It’s hard to determine if there has ever been a specific “next wave” of beer styles in the American craft beer market. We have so many brewers around the country, and with each offering five to one hundred styles each year, a precise “wave” is difficult to ascertain. So bear with us as we examine just what movement to expect next because let’s be honest, not everyone wants to revel in the IPA phenomenon forever.

Breaking through in 1997 with their IPA, Stone Brewing really put the modern American version of this English delight on the map, setting the West Coast on fire with a serious addiction to hops. Since then, experimentation and its gradual impact on the palates of the masses have been rampant. Double IPAs, Imperial Stouts, and a whole spectrum of seasonal varieties next nudged their way onto our shelves, bringing something more than just heavy malts, big hops, and/or high alcohol content.

Over the past five years, we’ve especially seen the rise of barrel-aged beers (straight oak barrel aging as well as Bourbon, Whiskey, Gin, and various wine barrel aging). Within that sub-style, we’ve also been enjoying wild and sour beers featuring wild yeasts and/or bacteria added where it was once avoided. With the rebirth of European styles and constant tinkering from an American perspective, it seemed inevitable that more developments would arise.

And yet another taboo was broken over the past few years – the fruiting of beer. And now there are more pumpkin, yam, sweet potato, and other harvest beers than ever before. With the sour revolution, we’re now seeing every fruit under the sun being used to expand upon the wild and/or sour styles. More recently, we’ve seen a focus on the session style: lower ABV beers chock-full of flavor and appealing to those wishing to keep the calories at bay.

With all these boundary-breaking new styles, where will our American artisan brewers go next?

Now that most of the unique styles that built the foundation of craft beer culture are being accepted by the general public, it only seems natural that we’re seeing more basic, classic styles reimagined and bolstered by what makes these beers desirable: being fresh, local, and flavorful. We’ve recently seen Kölsch, Helles, Schwartzbier, Oktoberfest/Märzen, Kriek, Flanders, Lambic, and various other Belgian and German styles crop up more frequently than before.

The next wave appears to be following our brewers’ fascination with session styles, or the idea that not all of us want to be punched in the face by a big beer every time we sit down for a pint. Brewers are now investing in lighter fare and reviving styles that have gone by the wayside. The Pilsner, Lager, Berliner Weisse, Radler, as well as traditional cask styles have shown remarkable growth of late. Many breweries are also looking to revive once-popular styles that became dormant or are less common, such as Gose, Peeterman, Steam/California Common, Lichtenhainer, Sparkling Ales, Weizen and Doppel Bocks, Broyhan Alt, Rauchbier, Grätzer, etc.

The American craft beer movement has not only revived the beer industry as a whole, but it’s also resurrected styles that never made it to our shores in the first place or were so badly beaten back by prohibition and WWII that they never stood a chance. At heart, we appear to be feeding the beer hipster in all of us, always trying our best to conjure up or find something different that we’ve never tasted before. We foresee the newest wave involving a continued focus on recipe experimentation, with a specific eye toward a renaissance of old styles. And there was much rejoicing…