My wonderful better half planned a brewery get away for us for my birthday, and I've had some very tasty beers, one of which is probably the best pilsner I've ever had. But holy God have IPAs taken over every brewery I've been to so far. Ad I've gotten older India pale ales give me terrible heart burn and all around taste almost the same or so identical it's hard to tell apart
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Someone needs to tell these craft brewers that there are beers besides IPA's.
In my youth IPA's were my favorite, especially the hoppy ones. Thankfully, I outgrew that phase of my beer drinking years ago.
It is rare to find a craft brewery that brews a good Pils, Marzen, Fest Bier, or Munich Helles. They exist, but they are pretty rare...at least in my part of the world.
they know other styles exist, but IPA's sell. ALOT. 75% of Russian Rivers tap sales is Pliny The Elder. Thank about that, a brewery that has dozens of world class beers and Pliny makes up 75% of their tap sales.
My professional brewer friends would love to not have half their taps dedicated to IPA's, but the market is driving that trend. They call Saisons "stays on" because they stay on tap so long. Another pro brewer jokes that staff make up 25 % of their porter consumption. Another told me their lager sales increased when they started just calling it a blonde ale.
Just like Anheuser-Busch, Miller-Coors, and others know different beers exist. But the big market demand is for Miller Lite, Coors Light, and Bud Light. So you cannot equate total sales (off the shelf, or on draft) with the desirability of the beer among educated beer consumers.
All of my brewing friends are middle aged, and none of us drink IPA's. At least not on purpose!
Edit: I am very biased in my beer taste, preferring good clean, full flavored Euro Lagers. It's a personal problem of mine. I outgrew IPA's several decades ago.