Beer fads that have passed

[kristiismean]

Is a seasonal thing a fad? I wouldn't say so. This coming fall I bet a lot of those breweries will hop aboard the pumpkin train again. And probably the one after that, too. And maybe even after that...

it's a yearly thing. Get your oktoberfest, next month pumpkin, next month winter ale.

 

[jmcquesten]

it's a yearly thing. Get your oktoberfest, next month pumpkin, next month winter ale.

Yeah, but at least an oktoberfest is good beer, even a winter ale. I think the pumpkin thing is just a really big, far reaching fad. Pumpkins should be reserved for pies and carving.

 

[Baabaadoo]

Hopefully all IPA's will disappear and make room for tasty beer with actual balanced flavor profiles.

Some pumpkin beers can be good. Some are terrible. I enjoy having a rotating beer season.

 

[Upthewazzu]

The amber ale thing basically kick-started the craft movement 15-20 years ago. I don't have exact figures or anything, but I'd assume it's been declining and/or flat for many years now.

 

[marjen]

I dont really expect the NE IPA thing to be a fad. They taste damn good! They may not be as hyped, but I think people will continue to drink them for a long time.

I also think they help the smaller brewers in their fight with the big boys. The national brewers I really dont think can distribute the style at its best due to its short shelf life. So this could help continue to if not grow at least keep the smaller brewers around for the long haul.

 

[mcgimpkins]

How about Habanero/Jalapeno/Chili pepper beers? I haven't noticed them around very much.

 

[SGTSparty]

I believe session IPA's filled a necessary hole in the market. I remember going to my local brew shop and being hard pressed to find a tasty IPA that wasn't below %7-%8 + ABV. I'm old, day drinking is a lifestyle change. I enjoy having a few beers throughout the day and I can't be hammering back %8 + ABV at 12pm on a Saturday afternoon and still function properly by dinner time. But that might just be me. Am I alone in this one?

Agree with all of this. I'm on the other side of the spectrum, i'm 30 but with a toddler and another inbound. I'm rarely able to throw back several 7% plus beers. I like drinking beer more than I like getting drunk so to be able to have 2 or 3 as beverages w/o getting buzzed up is great.

 

[parkvilleporter]

I'm with you on this one. Always looking for a session or near session IPA. We also brew for 7% or lower. (Almost always)

 

[TX_Brewing]

Still waiting for the imperial session beer fad to start.

 

[ericbw]

Still waiting for the imperial session beer fad to start.

An Imperial Mild Ale (IMA)?

 

[ericbw]

I dont really expect the NE IPA thing to be a fad. They taste damn good! They may not be as hyped, but I think people will continue to drink them for a long time.

I also think they help the smaller brewers in their fight with the big boys. The national brewers I really dont think can distribute the style at its best due to its short shelf life. So this could help continue to if not grow at least keep the smaller brewers around for the long haul.

Budweiser could make it in many locations and ship it out faster (and cheaper) than a small brewer could. But who would buy it?

 

[bob1852]

Still waiting for the imperial session beer fad to start.

https://www.ratebeer.com/beer/sierra-nevada-beer-camp-moxee-moron-imperial-session-ipa/398213/

 

[ebstauffer]

Well yes, but you wouldn't toss unmalted wheat in the boil either, would you?

I think the "hazy" IPA thing is a fad. Now you've got people purposely trying to make their IPA hazy. I've seen some commercial versions looking like swamp water. If you use a technique to get the flavor your want and it results in a bit of haze, fine. Flavor comes first. Purposely adding junk just to make cloudy beer? That's just pointless and counterproductive.

True dat! But again, I've never wanted to make a IPA hazy on purpose!

 

[Revvy]

Still waiting for the imperial session beer fad to start.

I see what you did there ... but you did remind me, Imperializing everything was a fad for a hot minute.. Still trying to figure out what an Imperial Red Ale was supposed to be. LOL

India Pale Lagers was a "thing" a couple years ago. But I think other bigger "things" took their thunder away.

 

[tiredofbuyingbeer]

An Imperial Mild Ale (IMA)?

It's been done: http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/search/label/Imperial Mild

Patterson has a recipe for Imperial Mild (XXXX) in his book. Not sure if it's the same as the Truman recipe he lists in the link. It has an OG of over 1.1. All pale malt and fuggle.

 

[Revvy]

True dat! But again, I've never wanted to make a IPA hazy on purpose!

I still can't get my head around the fact that I've worked damn hard over the last 10+ years of brewing to make CLEAR beer.


Granted I have had M-25 and found it an amazing beer... and at some point I will jump into brewing one of these things after doing some research... probably this summer I'll make one... BUT STILL, the idea that hazy beer is a good thing is just kind of going against everything I've striven for. :fro:

 

[jmcquesten]

I still can't get my head around the fact that I've worked damn hard over the last 10+ years of brewing to make CLEAR beer.


Granted I have had M-25 and found it an amazing beer... and at some point I will jump into brewing one of these things after doing some research... probably this summer I'll make one... BUT STILL, the idea that hazy beer is a good thing is just kind of going against everything I've striven for. :fro:

Just think of it like making a hefeweizen or witbier.

 

[Barley_Bob]

I see what you did there ... but you did remind me, Imperializing everything was a fad for a hot minute.. Still trying to figure out what an Imperial Red Ale was supposed to be. LOL

I was going to say this too. Imperial along with bourbon barrel oaked everything. I'm sure folks are making them still, but the buzz has died away. Won't be long now till you can get the ultra rare special editions off a regular store shelf without waiting in a line.

India Pale Lagers was a "thing" a couple years ago. But I think other bigger "things" took their thunder away.

I've had one of these. It was surprisingly good. I've been wanting to make one with the cal common yeast for a while. But then there's so many other things to do...

 

[theowlman16]

Had a NEIPA today from Raleigh Brewing. We used to call that hop water.

 

[Michigan_Wolfman]

Bud Ice.

I always did like the commercials though.

 

[seatazzz]

It's a fad that hasn't faded yet, but I remember when the craze was "light" or "diet" beer.. I think I read somewhere once that the big brewers hit on it as a marketing ploy aimed at women, since at the time (and even now), women did the majority of the grocery shopping, and also because it was believed women didn't like the taste of the "real" beers.

 

[JonM]

Phillip van Munching's "Beer Blast" tells the story of the development of light beer, including the cutthroat battle over the right to use the word "Lite" which Miller obviously won.

An old memory popped into my head - back in the days of Ice and Draft and whatever beers, a friend tried to say "Bud Ice Draft Light" after quite a few and it came out "Butt Ass Dright Laft." That name stuck.

 

[seatazzz]

Phillip van Munching's "Beer Blast" tells the story of the development of light beer, including the cutthroat battle over the right to use the word "Lite" which Miller obviously won.

An old memory popped into my head - back in the days of Ice and Draft and whatever beers, a friend tried to say "Bud Ice Draft Light" after quite a few and it came out "Butt Ass Dright Laft." That name stuck.

*deleted because I don't want to offend Yooper. She's too nice.

 

[vgmohag]

No one has mentioned bud dry. Why ask why?

 

[schatzke]

try Bud Dry

 

[Toejam792]

Genny Cream Ale was popular around wny for a while a couple decades ago. I picked up a 12 pack recently, having never tried it, and I can say it was pretty good.

 

[mcgimpkins]

Genny Cream Ale was popular around wny for a while a couple decades ago. I picked up a 12 pack recently, having never tried it, and I can say it was pretty good.

Really? Haven't had it in +15 years but I remember gagging on the stuff. Maybe they finally chased the sunk out of the brewery.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I think the latest fad where i live anyway is anything wheat, or mixed with wheat, I know people like them but im allergic so if im out of home brew I go strait for the light beers, now that a fad that will never die

 

[jcav]

Anyone remember back 30 years ago in the mid 80's when they came out with Michelob Dark? They really pushed that beer with all the advertisements. It was malty and pretty good back then before all the craft beer was available. Then later no one cared and they stopped brewing it.

John

 

[JonM]

15 or so years ago, before craft brewing REALLY took off, PBR somehow became super popular among the hipster crowd. Why? Because they didn't market and were seen as not being a corporate stooge type beer.

Naturally, everyone who sells stuff wanted to do the same thing, i.e., quadruple your sales by literally doing nothing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/22/magazine/the-marketing-of-no-marketing.html

I almost missed it because PBR was still persona non grata around here. The announced in the late 90s that they didn't have the money to honor brewery workers' pensions and people rightly flipped. Milwaukee County refused to sell Pabst, so you could no longer get PBR at Bucks or Brewers games or at any county parks, liquor stores wouldn't accept Pabst returnable bottles anymore, and plenty of stores stopped carrying it.

Miller jumped in and covered the pensions and, apparently fences have been mended because I got a PBR at Miller Park recently.

 

[ericbw]

PBR is just good, basic beer the way God intended.

Pabst had some Busby Berkeley style musical commercials. "PBR me ASAP!"

But there are lots of blue collar beers that don't market. Old Style. Rainer. Narragansett. The difference might be that they were regional and never got widespread distribution. PBR had distribution even when they were less popular.

 

[Brownalemikie]

Me thinks the days of commercial beers such as Bud are nearing the end. I just can't make myself choke them down anymore......it's like drinking charged water or Alka Seltzer. Most of my friends brew their own or buy craft beer. Hence, the fad for commercial beer is passing. JMO

 

[BreezyBrew]

Black IPA

 

[schatzke]

I remember just after my 21st birthday buying glasses of PBR at a dive bar downtown for 75 cents. About 16 years ago. Now I'm feelin old

 

[ericbw]

We used to get mini pitchers of PBR for a dollar. Drank it like a mug.

 

[JonM]

So this episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm came out right around the time that the alcopops started becoming really popular - Mike's Hard Lemonade, this hard lemonade, that hard lemonade, etc. So among my buddies and me, any fermented malt beverage with natural lemon flavor was a "lemon bulls**t."

(Linked for obvious naughty words.)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-4yZT8sT5Q

 

[z-bob]

So this episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm came out right around the time that the alcopops started becoming really popular - Mike's Hard Lemonade, this hard lemonade, that hard lemonade, etc. So among my buddies and me, any fermented malt beverage with natural lemon flavor was a "lemon bulls**t."

(Linked for obvious naughty words.)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-4yZT8sT5Q

LOL, the barista (baristo?) knew what he wanted and had no problem with it

 

[rlmiller10]

Yeah, but at least an oktoberfest is good beer, even a winter ale. I think the pumpkin thing is just a really big, far reaching fad. Pumpkins should be reserved for pies and carving.

And blowing up. They are fun to blow up.

 

[tiredofbuyingbeer]

PBR is still pretty big in hipster circles in Philly and Atlanta. In Philly, there's this ubiquitous bar combo, a citywide, where they give you well bourbon and a PBR for the price of, well, a well bourbon. (Some places use nicer bourbon.) The bar near me doesn't open the can for you, so you can take the PBR home if you want.

 

[trav77]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1495593347.037510.jpg

This was a thing for awhile and particularly hilarious because where I grew up this drink was called a "Gatineau Slut" (Labatt and Smirnoff ice). Apparently their marketing department didn't think that had much of a ring to it.