The Next Big Thing? Local, Hazy, Fresh, Cans

, The Next Big Thing? Local, Hazy, Fresh, Cans

You may have noticed it’s been a long week for many in the craft beer world. With one of the brightest stars in the wild/sour brewing game being plucked away by the largest brewery known to man and a West Coast pioneer finishing a 50% deal that started a few years back, it’s cause for anyone to crack open something from a local independent. Or the last of your formerly craft stash…

And while you probably already knew that the tastiest beers are those you can already find in your backyard, the rise of the bottle trade over the past 5 years has enabled the ever lecherous beer hoarder to become more than a phenomenon. Yet it seems clearer today, more than ever, that the industry is slowly going hazy. Where 22oz, 750ml and smaller specialty craft bottles of imperial stouts or wild/sour ales were once all the rage, they’re now being supplanted by Hazy NE-Style Ales (Pales, IPAs, and Double/Triple IPAs). 

I’ve previously alluded to my association with the ne’er-do-well beer barons of the PDX Cellar Society here in Portland, though I’ve never been a huge player in the bottle trade game. Call me lazy, call me uncommitted, but it’s just not my thing. This collective meets up once a week to share the latest releases, occasional verticals (and variant horizontals), or a intense sour focused share that could be sponsored by Tums.

So our shares were almost exclusively enamel eating funky/sour/, The Next Big Thing? Local, Hazy, Fresh, Cansspontaneously fermented ales and high ABV imperial options, but they’re now being supplemented by NE Style Hazy ales. And sure, maybe it’s partly due to the changing seasons or the membership having finished unloading their older cellared items before the warmer summer months, but this year was different… we had hazy new releases already showing up on our table before the sun showed it’s face around these parts again a few months ago. This town has gone haze crazy, year-round.

This year’s annual Portland Beer Guide by Willamette Week bequeathed it’s Beer of the Year to Great Notion’s Juice Jr – a delightfully fruity IPA with no fruit added, but plenty of mosaic hops and of course, haze. Co-owner and head brewer James Dugan propagated his yeast strain from the dregs of the Northeastern originators of the style – The Alchemist, Treehouse, Trillium and Hill Farmstead. And while it was great to finally try those unique creations, most packaged in cans, by the time they hit our doors they’re somewhat a shadow of their former selves.

It wasn’t that they weren’t good, it’s that they were past the style’s limited window of ideal freshness and let’s be honest, they’ve had to endure the Postal Service/UPS/FedEx’s flight altitude, handling and/or temperature change… I wouldn’t be feeling so fresh either after having to endure that gauntlet. But it’s a love for these unfiltered, unpasteurized and super hopped creations that have effectively ushered in the newest generation of American IPAs and Pale Ales. And now most every brewery in Portland and a large number across the country are following suit.

And what’s really flipped the script toward cans is the portability and durability of the packaging itself, not to mention the all-important reduction of damaging light exposure. But more than anything, it was the rise of Oskar Blues Crowler that truly changed the game. Start up brewers can now sell small-batched brews in limited weekly releases at their brewpub, enabling publicans to try before they buy, keeping the money in-, The Next Big Thing? Local, Hazy, Fresh, Canshouse by reducing all that overhead required by going through the traditional three-tier-system or even self-distribution.

It’s this model that’s catapulted Great Notion from a tiny 7 barrel system with little fermentation space to the toast of the town and the country, all in the span of 16 months. Releasing crowlers like they’re bottles, announcing releases quickly via social media, effectively herding the masses of hoarders into a new dimension where “shelf-stable” isn’t as big a thing anymore. They’re already planning to open a new 30 barrel brewhouse, which will feed a 16oz can line, all before the end of the year.

Since the last big lull in craft beer’s history, the early 2010’s, there’s always been a lot of talk about the next big thing. It’s what AB-InBev and MolsonCoors continue to chase, somewhat evident in the order they chose to snatch up breweries over the past few years. And while they’ve certainly got a gem in Wicked Weed, the sour style and it’s tendency to leave heartburn and acidic stomachs in it’s wake, should in time lose market share to these small batch, ultra-fresh offerings.

Taproom packaged beer and fresh cans ARE the Next Big Thing that will differentiate the local independents from the nationally crafty imitators.

For after all, you can ship it when it’s fresh, but it can’t compete with being consumed fresh…

The way it should to be.

 

About Warren Wills

Warren is the former Assistant Editor & Portland Correspondent for American Craft Beer. Creator of "The State of American Craft Beer" series, he now maintains his own site at craftbeerscribe.com.
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