Pine sap, citrus pith, malted barley, cinnamon.
Baker’s chocolate, milk sugar, peanut butter, cookie dough. .
Maple syrup, bacon fat, rose hips, pumpkin spice. . .
Squid ink ?
At first, beer… but the rest is also beer…. and that is the modern beer problem.
There is simultaneously too much and yet, not enough variety.
As any chef might tell you in the world of culinary arts – of which beer can consider itself a part – consistency is death. The demand of the consumer is always shifting.
They always want the next new thing.
Although beer cannot and should not change this quickly, at the same time… it must.
The trends have come a long way since the inception of Anheuser-Busch and Molson-Coors, but they are slowly falling off.
The realm of big beer constitutes a consistent and neutral product, fermented and mashed the exact same way every single time to reinforce a product that never changes, opting for ingredients without variability in flavors to further guarantee that the customer experience stays the same.
Though this works for mass produced beers, such as Bud Light, the regional breweries – like Sierra Nevada – and the microbreweries – such as Modern Times – cannot keep up with this level of consistency to deliver a satisfactory experience to their customer base that is always clamoring for a new product.
Instead, they have to adapt to a brew system that can harmonize to this degree of variability. Many microbreweries with small systems and less volume can absolutely make this work, but the larger systems, ones that have their brews scheduled out one or even two years in advance, simply cannot afford to make subtle changes often enough to keep up with the ever-changing market demands.
…and this is what leads to the large, well-known brands to slowly fall off and become forgotten in the myopic trends of the beer market, as what has happened to Ballast Point and to Anchor.
Aside from death by consistency and failure to adapt to changing trends, the beer industry is also falling short due to a consumer base that is, simply put, drinking less.
Though there isn’t much to be done to bandage themselves against this, there is an inquiry to be made about why this downward trajectory in consumption is affecting beer far more than any other alcoholic beverage industry.
Some blame calories. Others blame marketing. While others still blame the recipes and/or craft.
But whomever or whatever it is that you blame for the modern beer problem.
I for one… still hope that we can fix it before our only options are either Bud Light or Squid Ink.
