Is there too much beer?

Are we getting to a place where we have too much selection of beers? Some downsides:
- greater variability leads to more extreme methods to market your beer
- consumer’s reducing exploration and stick to a brand
- more choices means more poorly made beer
- costs increase
- a craft beer bubble

no

Hell no!!!!

I think that there’s definitely a bewildering selection of beer out there, more so in 2017 than any time in living memory. Here are my thoughts:

1) Marketing takes multiple forms. It’s been years since Brewdog put bottles inside taxidermied animals and drove a tank through the center of London, but still most small, new breweries get known principally by word of mouth.

2) I’ve found that more beer = more exploration. People might eventually settle on brands and styles that they like, but the more is out there, the more likely that drinkers will never have the same pint twice.

3) I definitely agree. With the thousands of new breweries opening each year, not all of them have the quality in place. The good news, though, is that one of two things will happen -- they’ll either get better, or (more likely) the market will react and they’ll go out of business. It’s a tough, tight market, and the days of getting by on mediocre beer are pretty much over.

4) This is interesting, but I don’t know. For all of the increased costs for "hot" hop varieties and base ingredients, I’d imagine a lot of other costs (equipment, technology, etc) would fall. Maybe someone in the industry could chime in here?

5) This is the big question for the current scene. Is there a craft beer bubble? Who knows, but I for one am enjoying having 12+ breweries in my small New England town!

Great questions!

Too much beer?

No.

Too much mediocre beer? Bad beer? Gimmicky beer? Chasing trendy styles? Lack of QA? Ignorance of the importance of process? Emphasis on sales over good beer?

Yes.

Too many thrown-together breweries? Inexperienced brewers?

Yes.

But we have thousands of breweries now. When I was in elementary school, we had 37.

If anybody REALLY wants to go back to the days of consistency, predictability, and minimal confusion that those monopolistic times gave us, well, then, you’re not really enjoying the rise of independent brewers. (Yes, I know no one here actually wants that). Ya gotta learn to love the chaos. Ratebeer used to exist so geeks could find each other. Now it really is here so geeks can filter out the mundane beer and find the good beer--not just the geek community.

For someone that might be new to it yes, there are too many options on tap and at the grocery store. You always have to worry about old beer. For someone that’s indiscriminately ticked a bunch of crappy beer over the years it’s nice being able to find 3 different session IPAs in the cooler at the grocery store.

Originally posted by thepatrickman
3) I definitely agree. With the thousands of new breweries opening each year, not all of them have the quality in place. The good news, though, is that one of two things will happen -- they’ll either get better, or (more likely) the market will react and they’ll go out of business. It’s a tough, tight market, and the days of getting by on mediocre beer are pretty much over.

Originally posted by thepatrickman5) This is the big question for the current scene. Is there a craft beer bubble? Who knows, but I for one am enjoying having 12+ breweries in my small New England town!

There is still more headroom for growth for the neighborhood brew pub. A small pub that aims to serve a small community and has no greater marketing ambitions will continue do well.

Canned and bottled stuff that occupies shelf space in retail stores is stacked to the max, and that causes buyer confusion. I am often confused, for one. As such, I am just as likely to walk out of a liquor store with a sixer of SNPA these days as I am with some new label.

Plenty of questionable, poorly made beer now made for sure. But, so many people seem to love it. The new generation of bandwagon craft drinker does not know or care what is a good beer. The other day at a brewpub I heard a lady ask the server if they had a caramel forward IPA with no citrus.I was stunned, but hey to each his/her own.

Cost increase--I Expect that when the current administration crashes the economy and puts us into a depression costs will deflate.

Craft beer bubble, not yet, but if things keep growing at the pace they have been for the last ten years it wont be long.

Capitalist logic in artesan production will continue to give rise to its own subtle culling mechanisms. Like more confusing battles for authenticity and definitions of "local" aka meaning of terroir vs. successful marketing beyond local markets.

I don’t think there’s too much craft beer and I think there is still tons of room for the market to expand. I don’t see why craft beer can’t reach 20% market share and more so I think the whole bubble argument might be valid long term but we are not there yet. At the very least, I think people already paying premiums for imported macros will likely continue converting to local craft beer.

As far as selection being confusing, yeah, I think it is but I also think there is more resources than ever for a someone new to it to pick out something good. The fact that people can whip out their phones to aid them w/ their choice goes a long way to dispelling confusion in my opinion. I can never be new to craft beer again but I’d imagine it’s easier for someone new to find the best beers in a store than it was for me getting started.

Originally posted by drfabulous
no

Originally posted by StefanSD
Canned and bottled stuff that occupies shelf space in retail stores is stacked to the max, and that causes buyer confusion. I am often confused, for one.

Originally posted by Frank
The fact that people can whip out their phones to aid them w/ their choice goes a long way to dispelling confusion in my opinion.