Thursday, May 16, 2013

Hop Apostasy

Here is a good article from Slate on the craft beer industry's and consumers' love of - or as the piece states, addiction to - hoppy beers.  The author calls on brewers to ease off the hops and focus on other interesting ingredients, like wild yeast strains.  My favorite line was this one:
"There are many craft breweries that seek to create balanced, drinkable beers that aren’t very bitter at all, like Patrick Rue’s the Bruery in Placentia, Calif.,"

I wonder what The Bruery beers the author researched?  I doubt it was 5 Gold Rings, or some of The Bruery's other complex creations.  It must have been Mischief

I'm all for more sour beers, wild ales, porters, stouts, Belgian pale ales, dubbels, tripels, quadrupels, but don't stop my hops, I must have hops.  I NEED HOPS!

2 comments:

Mark said...

I dunno, the defining characteristic of craft beer to me is variety. Hops are part of that because there's a huge number of different hops, with new varieties coming quickly, but everything this author is asking for is out there. 95% of breweries might have IPAs, but they also have lots of other stuff.

Beer Rover said...

Agreed. She kind of answered her own question, many brewers are developing sours and other beers. Craft beer is never going to get the person who loves the big macro beers - I know I've tried - so keep the hops coming and market the variety of beers brewed. It may sound strange, but hoppy beers are a gateway to sours, wild ales, and all other different beers, at least they were for me.