An End That's Nigh

Yes we have plenty of craft beer trends that are out there. We also have such trends in social media. One of the most popular and visible out there is the boatload of Untappd check-ins that get posted to social media accounts on a daily basis.

Something I've noticed over the past few months is that more and more people are filtering them out of their feeds via certain applications that have such a feature. I brought up the point on Twitter late last week, in terms of the end of Untappd check-ins posted to Twitter feeds and got an interesting response from someone.

@burghbeersnob nope, never going to happen, sparks too many awesome beer convos for me to stop.
— Bub(@BubOhioBeer) March 8, 2013

That's actually an interesting take on the issue. If used correctly, (i.e. not posting every single check-in to Twitter without adding thoughts and opinions) posting some check-ins to your feed can encourage good beer discussion with other users.

So, I no longer think the issue is whether or not the death of Untappd check-ins is imminent. It's whether or not more people will filter them out of their timelines and create an even bigger void that your possible beer discussion is reaching.

Monday Rant: Double Dosage

I had an unusual encounter with a beer this past weekend. This event caused me to split this week's edition of this post into two rants. This tends to happen to me when I have a beer and end up being somewhat disappointed with its flavor. Oh, alright I'll admit the truth. It's usually hops and this was the case once again.

American Pale Ales - A Diverse Style

I wont point names or name fingers, but I had a particular pale ale Saturday evening and for whatever reason it just tasted like an IPA to me. It had wonderful color as well as decent head and attractive retention. Each sip was just a mouthful of piney hoppiness and I'm not the world's biggest fan of that type of bitterness.

When I think of pale ales, I think of something on the British side. I like it on the maltier side with that awesome pale aftertaste. I obviously don't prefer them to be closer to IPA's. I'm starting to discover that within the style of the modern American Pale Ale there is a lot of diversity.

Take the pale ale I mentioned earlier as an example. Compare that to something like Flying Dog's Doggy Style Pale Ale, which is a lot maltier, and you'll understand the depth of the variety in this category. Which leads me to my next venture.

Craft Trends - How Much is Too Much?

Yea, nobody uses this hashtag but me.

This run-in with this really hoppy pale ale also sparked a thought in my mind concerning a trend in today's craft beer scene. Are we getting to the point where some brewers are just putting hops in their brews for the sake of putting more hops in than the competition? Could this possibly be because that's what a good portion of the beer community wants? I'm certainly not going to hate without ruling out that possibility. I try to see all of the angles.

If that's true, then so be it. I might just be in the minority on this one. You might like hoppy beers that are dominated like hops. Especially the pale ale I didn't enjoy on Saturday. That's perfectly fine.

I just get irked when I read things like this at Ding's Beer Blog. If making bigger and hoppier IPA's than other brewers are is what's really going on then craft beer is heading down a road full of pot holes.

Monday Rant: Beer Trends

I think that even if you're a casual observer of news and happenings in the beer community you can still notice some of the fads and trends that come and go. There are quite a few that pop up now and then as well as those that seem to stick around for a good portion of time.

We had that STUPID shaker pint debate that lasted a mere two weeks. Excitement for national beer day Untappd badges appeared to be a something popular that lasted for about six months. The last two years, it kind of felt like brews aged in whiskey barrels seemed to be one of those things that people also flocked to. Sometimes it just seems as if some of us just get bored with what's "in" and consistently want to move to something else. Does beer lower the attention spans of some people?

It's getting to that time of the beer calendar in which some of the popular barrel-aged beers will start to appear in our local bars (if they're lucky enough to come across one of them). It might be just me, but since we began our trek through 2013 it seems as if there's been plenty of excitement in the department of beer and wine hybrids. A perfect example of this is an article on Victory Brewing's website pertaining to a new version of Golden Monkey called White Monkey.

Dogfish Head came out with the Noble Rot beer/wine hybrid not too long ago, but as far as I can recollect that brew wasn't aged in wine barrels like this Victory concoction will be.

One can only hope that this can be one of those things both craft beer and wine aficionados can share some ground on. That's if this does indeed end up being the next big trend in craft beer. There's quite a good chance that it might.