle will take care of my entire evening and then some, so the option to just open a can at a time is appealing.