Ken Carman is a BJCP judge; homebrewer since 1979, club member at Salt City Homebrewers in Syracuse, NY. Former member of Escambia Bay Brewers, Clarksville Carboys and Music City Homebrewers. Ken has been writing on beer-related topics, and interviewing professional brewers all over the east coast, for well over 30 years.
The craft scene has expanded, contracted, then expanded many times. But I think we have reached what, I hope, is a permanent plateau, and paying attention to how the industry exists as it is now is crucial.
Back when it started brewing a good porter or stout, a tasty light ale that’s more flavorful than the biggies, an IPA, well, you were all set. You were a credit to the growing craft beer community. Hell, even if they weren’t that good in some places you were set… for a while.
Oh my, how times have changed. You don’t stand out as much in craft beer world. Even most of the big brewers are brewing porters, stouts, IPAs.
Sorry if that’s bad news, but for most that no longer works as well as it used to. You walk into some of the more thriving breweries and they have several sours, maybe a barleywine, several kinds of IPAS: a trend I expect to shrink at least a little eventually, various fruit beers, maybe even a braggot, a gruit and/or a graff: a fermented cider/beer mix.
Just so you know, I have General McGraff’s Appley Braggot I just bottled in my kitchen as I type. A cider, mead, beer mix. Yes, I do tend to go crazy. And I admit I write this as a fan of unique brews.
Back to the topic…
I heard a friend of mine who left his career as a bookkeeper to start a brewery has gone out of business. He was very good at brewing standard styles and survived for quite a while. He didn’t want to do “weird stuff.”
I held my tongue for the most part. When he went out of business he couldn’t sell all he had built. Now, there were many reasons for this, but I suspect the refusal to brew out of style may have been a small, I repeat, small part of the problem here. While he kept on keeping on other breweries proliferated willing to stretch the boundaries, and, yes, an occasional bad brew does happen. The general public is far more forgiving than us beer geeks.
But, to me, seems the wise path these days is to brew and ferment out of the box of standard styles. Beer has become AN ADVENTURE. Who wants to walk down the same paths if you’re out for adventure?
I can’t see an end to this trend. Heck, Saranac (Matt Brewing in Utica, NY.) foresaw this trend long ago: I suppose one might say they saw the wort drizzled writing on the wall. They have been expanding styles and versions of styles for many decades now. Thanks to FX Matt and his sons.
One of the problems is people get stuck in a rut. Maybe it was BJCP training or business school training. The BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) is always at least a little behind the times with expanding styles. Not their fault: it has been moving fast, especially with newly discovered styles from various nations.
It also could be brew school training. Any discipline can suffer from this. I remember a music school grad. Michael my nephew, telling me I was lucky I DIDN’T go to college for music. A graduate of say Crane or Eastman wouldn’t tour part of the country as a children’s audience participation entertainer/storyteller, mixed with puppeteer and magician. Plus story making multi track projects for older kids.
No, music school grads were expect to be in orchestras, teach music, conduct orchestras…
I suspect some of those trained in business schools or TRADITIONAL brewing may not be able to think out of the box as easily as someone coming into brewing from an odd angle. Unwilling to stray from what they know they do well.
We need both, to be clear. In a partnership two people of each type, as long as they can get along and both are willing to compromise, might make an ideal partnership. Partnerships are tough, I must admit. I’ve seen so many fall apart, and seeing the industry from both perspectives certainly has done that before. As a writer I have heard grumbles from both types, where often the out of the box brewer leaves and starts his own brewery. But if it works it can REALLY work.
I know the dangers: my own career was filled with out of the box thinking, yet luckily the ability to pull back and reassess. Sometimes I went too far, ignored the warning voice in my head when it came to content. Once I named a character “Stinky” and it eventually killed that program. However, I also stayed put when I knew I was right and usually was proven right: out of the box thinking served me far, far more and better than trends pushed by those teaching education for the very young following trends like “never say ‘no,'” or open room schools with short or no walls.
CHAOS!
Education is helpful, but can be limiting, even hurt good product. After all, if we brewed and distributed as we did 100’s of year ago there would be no IPA’s and our IPAs shipped would be sour. Every style started as some out of the box project. We’d have no lagers.
Think of education as providing the blinders that let you focus on the race: making better standard style beer. But out of the box eventually makes it into the “the standard.” Blinders may help focus but out of the box provides the adventure that brings out quaff-ers who otherwise might just buy big beer;s latest attempt at a standard style.
So, yes, following trends in any industry can be wise, but ignoring them costly. Following them to some extent provides that competitive edge needed these days.
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Brew Biz: Werts and All: a column dedicated to reviewing, discussing, and commenting on beer-related topics. Including, but not limited to, marketing, homebrewing and homebrew/beer related events, how society perceives beer. Also: reviews of, and commentary on, beer related businesses, opinions about trends in the brew business, and discussions regarding all things beer.
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