beer shipments
That’s the problem. A lot of people are living in and around cities now. We buy beer at the brewery. Do these figures include 1st party sells? Distributors have always been a necessary evil and many states have laws saying you must go through a distributor for selling elsewhere, but many breweries are just doing taprooms now to not have to deal with that. I’d like to see those stats if they exist.
I do understand that many people are buying seltzers now, myself included.
It also doesn’t help that the craft beer scene turned into a competition to push the most over the top bitter IPAs possible. A lot of the appeal of craft beer went away for me when 3/4 of the taps became unremarkable IPAs. A good IPA is wonderful, but the vast majority of what you run into isn’t that.
It’s only marginally more interesting than when the landscape was dominated by lagers.
Hops are really awesome when used correctly, but many breweries just toss in hops to cover up bad bases. I’m lucky to have a few breweries around me that make really goods stouts and sours.
At least around me that has improved. Ten years ago it was just a dick-measuring contest about who could make the bitterest beer. Once you hit 90+ IBUs you’re not even pretending to make something good.
Since then, craft breweries here have course corrected. Most of them here are focusing on making a well- balanced IPA as their flagship, then experimenting with sours, stouts and saisons.
A brewery near me is owned by a guy from India, and has been very creative with spices reminiscent of different foods from that region, that I just haven’t seen anywhere else! Maybe it’s a sour or has tamarind or a juicy IOA with different fruit notes, or a mango lassi dessert beer, etc
That might have been the case 10-15 years ago (and I guess maybe it still is in some areas that are slow to follow the trends of craft beer) but these days that’s just not the case for most of the small scale craft beer.
Sure, IPAs have become the iconic style of American craft beer and they’ll likely be overrepresented in the US craft market for at the very least the next several decades, but for the past 5-10 years things have moved away from there over saturation that those who dislike the style still like to pretend dominates the scene.
Since the peak of ultra-bitter-IPA-mania, we’ve seen similar (if smaller) fads/trends for sours, NEIPAs, and most recently hazy IPAs (the latter two of which are not in the excessively bitter trend of the IPAs most think of). We’ve also seen fruit beers and seltzers take over, maybe even beyond the degree that IPAs ever did.
In the meantime, we’ve seen these extreme hop bombs relegated to the sidelines of the modern craft beer scene. My personal theory being that lots of brewers wanted to get in on that trend, tried, and found out just how tricky it can be to craft a good imperial IPA, and once people found good ones with wide availability, they stuck with them and the rest of the market dried up. While there’s nuance within hop bills, it’s still all hops. With fruit beers, it’s far easier to do something that nobody else is doing.
No joke, it’s all the seltzer marketing that gets people to spend way more on way less alcohol.
It was successful as fuck. Just look at all the streamers shilling it.
How is it spending way more on way less alcohol? In my area a 12 pack of Trulys is comparable to a 12 pack of Corona and they have roughly the same alcohol content
8 pack of seltzer… $20
Christ. 12 packs of seltzer here are like $16, beer not much cheaper maybe $14
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think hard Seltzer is technically classified as beer?
It says “BEER” on the back of White Claw cans.
Can you clarify your point?
If I was making hard seltzer at scale, I’d consider two options:
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Cut some Everclear 97% and some flavorant into water, and throw 30psi of CO2 on for it a few days (expensive)
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Ferment some dextrose, rack it off the yeast cake, add some flavorant, and throw 30psi of CO2 on it for a few days (cheap)
My hombrew club hated me.
What you are doing probally does not sound as romantic as what they are doing. 🤣
I’m sure the weed legalizing has had an impact as well. I have completely stopped drinking in favor of weed. Saves my liver and no hangover.
Saves the brain, too. Not saying weed is exceptional, but alcohol fucks the brain up.
THC in weed hurts short term memory and can cause paranoia. I just stick with CBD.
CBD isn’t psychoactive so it’s not gonna be the same for most people, but good on you! Honestly probably just drinking water is really the way to go for health. There is probably an argument for psychoactive substances relieving stress (which is a potent detriment to health) but there are also healthier ways to do that
Nothing fun is good for us. Just use substances in moderation and you’ll most likely be fine
I think that many people are switching to hard liquor because of the state of things, as well. My town alone has seen like a 7-800% increase in alcohol sales since covid.
As someone who rarely drinks and fucking hates being around dumb drunk fucks.
Good.
Keep going, don’t stop, fuck alcohol.
David Nutt knew what was up. He argued alcohol and tobacco should be illegal and marijuana, LSD, and mushrooms should be legal, based on real-world harm (he also had the data to back it up). He got shitcanned for suggesting this.
Humanity needs to wake the fuck up to how fucking bad alcohol is for us as a species.
I’m not one to put down someone else’s hobbies. My wife and friends and I all go out and drink for the flavor. Cocktails are entertaining and delicious, beer gardens and breweries have a chill laid back atmosphere and really helps us get out of the house. We don’t drink to get drunk. Sure, alcohol isn’t that healthy for us, but it takes the edge off. I can’t take mushrooms, weed, or LSD every day after work to relax. Booze is nice sometimes to just have a bit of a rounding out of the day.
There are many precautions that need to be in place to protect drunks from harming others, and I get that it’s exhausting to be around drunk people.
Nutt’s argument relied on large amounts of evidence based on how dangerous each drug actually is in reality.
But sure, because some people consider it a hobby we should definitely keep it legal and let people continue to ruin theirs and others lives!
I’m well aware of this chart. I actively push for using other drugs because of this. One way we can help the dangers of alcohol is by having a better public transit system.
Everyone has vices. Alcohol is very historical. We have alcohol in a lot of things, like a lot of food, so it’s impossible to get rid of it or even ban it.
So are you suggesting criminalizing it? Because we tried that once and became a bigger issue than it was while legal.
People are going to drink whether we like it or not, and outlawing it just pushes it underground and let’s criminals take control. The only way to really drive it out of society is to render it socially unacceptable, but then you’re going up against thousands of years of human habit. I’m not saying that the effects of alcohol on the individual and society aren’t bad, but it’s likely to be an unwinnable campaign. Better to legalize the less harmful intoxicants and give people the choice on how they consume their vices, because again, they are going to get their fixes one way or another.
If you ever worked in a hospital or worked on the social services side of things that tune might change.
Just like tobacco, alcohol is patently terrible for society. DUI deaths, domestic violence, longterm brain deterioration, carcinogenic effects.
Alcohol costs society so much. Just because some can handle driving over the speed limit doesn’t mean everyone should.
I have a friend in his 50’s who has been unable to taper off his drinking, and it’s so sad to watch.
His impulse control is failing, he can hardly enjoy things he used to. He literally gave up on video games and board games because he doesn’t have the patience and they confuse him now.
Part of that is the long-term effects of drinking every day, and the other part is being drunk every day and not being able to soberly assess, well, anything.
I don’t know weed smokers like that.
First I would like to say that millions of people do consume weed every day after work. Without weed, a vast many of them would perhaps be daily alcohol users are.
My second point is, the fact that you have a category of acceptable drugs to consume daily, and include alcohol in it, might be something you should evaluate.
I will drink a bottle of wine on a Friday and Saturday night, but the idea of drinking every night, even if just 1 or 2 drinks, terrifies me.
First I would like to say that millions of people do consume weed every day after work.
Okay?
They never said nobody does those things, just that they don’t, and can’t.
My second point is, the fact that you have a category of acceptable drugs to consume daily, and include alcohol in it, might be something you should evaluate.
And maybe your inability to consider the possibility that others can handle responsible use of drugs in moderation and still carry out healthy, productive, well-balanced lives is something that you should evaluate.
Sure there’s people who can’t handle any amount of any substance in their lives, but that doesn’t mean nobody can, and to imply a personal failing is at the core of any alcohol consumption (beyond whatever personal limits you’ve set and decided to impose on others) is just holier-than-thou nonsense.
I mean, yeah, booze isn’t great for people. But it’s been a fairly important part of humanity since, like, the first city. According to wikipedia, humans have been making booze since the Neolithic period (10,000 BCE). Many, many, human cultures have some sort of relationship with it. Removing it would not be easy or well received.
There are a few theories that propose alcohol tolerance is baked into our DNA. Pre-humans that were able to breakdown alcohol were able to survive off of fermenting fruit when needed and not get so blackout drunk they became easy prey for something else. While that is just theory, the ability for us to process alcohol had to start somewhere.
I find it strange that a substance that helped us evolve is also a major sponsor of the Darwin Awards.
Lol people know how bad alcohol is.
Maybe you’ll understand when you’re a little bit older, bud.
I don’t know how young you think a guy who is referencing an obscure UK government official being sacked 14 years ago would be.
I also wonder how liquor sales are as well.
My wife and I are obviously only one couple, so this is confirmation bias, but alcohol in general just isn’t as appealing anymore. With all this general stress we’ve been going through (struggling with inflation, insane work hours, insane work conditions) alcohol is causing more migraines, sucky morning-after-drinking symptoms, high calories, expensive prices, there’s just no good reason to drink as much as we used to. And it’s not like we drank that much earlier in our lives as well.
Tie this all together with marijuana availability which has none of these cons except for high taxes, then alcohol doesn’t sound as appealing anymore.
I also wonder how liquor sales are as well.
Up a staggering amount. The US is in the throes of an alcohol-abuse epidemic.
If that’s the case, keep on keeping on alcohol drinkers. 🫡
As long as nobody is drunk driving, being a public nuisance, or hurting people in any way then I won’t tell people how to live their lives.
Although, I feel the same way about any drug really. There’s enjoying yourself and then there’s hurting yourself.
