A nice article about the international state of US craft beer from MarketWatch.com
In the immortal words of Trey Parker (from Parker and Matt Stone’s film Team America: World Police), “America, F**k, yeah!”
“I’m not sure that they wanted to hear everything that I said,” Jim Koch said. “You’re still making the same beers you were making 100 years ago, and doing it superbly well, but it can get boring no matter how good it is.”
Sure, but it doesn’t mean they should stop brewing them. Germany produces some of the best beers in the world. They don’t have to be bigger/bolder/hoppier…that has been the trend here in the US; more, more, more, that’s the American way. I can understand the rest of the world is interested in what we’re doing over here, but that doesn’t mean they should assimilate. And the US certainly can learn some lessons from other countries’ beer, we wouldn’t be where we are without them.
And, where do you think the US beer industry will be 100 years from now? You think it’ll keep going up and up and up so all beers are 50% abv with 1 million IBUs? I don’t think so. That notion that beers are getting boring because they’ve been making them for a hundred years is total BS.
And, Australia, as a whole, sound like a-holes. The people are going to drink what they want to drink. Produce better beer and you won’t have those problems.
I don’t see that being the trend anymore. The trend has been toward more variety-- many new breweries, existing breweries releasing tons of new beers, use of unusual ingredients, mixed/sour fermentations, low ABV variations of all styles, and experiemental varieties of hops are the trends I’m seeing. All of these result in a huge amount of variety in the US craft beer market.
[quote=“Beersk”]
that has been the trend here in the US; more, more, more, that’s the American way. I can understand the rest of the world is interested in what we’re doing over here, but that doesn’t mean they should assimilate. [/quote]
Reminds me of Brew Dog in Scotland. They took Americas beer trends, made them in the UK, ignored CAMRA (while all the other small breweries were doing “real ale”), and became extremely successful. I imagine that business model is pretty tempting overseas, and it doesn’t surprise me that it’s catching on.
While in England, people often talked trash on American beer and our lack of true tradition. When asked what American beers they were talking about, they often replied with “Coors and Budweiser”. What’s great about American beer, is that we took bits and pieces of all traditions and have shaped them into our own. We’re not bound to one way of doing things, which is conducive to creativity. Not to say it’s inherently better or worse, but it’s different, and it’s good.
That’s interesting, especially the part about how the Germans liked Sam Adams. I do agree SA is mostly very good beer, however I have noticed on occasion I get what I assume to be “old” beer. It just tastes bad. Recently got some Octoberfest like that. Hopefully they will watch that if they export to Germany.
I think they should export it in green bottles
+1 HAHA…yea would serve em right!
I do like most of the SA beers I’ve had and Koch seems like he’d be a really fun guy to hang out with but the comment about Germans brewing their beer the same way for 100 years is kind of stupid to say the least. Inferring that’s the reason for the downturn in beer consumption there shows a complete lack of understanding of their economy and changing demographic.
I’ll play a little devils advocate here(or just my opinion)…Maybe in the EU it’s not about continuing to change for fear of loosing customers and about all the money, like I think it kinda of is in the US. Maybe it’s about producing something that is the same every time and good and they already have loyal customers.
I for one don’t get the “hey, lets put peppers in our beer”, cause our beer is getting boring. Yes a select few think they enjoy this stuff, but in reality, it’s just because they are bored making the same beer over and over. I guess that is not the case in the EU and for some reason the US thinks they need to change that. I’m not all together sure why, other than money and maybe they are bored.
off soap box…
Yes Europeans are much more cultured than us Americans :lol: unlike Americans who import stuff to sell and make money in Europe they import stuff that people don’t want for the good of the world.
With the way German beers have been historically a little regimented, I can see why there might be a little curiosity for the verboten beers.
Having family there and spending a lot of time there, the movement is definitely there to brew more US beers.
- younger beer drinking crowd, beer consumption is on the decline there
- smaller world, word of US IPA’s is easier to spread
- same old beer is good, but getting boring
- major tradional breweries are even experiemeting with US forward hop beers
- my german friends that travel here are all about trying our beers
When my nephew got married to a German woman her family came from Germany so german beer and american beer was served. Guess what the Americans all drank the German beer and the Germans all drank the American beer.
According to this article Sam Adams is losing market share at home. I guess his advice to the Germans may be useful on the home front? C’mon Jim you been brewing beer the same way for 30 years now…
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/restauran ... dams-beer/Just read the article Danny and I’m mulling it over. I wonder what they can do to catch up, I don’t think making an IPA is the answer, that market is flooded. I was thinking cans, it’s the way things seem to be going . I know when I go boating or camping I try to buy cans. Not much available in cans worth drinking in my area anyway.
I can’t speak about millennials, but I think of Sam Adams as a solid, but mass-produced beer. It’s safe; it’s the fallback, if there isn’t something more appealing on tap. I think Koch needs to realize that he spent so much effort into taking on the big boys, that he’s become exactly what he fought against; big and boring.
I don’t know that he’s become what he fought against. His business model was to produce flavorful and quality beers but also still appeal to the masses. Koch became what he set out to become. But now that people are accepting Sam Adams as a “gateway” into craft brew, they started exploring more beers out of the comfort zone. Now that there are thousands of smaller breweries showing success with more extreme examples, he’s upset cause he wants to “hang out with the cool kids.” Not everybody is going to like a Weyerbacher Double Simcoe. But that beer is not intended to appeal to the masses. He believes that his beer belongs along side of those more “trendy” beers and while he should feel that way about his product its not a popular opinion.
Some of the smaller batch 4 packs and bombers SA has produced have been pretty decent examples of some of the lesser known styles. But they still bordered on being kinda “safe”. He just needs to accept that he is what he is.
Article today in St. Louis. More craft influence going to Germany.
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... e9892.htmlAnimal Farm?
posted it in a separate thread, but I really like this response to the Boston Magazine piece.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=124071&p=1082148#p1082148That’s pretty confusing to me…because Jim’s company makes a very solid and well made beer with great consistency and has achieved remarkable success with it, the product is boring???
Quite frankly, when out dining I’ve often chosen a draft of Boston Lager over some local small brewer draft offerings which, after a taste, too often prove themselves to be of remarkably lower quality.
I have all the respect in the world for small brewers that do know what they’re doing and make good beer, but the field is now beginning to become overcrowded by wannabes that are jumping on the bandwagon and, unfortunately, turning out product that is mediocre at best, and downright lousy at worst. And often, at a premium price to boot :shock:
So I give equal props to any brewer…small craft, large craft, or mega brewing corporation… out there who are delivering quality. Some of the recent efforts by the mega brewers have actually been pretty impressive, and as someone who has been watching the brewing industry seriously and with great interest for well over 3 decades, I predict that the bigs, who have recognized the changing tastes of the marketplace, are now poised to shake up the industry even more in the coming years, just as much as the craft brewery has in recent years.
And that’s a good thing. As has been suggested before, it will “up” everyone’s game.
And it’s all going to be very interesting indeed to watch.
:blah: whew…Now, I need a beer. it’s 5 o’clock somewhere in the world…
