Trends in Beer

Today as I was driving down the road I began to think about beer in general and quickly progressed onto beer fads or beer trends.  Regardless of calling it a trend or fad, what I was thinking about was how quickly beer styles come into favor and then disappear.  At first I was thinking of the current beer trends within the last 10-20 years and mainly dealing with brewpubs, micro and craft breweries.  I then realized that beers trends, in the United States, can go back to the at least the mid 1800s.  At that time there was an influx of German immigrants to the United States and with them they brought their beer.  For the most part that beer was a Pilsner style beer.  As the German immigrants became brewers at first on a local scale, then a regional scale and then a national scale, they kept tweaking their beer to appeal to the widest audience.  As they did that they also realized they could use cheaper ingredients to make the now mass appealing American Lager.  From that start the major breweries of Miller, Schlitz, Coors and Anheuser Busch grew and eventually dominated beer brewing into the 20th century. So a beer trend built several empires in beer. 

Now, to my original thoughts.

Today and over the last 20 years craft and micro breweries have been through phases of the "hot" beer trends.  When craft beer was beginning to grow in the 1980s and 1990s it seemed like every brewery had core or flagship beers in their portfolio.  Those core beers usually were a blonde or American wheat, a pale ale, an amber or brown ale and a stout. These were the beer that everyone brewed and were complemented by a hefeweizen, a fruit beer or even a lager or two.  It seemed like every brewery had these and sometimes it was hard to separate beer from one brewery to beer from another brewery.  Then an earth shaking beer began to hit the market and spread across the United States…Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale.  This was a unique hoppy and malty beer. 

 With the advent of Sierra Nevada a trend of hoppy west coast beers began.  Eventually it evolved into the trend of the West Coast Style IPA. For hopheads like me, this is a heaven sent beer.  Every brewery then began to make this style of beer and it became an addition to every breweries core beers.

 Beer trends can come and go as well.  Some beers have had popularity in earlier times and then fall out of favor.  If they fall out of favor long enough these beers disappear and sometimes are resurrected centuries later.  A couple of examples of this are Porters, Belgian Wits and a German Gose.  As craft brewers search for new flavors they sometimes revive a beer style.  Sometimes these revived beers become the latest beer trend.

 Also beer trends can be a new "style" of beer as well.  Like the Black IPA, Bourbon Barrel Stouts and Belgian IPAs.  These beer trends have yet to be officially recognized by the BJCP at styles, but many craft brewers contest have these beers broke out into their own "style" category.  If these beers have the staying power they may become their own beer style category.  Only time will tell.

Beer trends usually come from the need to experiment and add new tastes and aromas to beer.  This is usually done for a couple of reasons.  One to just prove that an unusual taste or aroma fits into a beer and people will drink it.  A second reason is that the brewer is just trying to outdo his/her contemporary brewers, in other words just to prove that they can brew something no one else can. 

As long as there are craft brewers there will always be beer trends.  Some beers will take off others will fall by the wayside.  So as you travel around keep on the lookout for the next beer trend.  Most of all do not worry about if a beer you like is a trend or not; if you like it keep drinking. 

QC Beerguy