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11-11-2018, 15:05
Visit the Boak and Bailey's Beer Blog site (https://boakandbailey.com/2018/11/craft-lager-and-whatever-ipa/)
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We’ve been observing the way people, including some of our own friends and colleagues, order their drinks in pubs these days.Here’s a fairly typical exchange:
“What you having?”
[Pointing at the keg taps] “Whatever IPA they’ve got.”
“Maltsmith’s?”
“Yeah, fine.”
Maltsmith’s (Caledonian/Heineken, 4.6%) is the same as Samuel Smith India Ale (5%, coppery, English hops) is the same as BrewDog Punk (5.6%, pale, pungent) is the same as Goose Island IPA (AB InBev, 5.9%, amber, piney).
We’ve noticed more or less the same tendency with ‘craft lager’ – a phrase we geeks could probably lose weeks bickering over but which to most consumers has a fairly clear meaning: something with CRAFT LAGER written on its label, and a brand invented in the past decade.
Fuller’s Frontier, Hop House 13 (Guinness), St Austell Korev, Camden Hells (AB InBev), Lost & Grounded Keller Pils… They’re all seen as avatars of the same thing, despite the vast divergence in flavours, and regardless of ownership, independence, and so on.
It was weird the other night to be in Seamus O’Donnell’s, a central Bristol Irish pub, and see on draught not only Guinness stout but also a Guinness branded golden ale, citra IPA, and*two*crafted-up lagers – Hop House 13 and Guinness Pilsner.
This line-up is what people expect to find in 2018, and breweries are obliged to respond if they don’t want to lose space on the bar to competitors.
The frustration for beer geeks is that this feels and looks like what they wanted, what they clamoured for, but the beers themselves are so often disappointing – hops a little more in evidence than the old mainstream, perhaps, but rarely more than that.
And if you’re wedded to ideals of independence, quality and choice, it’s all a bit worrying: most consumers are apparently easy to befuddle, or don’t care, which is bad news for those who do.
Craft Lager and Whatever IPA (https://boakandbailey.com/2018/11/craft-lager-and-whatever-ipa/) originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog (https://boakandbailey.com)
More... (https://boakandbailey.com/2018/11/craft-lager-and-whatever-ipa/)
https://boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/whatever_ipa.jpg
We’ve been observing the way people, including some of our own friends and colleagues, order their drinks in pubs these days.Here’s a fairly typical exchange:
“What you having?”
[Pointing at the keg taps] “Whatever IPA they’ve got.”
“Maltsmith’s?”
“Yeah, fine.”
Maltsmith’s (Caledonian/Heineken, 4.6%) is the same as Samuel Smith India Ale (5%, coppery, English hops) is the same as BrewDog Punk (5.6%, pale, pungent) is the same as Goose Island IPA (AB InBev, 5.9%, amber, piney).
We’ve noticed more or less the same tendency with ‘craft lager’ – a phrase we geeks could probably lose weeks bickering over but which to most consumers has a fairly clear meaning: something with CRAFT LAGER written on its label, and a brand invented in the past decade.
Fuller’s Frontier, Hop House 13 (Guinness), St Austell Korev, Camden Hells (AB InBev), Lost & Grounded Keller Pils… They’re all seen as avatars of the same thing, despite the vast divergence in flavours, and regardless of ownership, independence, and so on.
It was weird the other night to be in Seamus O’Donnell’s, a central Bristol Irish pub, and see on draught not only Guinness stout but also a Guinness branded golden ale, citra IPA, and*two*crafted-up lagers – Hop House 13 and Guinness Pilsner.
This line-up is what people expect to find in 2018, and breweries are obliged to respond if they don’t want to lose space on the bar to competitors.
The frustration for beer geeks is that this feels and looks like what they wanted, what they clamoured for, but the beers themselves are so often disappointing – hops a little more in evidence than the old mainstream, perhaps, but rarely more than that.
And if you’re wedded to ideals of independence, quality and choice, it’s all a bit worrying: most consumers are apparently easy to befuddle, or don’t care, which is bad news for those who do.
Craft Lager and Whatever IPA (https://boakandbailey.com/2018/11/craft-lager-and-whatever-ipa/) originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog (https://boakandbailey.com)
More... (https://boakandbailey.com/2018/11/craft-lager-and-whatever-ipa/)