Anyone else already over the whole micro brewery thing?

eljr

eljr

Koyaanisqatsi
OK, back in the 80's and 90's wine was becoming the rage. By 2000 every Mc Mansion in the suburbs had a wine cellar built into their basement.

The last 10 years has seen the wild growth of the micro brewery.

Now when I am at a Mc Mansion party we either have draft beer from the local brewery or a wide selections of IPA's on ice.

To be honest, I have yet to walk into a micro brewery and not found ribbons on their beers.
They clearly hand these out to anyone. Beers so cloudy you are hesitant to drink them? Award them!

Meantime, the local wine store closed down. :(

The local wineries are doing well but most make a living on cider. (and yet, they too all have ribbons)

Seems the new "corner bar" is now either a micro brewery, a spirits distillery (yes!!!! more ribbons, I am not joking) a winery, mostly selling hard cider or a brew house which offers all the local beers on tap along with 1,000 IPA selections.



So what is my point?

I don't know.
 
On the other hand, everywhere I travel, I seek out Breweries and Distilleries as well as Wineries and base half my trip around them. I love trying new beers and there surely is no lack of satisfying and different brews....everywhere. I spent my 30th Anniversary in Portland ME on a Beer and Lobster Quest and in that city you can't walk 2 blocks without hitting yet another good brewery.

In my own area, there are so many new ones popping up all the time I have yet to sample half of them.

Craft Beer is one of US's largest domestic sales and is keeping the economy going and the drinkers happy.

I just had a few limited release El Jefe, Dark IPAs from Alchemist over the weekend and got me some more Heady Topper
 
I rarely stray from the Rolling Rocks and Sam Adams that carried me this far. Not a big beer explorer. Same with liquor.
 
eizner23 said:
Craft beer gives me the spins and bad hangover. Impurities? Whats in it? Tastes good tho. I'm sticking with German beer centuries old recipes with strict ingredient list.
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Probably a mild yeast or hop allergy. My wife get's the same way with certain beers. she can drink the darker malty stuff but a lot of hops, wheat, etc and she reacts. Microbreweries generally use good ingredients and no preservatives.
 
It's just getting started up here in PA but it exploded fast, within the last 2 years. We now have a "beer trail" which is kind of lame because there only some of the breweries and mostly not the best ones. I could put together a way better local tour. I live about 2 miles from Pizza Boy Brewery. Some good stuff there!!

So no, I'm not sick of it. Yet. I love IPAs.
 
I'm not a big fan of PA wineries. It's kind of a novelty thing I guess. The wine is mostly sweet and ciders like you said. The breweries are much better. At least they can control the brew, where wineries are limited by our climate. I do go occasionally if a group of us are going to an event but if I want real wine I'll go to Napa, Oregon or Tuscany.
 
I've more or less given up on beer since I became serious about dealing with my Type 2 Diabetes. And that was tough since I'm from Milwaukee. But I still like to drink so it's been dry red wines (in moderation) for me.
 
BobHol said:
I've more or less given up on beer since I became serious about dealing with my Type 2 Diabetes. And that was tough since I'm from Milwaukee. But I still like to drink so it's been dry red wines (in moderation) for me.
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I stopped beer too for similar reasons (not diabetic yet but "pre"). Beer is pretty loaded with carbohydrates and since going on a low carb diet 5 years ago I haven't drank any beer. I do drink distilled stuff in moderation as 80 proof technically doesn't have any carbohydrate.
 
I think it's wonderful that in America we have finally gotten the idea that watery beer brewed with rice, pasty, spongy white bread, pale, nearly flavorless coffee in a can aren't what we are limited to. How that junk was sold to us for generations I'll never know.
 
botrytis said:
In Michigan, breweries, wineries and distilleries coexist. It is possible. I mean in Ann Arbor, MI we have, in a city of 100K people, 8 brew pubs and growing.

If beer is done properly, most of the carbs are non-fermentable (meaning no calories as your body can't digest them either). It is the alcohol where the calories come in also you are drinking more than either wine or whisky. If you put them on the same volume, wine and hard alcohol have way more calories.
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Yes, my comment was about my particular diet. Calories are not as much a concern (for me), but that carbohydrates are converted to sugar very fast and sugar glucose is what my body cannot handle and I must avoid.
 
I love a dark, chewy beer, and now I have a lot of choices. If people can make a living doing something they enjoy I'm all for it. Especially if I like what they are selling. On another note, the big breweries are buying up the micro-brews. The writing is on the wall. The days of Bud or Miller products being your two choices at watering holes are thankfully long gone.
 
I think Killer Fox put his finger on why the small breweries are so common these days, they can produce whatever variety they like, not being limited by estate grown grapes or fruit like the wineries.
We have "farm breweries" that are required to use some locally sourced ingredients, but that is a small part of the product. As for the reactions to craft beers, yeast and hops can have that effect.
The #1 macro beer tends to give me a headache- I blame the beechwood!
 
Here in Colorado we're up to 300+ Microbreweries, but most are disgusting attempts. The issue I have with micro's stems back from the beginning (circa 1992-ish), when the original 3 (Left Hand, Breckenridge, and Fat Tire) were all served only in 16oz bombers unfiltered (sediment at the bottom) and delicious. Once out-of-State action started they filtered and pasteurized the crap out of them to where they lost all uniqueness. My issue now is the fact that not one micro seems to make a decent ~NORMAL~ beer without coffee, berries, hop overload, chili's, feet sweat. How about a nice normal lager or pilsner?!? Which is why the 1 micro I really prefer is in Woodland Park, a place called Bierwerks. Traditional German only beers (Helles, Hefes, Dunkels) done the traditional way, no fillers or BS.
 
My issue with most of the boutique brewery's is they make to many different types and they end up tasting like shit. I'll take good Vodka anytime.
 
I don't drink but when my partner and I travel I find that local microbreweries are a great way to eat some good/local/regionally unique food. We're not one to hit the Applebees, Cracker Barrel's or other familiar chain places we can visit at home when we're out seeing another part of the country.
 
^ I have to agree that a lot of these little outfits tend to go with weird ingredients in order to be "different". The small brewers have a hard time making lagers and pilsners because they require much more fermenting and conditioning time, limiting how much product can be produced. The market will shake out the bad ones. Is Bristol still in Colorado Springs?
 
My only problem with micro breweries (or any other brewery for that matter) is that now that I'm trying to lose weight via cutting carbs ..... well...... I really can't partake of their products.
 
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