One of the reasons I have not been drinking a lot of craft beer from local breweries is that I can't get a bitter beer anymore. Everything is juicy and hazy. All the more reason to practice how to get the most out of the hops at home!
Haven't been frequenting many pubs lately, but I have seen the shelves in liquor stores. Sadly agree. Between hazyes, ciders and seltzers, the 'real estate' on beer shelves has gotten quite crowded. Recently I took a chance on a local brewery's interpretation of a German Pils. It was a disgusting hazy, murky, cloudy, milky substance which, though not necessarily bad tasting, was an immediate dumper. Lagers (especially German lagers) are supposed to be CLEAR! The abomination I had purchased was anything but clear, and that just ain't RIGHT!^This. Nothing against the dankiest and juiciest of hops. It's a nice change of pace, sometimes. Murkiness, however, just looks very unappetising.
Big Brothercountless NEIPAs hogging taps in every and each pub say otherwise.
Lagers (especially German lagers) are supposed to be CLEAR! The abomination I had purchased was anything but clear, and that just ain't RIGHT!
For sure, we've got a lot of even stupidier trends coming ahead.For a few years now, we've had this stupid trend
Not even Ray Bradbury envisioned that one.For sure, we've got a lot of even stupidier trends coming ahead.
I promise you: in our lifetime we'll see a trend for SLIMY beers.
Hipsters (or what that kind of folks would be called then) would scoop and slurp their bioengineered beery blobs from soft silicone chalices.
Old codgers will be avoiding entering pubs to not throw up at seeing that.
Last July I brewed a Helles for a late September local competition which coincides with Oktoberfest (we have a history in my area of German immigration and influence that pre-dates the American Revolution in 1776). Although I do not brew in strict compliance with the Reinheitsgebot I do try to at least follow the spirit when brewing German lagers, but with this beer I neither fined nor filtered. It didn't have enough time to adequately lager and settle, so it wasn't nearly as sparkling as I would have liked. The keg got relegated to the back of the beer fridge while the other kegs slowly got emptied over the winter months.Not to make this (another) thread about hazy beers, but I have mixed feelings here. For a few years now, we've had this stupid trend of "naturtrüb" or "naturally hazy" beers in Germany, usually labeled as "Kellerbier", which are often downright murky to the point where I seriously question the attribute "naturally": every homebrewer knows that an unfiltered, properly made, beer will display quite decent clarity, even more so if it was given some time to mature (as you would expect in a lager). So, really, they must be using some weird tricks to achieve that appearance and have it hold up in the bottle! I was disappointed to find even well-regarded breweries like Brauhaus Riegele, which I have a lot of respect for otherwise, following this trend.
That said, I feel that the usual lagers are crystal clear, but for the wrong reasons: not because they are so well made and given lots of time to mature, but simply due to filtration. Filtration might not work as well if the beer it is applied to isn't quite clear to begin with, but that's not the point: the clarity is the product of a technical process, the conformity of which with the Reinheitsgebot is rather curious (afaik, the reasoning here is that the plastic particles employed in PVPP filtration are not present in the final beer and should thus not be considered an "ingredient", similar to the role yeast plays).
So those lagers being clear is not a demonstration of the brewer's skill, attention to detail and devotion to the craft. In particular, lagers should imho not be expected to display this level of clarity. The "flagship" beer of Giesinger Bräu, an ever-growing craft brewery in Munich, is in fact an unfiltered "Kellerbier" which possesses pretty much exactly the level of clarity I'd expect. (I still find it a terrible beer, although for different reasons. It is immensely popular among my friends, though, which continues to puzzle me.)
Ugh! That sounds worse than Jello Shots. BTW, is that still a thing? Sometimes I grieve for what this world is becoming. (sigh...)For sure, we've got a lot of even stupidier trends coming ahead.
I promise you: in our lifetime we'll see a trend for SLIMY beers.
Hipsters (or what that kind of folks would be called then) would scoop and slurp their bioengineered beery blobs from soft silicone chalices.
Old codgers will be avoiding entering pubs to not throw up at seeing that.
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