Alvarado Street Brewer's Log, January 2015

Posted on January 6th, 2015 by omba

2014 has marked yet another banner year for craft beer. While year-end industry data won’t be released until spring, mid-year growth of the craft segment showed production up 18% over 2013, with craft brewers producing 10.6 million barrels (according to the Brewer’s Association). This double digit growth is truly impressive, and reflects how inventive craft brewers are, and how committed they are to putting out a quality product. Both quality and innovation are paramount to success in an ever competitive industry – the number of craft brewers has surged from 1,625 in 2010 to 3,040 in 2014! While overall beer sales dipped to -1.9% in 2013, craft beer sales hit a record high 17.2% growth over the previous year. Craft is still just a speck on the map when it comes to market share of the overall beer industry, but has steadily climbed to nearly 8% of all beer sales in 2013 – this number will surely creep up to 10% and well beyond within the next 5 years. So enough with the mind boggling statistics - what will be some new (or should I say, ongoing) craft beer trends for 2015? Here are a few that I think will see some momentum this coming year:

THE CONTINUED RISE OF IPA: STYLE SPINOFFS, “TROPICAL, DANK” HOPS
There’s never been a better time to be a hophead. Almost every craft brewery has a staple session IPA, regular IPA, double IPA, and several seasonal IPA’s. You can find White IPA’s, Black IPA’s, Brown IPA’s, Red IPA’s, Belgian IPA’s, Oatmeal IPA’s, India Pale Lager’s, Imperial India Pale Lager’s, the list goes on and on. No one is tired of hops yet. The “lupulin threshold shift”, coined by Vinnie Cilurzo (considered the pioneer of the west coast style, characterized by heavy dry hop rates) is here in full force: “When a once extraordinarily hoppy beer now seems pedestrian”, and “the long term exposure to extremely hoppy beers [will create an] excessive or prolonged, habitual dependence on hops.” That’s right. The traditional C-hops that were initially responsible for the style’s popularity (Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, etc) certainly seem pedestrian in 2015. Not to say IPA’s with these hops aren’t great (believe me, they are!), they’ve just been relegated to “traditional” at this point. A growing number of hop heads are craving dank, tropical hops with pungent aromatics that include everything from guava and passion fruit, to diesel fuel and garlic. Some newer varieties lean more towards the tropical end, and some towards the oniony side, but the fact of the matter is – these new varieties are in as high of a demand as ever, and the craft beer consumer will likely remember 2015 as “Year of the Dank” when it comes to IPA.

Note: “Dank” hops have been in for awhile, and many breweries have IPA’s that heavily employ new, experimental varieties. I feel their popularity is going to surge even further this year.

SOUR ALES: EMBRACING WILD YEAST AND BACTERIA
This year at the Great American Beer Festival, the brew crew and I tasted more sour beers than I could have ever imagined. Some were absolutely incredible, and some tasted like nail polish remover. This once fledgling niche is starting to evolve in a big way - more and more breweries are dedicating space to barrel aging programs and incorporating wild yeast and bacteria into the mix. The big question - will sours become the next “IPA” in terms of popularity in the craft market? You bet. It’s already happening. Sour only breweries like Crooked Stave, Sante Adairius, The Rare Barrel, and Almanac are becoming more common, taking inspiration from industry greats like Russian River, Lost Abbey, The Bruery, and Cascade (among many others) who paved the way. Fans are chomping at the bit for sour releases from their favorite brewery, craving the barnyard, horsey funk of brettanomyces and the soft, pleasant tartness created by lactobacillus and pediococcus. The combination of wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria are creating a beverage so complex in character that’s it causing an IPA-like lupulin addiction, but for sours. And with relatively little product on the market, it’s going to take a long time to quench the insatiable thirst of this growing segment. Time to find a friend with a great cellar, and seek out bottle sharing events to try the best ones out there.

PILSNER AND LIGHT HYBRID ALES: GIVE YOUR PALATE A BREAK
What ever happened to a good old, crisp pilsner? The gamut of full flavored, intensely aromatic craft beers that exists today has created the need for a beer that restores the palate; one that can be consumed in relative quantity, and one provides relief from hop excess and bourbon barrel aged overload. Not brewed with rice and corn, not watery, not super fizzy - just clean, not too bitter, with emphasis on the malt - toasty, bready, doughy, delicious. Maybe a bit of herbal, grassy Noble hops? Sure. Whether it’s a German or Bohemian pilsner, American blonde, kolsch, cream ale, or an international style lager – these lighter libations provide much needed relief to a fatigued palate. Expect more pilsner-like offerings from your favorite brewery, if they don’t already have one.

J.C. Hill is the head brewer at Alvarado Street Brewery & Grill in Old Monterey. Hill is a Certified Cicerone (beer sommelier equivalent) and earned a Brewing Science & Technology degree from The Siebel Institute. He resides in Monterey with his wife, Melanie, and son, Jay.

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