The year ahead in beer | Lifestyle - Bend Bulletin

The year ahead in beer | Lifestyle - Bend Bulletin

By any measure, 2019 was a frothy year for the beer industry. The number of breweries in the United States reached 8,000, exceeding any time in history.

At the same time, overall beer sales are in gradual decline and growth of the craft beer segment has slowed.

The proliferation of small, local breweries has put pressure on larger regional breweries, who are seeing sales eroding on the local level yet are not large enough to maintain a national presence. Brewery sales, consolidation and closures are becoming common as this plays out.

And beer overall is struggling against the explosive popularity of alternative alcoholic beverages, particularly hard seltzers. Sales of White Claw Hard Seltzer alone surpassed all craft beer brands in 2019.

Beer isn’t going away, of course, and craft beer is still growing, albeit slowly. With the new year upon us, it’s a good time to look ahead at what 2020 might bring. I reached out to local brewers and industry professionals to find out what they see for the coming year.

I asked two questions: What trends do you think we’ll see in beer for 2020? And, what trends do you want to see? In all, 15 people responded via email. (I’ve posted the full answers on my site, thebrewsite.com.)

Responses were varied, but several patterns emerged. The two biggest predictions were the continued dominance of IPAs and similar hazy ales, and the rising popularity of “lifestyle” beers — those with low calories, low (or no) alcohol, or are otherwise health conscious in some way.

“IPA’s will still rule all sales, hazy IPA at the forefront,” said Steve Anderson of Kobold Brewing Company.

Ryan Schmiege from Cascade Lakes Brewing Company echoed the sentiment. “I don’t think the haze craze is going anywhere, yet.”

Brett Thomas of Sunriver Brewing Company elaborated. “Lots of hazy IPA, pastry/flavored stouts and an increasing number of cocktail/botanical inspired beers,” he said. Even Todd Clement of Monkless Belgian Ales, who brews exclusively Belgian-inspired beers, agreed. “Hazy IPAs will continue to dominate cooler shelves and tap handles.”

“While we expect to see the ‘haze craze’ lose a bit of steam, we certainly don’t expect it’s a style that will be going away anytime soon,” said Brian Mitchell of Wild Ride Brewing Company. “Too many people are enjoying those beers! We expect it’ll continue to be an IPA dominant industry, with perhaps a shift or correction back to west-coast style IPAs versus all the attention on hazy IPAs.”

When it comes to lifestyle beers, the market is being driven somewhat by the competition from hard seltzer, which touts low -carb, low -calorie and gluten-free benefits.

“We will see tons of under 100 calorie beer options as well as craft versions of no alcohol beer coming to market,” said Tonya Cornett of 10 Barrel Brewing Company.

Ty Barnett of GoodLife Brewing Company said, “I think we are going to see a lot more low-calorie beers in 2020. With the increase of hard seltzer products on the market over the last few years like White Claw, Truly and Wild Basin, craft beer is going to have to provide a beer to try and compete with these Better-for-You type products that offer less than 100 calories.”

Deschutes Brewery’s Gary Fish sees the same. “Beyond Beer-type beers will continue to stretch our definition. Many breweries are already producing across categories, like cider, spirits, seltzers, (ready-to-drinks), etc.,” he said. “‘Better for You’ category will continue to grow with low alcohol, low carb, low cal beers being regularly produced. Yes, even (non-alcoholic) beers will see their way into portfolios of craft breweries in larger and larger quantities.”

When it comes to what brewers want to see trending in 2020, the top two sentiments were “more lagers” and “focus on quality.”

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“What I would like to see, is for breweries to continue to push the bounds on quality,” said Tyler West of GoodLife. “In the several years I have been brewing, beer quality has taken a serious priority over volume, and that is what is driving great, consistently produced beer!”

“I want to see more craft lagers!” said Robin Johnson of Deschutes. “Really good ones that are super clean and use amazing ingredients. Brewers can really show off their technical skill with these types of beers.”

Zack Beckwith of Bend Brewing Company sees lagers on the rise.

“From a brewer perspective, I think that hazy and milkshake beers have plateaued but well-crafted lagers are still ascending,” Bryon Pyka of 10 Barrel agreed. “Bend is so saturated with IPAs that it’d be nice to see people locally expanding their palates further beyond hops.”

Finally, Veronica Vega of Deschutes had an answer to the “want to see” question that was unique from the rest.

“I would like to see us (myself included) putting more effort in to extend our already established value of community in craft beer to minority groups. What barriers are we putting up that we may not see? Action and continued dialogue around how we can improve diversity and inclusion in craft beer is what I want to see.”

What do you want to see in beer going in to 2020?

2019-12-29 08:00:00Z
https://www.bendbulletin.com/lifestyle/the-year-ahead-in-beer/article_88dd3970-2692-11ea-b293-67b94ffdab75.html

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