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Whilst Untappd is certainly a factor for some - and a factor that certain retailers have encouraged - it's more than that. Hazies and sours are just what's fashionable, so of course that's what sells. You also have the factor that bottle shops are being squeezed by supermarkets - you can get a WCIPA with Cloudwater's name on it (albeit made at Brewdog) in Tesco now, you can get Punk for a pound a can, so in order to justify the prices that they have to charge, they're having to pitch the fact that they are offering "the best". And Untappd is a convenient short-hand for the conventional practices of building a reputation, when you're looking at a market where most beers are only available for a few months before moving on to the Next Big Thing.


There's also an element of a shakeout after a period of great disruption - there may be lots of breweries, but how many of them are offering the same old Citra/Mosaic hazy made with 1318? That's not diversity. Arguably you get more diversity by having a range of different beers from fewer breweries. Also there's just the commercial imperatives - you get beers more cheaply in one bigger delivery from one brewery than you do from buying bits and pieces from 10 breweries. And if that's from a "name" brewery that people want to buy, that's better than getting stuck with a load of beer that nobody wants to try.


But there's still scope for the really good breweries to make a breakthrough - Polly's could be considered an example.


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