The West Has Fallen 
With so many bozos doing the same uninspired IPAs and awful sour beers (not that all sour beers are bad, but I've had some American ones that are really shitty and gimmicky) for crazy prices during the time where money was essentially free, it was bound to happen once interest rates got raised, and when most people can barely afford groceries, let alone 10$ bitter piss.
Out here the best breweries to authentic German style beer or cider. Everyone else has forgettable variations of the same citra recipe.
My kingdom for a half-decent Dunkelweizen that I don't have to ship half way around the world. But despite a rich history of wheatbeers in Australia the best you can find is astonishingly sour Belgian styles flavoured strawberry or something equally saddening.
My local one always has a Dunkle, a Heffe, and a Swartzbier on tap. Kinda sucks is military themed, but the bartender loves China and is super chill so it's a wash
I can't wait for this shit to die. I swear, you go to a brewery and it's 5 IPAs.
Give me some variety like Wisconsin beers or more Reds, unironically.
Young adults in the U.S. have become progressively less likely to use alcohol over the past two decades, with the percentages of 18- to 34-year-olds saying they ever drink, that they drank in the past week and that they sometimes drink more than they should all lower today. At the same time, drinking on all three metrics has trended up among older Americans while holding fairly steady among middle-aged adults. https://news.gallup.com/poll/509690/young-adults-drinking-less-prior-decades.aspx
food, healthcare, shelter prices are all up. wages are stagnant. most of the neighborhoods aren't walkable and nobody needs a DUI. also, i think the word got out about the confounding variable with "1 drink" being associated with a healthier person than "0 drinks", so its become pretty obvious that less drinks is better, no drinks is best. not to mention, as americans age into pre-diabetes/diabetes, the protocol for physicians is to recommend cessation of drinking. same with sleep apnea, which is rocketing up diagnostically. and people with healthcare are the sort to be able to afford the post-work craft beer scene.
i used to drink a lot 10-15 years ago. all those microbreweries were popping off in the early, post-GFC gentrification cycle. it was a total scene and everybody pretended like this was the new phase of urban development because the tech-money funded microbrewery would also include a non-profit tax dodge that like formed a board to do a think and employ someone's spouse. gotta shut down the liquor store and loose cig place where the local POC go and open up the bar for young, affluent whites to go across the street, this totally isn't racist! excuse me while i don't weep for their downturn, pushing legal and socially acceptable poison in the monetized Third Place.
i definitely get kind of a worried look when i let on that i ceased drinking, like sort of a "how are you coping? i could never." vibe. honestly, it's made my mornings 100x easier.
Ironically, I think the rise of craft beer did a lot to decrease consumption. Even cost aside, with cheap watery macro lagers it’s a lot easier to get a rolling buzz that builds up to intoxication. With craft beer at 7+% ABV, you drink one, you feel the alcohol and ergo it’s a lot harder to justify drinking a second.
Plus, the rise of remote work has killed the after work drink culture, especially for younger workers.
Can’t say I’m surprised, there was a mass over saturation of craft beer brands in the market in the late aughts and teens, and most of what’s on the shelves is 300 different IPAs. Contraction was inevitable.
I genuinely never got the craft beer trend. I tried loads 'cause friends got into it and Í never thought "damn, this is good enough to cost 4 beers"
There are genuinely some lovely craft beers out there that I've thoroughly enjoyed over the years. Unfortunately, the vast bulk of them are mid at best and downright awful at worst. And often at a premium price. I haven't drank beer in years simply because of how many craft beers are absolute swill and I was tired of making the gamble
Coors is fine but why not just drink a spirit that I love instead? Less hangover, less bloat, and tastes wildly better
I find that if I drink liquor or wine I end up... drinking too much
Lol I probably should myself. But I think 1 beer with dinner or whatever is no problem really
Only two beers have ever had that effect on me, a chocolate stout I had on a whim for my birthday. An the Rocketfuel Coffee Stout.
It just got too expensive, a 4 pack of pint cans like 15 bucks now. As discretionary income falls non-essentials are the first things to go. I imagine amazon is getting clobbered also as people slow down on the buy it now button
The best I can tell US craft beer is terrible. Last time I was there I tried several places to pick up some beers and the stores basically all just had IPAs and juicy-ass sours
This is unfortunately pretty true still. Funny thing is that brewers don't like that either, but owners demand trendy beer (where brewer-owners land on that spectrum is naturally on the trendy side though).
My experience in the home brew community (and lurking pro brewer communities) was typically people meming on the trends of the day: lots of pics of "buying ingredients" from the gas station candy aisle, complaining about the latest IPA fad, and bemoaning that they weren't brewing a personal or local favorite (lots of German styles, which are great, but there's a whole ass-world out there of beer y'all). Heck, from what I understand, homebrewing popped off in the 90s in response to terrible American macro beer options. It was pretty common back then to hack together your own equipment for brewing (probably mostly for mashing, apparently home sized equipment wasn't really sold in the states then) to make a cool style (like a dunkel lol, we really had 0 beer options back then) they had never seen before.
It would be really cool to see more experimental or regional styles brewed again, but, obviously, the petty bourgeois owners want to make bank instead. We really need more coop breweries! Funnily enough, my SIL has mentioned to me that she wants to open a brewery with me. Every time I say "only if it's a coop," then the conversation ends. Wonder why that is?
It's my understanding that most of the volume of craft beer has just moved to hard seltzer.
It's OK to like
No, it is not. Sorry to ruin your fun Lib.
Huh, this explains a recent closure that's got me and my job scrambling a bit.
This isn't concrete evidence but I feel like a lot of craft breweries made one or two good beers as a homebrewer and somehow knew people or had established money to start up a craft brewery. Since I do like checking out craft breweries and most have literally 1-2 good beers and the rest mid to poor (the bigger the draft list generally more likely all are poor). A lot of these breweries get bailed out by good locations or recently providing spaces to let the adults booze + "Watch the kids".
I like to homebrew and so I'm aware of the process and have some idea of the costs since there was a moment I thought about it before I realized how much money I'd have to find (not happening) and how much I dreaded the business side of it. It's much more fun to just give people beer and see them enjoy it.
(the bigger the draft list generally more likely all are poor)
I worked in brewing, briefly, and among brewers this is a general rule. In particular a big tap list means they've been having that beer sitting in kegs for way too fucking long, since unless you have a big operation there's no way you can keep making that large a variety fresh every three months. Unlike other alcohols beer has a shelf life and is actually best to drink fairly close to when it's done.
Good to know I had a feeling this had to be the case. It's always the first thing I notice, since it's so obvious.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
I love craft beer, but it's gotten so.... Boring lately. It's like the illusion of choice. You see a whole beer aisle and when you look closer it's 90% IPAs and 10% beers that are too sugary.
Just like everything else capitalism gets it's hands on it started out fun and interesting, but got homogeneous and bland. Why are there ten breweries in every town but they all have the same fucking three beers I'm not interested in?
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
