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Today is National IPA Day, a global marker for craft beer’s most beloved and iconic style. And it is reflective of where the craft beer industry is nowadays that less people are actually celebrating it than ever.
Founded back in 2011 by Ashley Routson, along with Ryan Ross, IPA Day quickly became a social media event that was embraced craft beer lovers and industry professionals across the nation.
Those kind of things seemed like stupid fun back when the craft beer biz was more youthful and everyone was in love with uber-bitter high-octane IPAs.
IPA Day 2023 finds a profoundly different craft beer landscape. Many US breweries are still reeling from the economic impact brought on by the pandemic and fewer have time to celebrate.
When Routson got things rolling back in 2011 the IPA was craft beer, particularly what had become known as the West Coast IPA, those high ABV, abundantly hopped brews that captured the imagination of the world.
Flash forward to 2023 and even though the industry is still cranking out beers like Stone Brewing’s Ruination, Stone has now been acquired by Japanese brewing conglomerate Sapporo, and the West Coast IPA has been overshadowed by the New England/Hazy IPA phenomenon that the Alchemist’s Heady Topper brought to the fore.
In 2011 most of these IPAs came in bottles, and today it’s more common to find them in 4-Packs of 16oz cans.
Back when IPA Day first launched big Imperial IPA’s in 22oz “bomber’ bottles lined retail shelves. Now that packaging configuration has all but disappeared along with the term ”Imperial” which is now more often referred to as a Double IPA.
2023 finds National IPA Day barely acknowledged by the beer press, trade organizations and breweries that once celebrated it widely. With craft beer’s momentum slowing the business has gotten more considerably more sober and events like IPA Day probably strike many as naïve nowadays.
In 2011 there were 1,989 craft breweries operating in the US. Today that number is closer to 9,500 with reports of brewery closures also on the rise….
And even though the IPA remains craft beer’s dominant style, brewers are returning to lagers in droves, crafting beers that they hope can compete in the low-carb, low-alcohol and lesser calorie in the light beer realm.
In today’s increasingly competitive craft beer environment, brewers have gotten more serious about everything and are celebrating events like IPA Day less if they want to survive.
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