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Happy New Beer? What does the future hold for beers suddenly ramped up evolutionary march?
Beer, it could be argued, remained fairly static for most the 20th century. Perhaps the biggest, most recent brewing change prior to that was the introduction in the mid-1840s of bottom fermenting yeast and the advent of lagers.
As the industrial revolution progressed, most of the changes in brewing were technological. In the 20th century, at least after the hiccup of Prohibition, most innovations seemed to have more to do with making the largest amount of beer at the least cost than with developing new styles and flavor profiles.
In the 21st century, people’s long-dormant taste buds have awakened and the desire for variety and flavor is manifest in virtually all corners of the food and beverage industry.
In our digital age, we humans are going through a huge evolutionary growth spurt — remember 30 years ago, few of us even had computers. Now, everything is accelerated.
It seems strangely coincidental that as the first flirtations between consumer and computer began, so too did the first pioneering microbrews appear. Computers and craft beer have indeed grown up together.
Perhaps it is natural then that in this age of accelerated information sharing, one of the things people most like to share information about is beer. There are 750 beer bloggers on the planet, according to organizers of the Beer Bloggers Conference — 450 of them in North America.
Whether it’s on websites, through Facebook or Twitter, beer is bubbling to the surface everywhere. Things are a little different now than when we launched Ale Street News nearly 20 years ago with the object of building an information bridge between the consumer and all the new and colorful beer labels that were sprouting in the local liquor store.
Two decades later our mission is still to provide information about beer, though it seems that while the demand for niche publications remains strong, our role may be described more as color analyst than play-by-play commentator.
Some may consider us old-fashioned but we do understand the importance of embracing the digital age. We encourage you to “Like” us on Facebook, and we’ll probably be Tweeting as well in the not-too-distant future.
Meanwhile, beer has broken out of its traditional bonds and, led by American brewers, is boldly going where it never has gone before. First, there was the love affair with hops, sometimes taken to extremes —more hops, fresh hops, and of course Sam Calagione and his Randall invention, enabling even more lupulin to be crammed into your pint en route from keg to tap.
Then US brewers went crazy for Belgian beers; Belgian brewers began using more American hops. More recently, barrel-aging beers has become very popular — let’s hope there’s enough wood to go around!
So, for the future, let’s expect more of the same — global information sharing has spawned collaborative brewing. Brewers don’t just visit and share beers any more — they brew and create beer together! While craft beer’s flagship beers seep more and more into the mainstream, specialization is also at work; niches within niches are being created. You can now attend beer festivals devoted entirely to Belgian beers, barrel-aged beers, sour beers, and, yes, canned beers.
And so, with 2011 mostly behind us, you hold in your hands our Holiday issue: the Brew Chef, with some help from his friends, has created some enticing recipes for the holidays (especially if you’re tired of turkey!); Stephen Beaumont takes a detour through New Orleans to attend the first ever Beer and Boudin event with chef Emeril Lagasse and his ilk as beer continues to make inroads into culinary respectability; Lew Bryson, while applauding the beer variety in front of us, wonders who is watching the cash register.
We have reportage from our trips to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver and to the Mondial de la Biere Festival in Strasbourg, France where Ale Street News co-sponsored, for the third year in a row, the American Pavilion featuring 45 beers from 13 US breweries. If you’d like to read about our ASN post-fest tour from Strasbourg to Italy, you can find it at alestreetnews.com.
And, of course we have our annual book review section. It seems that there has been a particularly plentiful crop of beer books this year. So, help a starving beer writer — buy a beer book for Christmas! Put your feet up, pop a delicious craft brew and enjoy the holidays.
Cheers!
Tony Forder
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