Why Younger Consumers Are Cause for Concern in Alcoholic Beverages Category

[Takumi]

I find American lagers to be too bland for my taste.

I can drink them (and Aussie/British lagers of a similar ilk), but I'd rather drink something else. Even Becks (an AB InBev product and the most bland German beer) is an improvement.

I'm not saying I particularly need India Pale levels of hoppiness in a beer

That's my least favourite thing about the US Craft Beer movement: the MUHR HOPS!!! of it all. It doesn't help that, US hops taste different to UK ones that were originally used to make IPA - 'grapefruit notes' is not something I particularly like in a beer. The strong flavours of New World Hops / high IBU are more tolerable when balanced out with stronger malty flavours of a Ruby or Dark beer, but there's an obsession with going with something akin to eating flowers, especially with the American-style IPAs, but creeping into classic English bitter styles too because of the fad for US-style craft beer here.

Coming in close second is the MUHR ABV of it all (though that's changing). There's no reason why you can't have high ABV beer, but it shouldn't need to be a big dick contest and many styles would be better suited to being more at the 4% mark, rather than the 6% mark - if for the ability to drink more of them before becoming to intoxicated, if nothing else.

I actually prefer the slightly higher alcohol content for that reason - only one is needed to get a buzz. I've tried quite a few double-digit ABV beers, and the prevalent thing about them as that the alcohol flavor overpowers everything else after a certain point. Some, quite simply, tasted like liquor. As far as hops go, I do notice few IPAs over here are brewed with English hops; variants that aren't American tend to be from Australia and New Zealand as opposed to Europe. I've found my favorite to be Galaxy, which is an Aussie variety.

[kphoger]

Many of the things you talk about are either easy enough that an odd job man can do it ... You'd have better luck with stuff like ... "clean the head of your VHS machine"

Talk about simplicity!  All you need is a screwdriver, a cotton ball, and some mineral spirits.

[english si]

I actually prefer the slightly higher alcohol content for that reason - only one is needed to get a buzz.

Which is fine - note I'm not saying "there shouldn't be higher alcohol beer", but "not all decent beer needs to be high alcohol".

It's unsurprising that a few American-made IPAs use English hops - same reason as why there's English-made IPAs with American hops: demand for both flavour profiles.

Talk about simplicity!  All you need is a screwdriver, a cotton ball, and some mineral spirits.

Gah, the curse of being too young to know how to do something!

[formulanone]

Many of the things you talk about are either easy enough that an odd job man can do it ... You'd have better luck with stuff like ... "clean the head of your VHS machine"

Talk about simplicity!  All you need is a screwdriver, a cotton ball, and some mineral spirits.

Just like cleaning the capstan and head of a tape deck. It's been a few decades since I demagnetized a cassette...

There's likely a specialist for everything I mentioned, but an industry? Not at all.

[ce929wax]

I was born in October of 1985.  I don't really consider myself to be a millennial, because I remember life before the internet and cell phones and 900 channels on cable TV.  When I was a kid, if we wanted to talk to our friends we had to actually go knock on their door or call them.  I still, mostly, played outside as a kid as well.  I also don't really consider myself Gen X because by the time I was a kid, MTV had been around for a while and started to do shows instead of being all music all the time.  I kind of like the term "Xennial" or "Oregon Trail Generation", because I did play Oregon Trail on the school computer as a kid.

[kphoger]

I kind of like the term ...

I don't like any of the terms at all.  In fact, I still don't really know what "gen" I'm supposed to fit it.  I think I'm somewhere near the line between X and Y, but I don't care.  If I refer to myself as anything, I just say I'm "a child of the 80s" (I was born in 1981).

[jon daly]

I can tell if someone is younger than me if they mention Oregon Trail.

[adventurernumber1]

I was born in November of 1999, but due to being I suppose between being a Millenial and a member of Generation Z, I am not sure to which generation I actually belong - of course, as noted, the whole generation categorization thing in the first place can indeed be very ambiguous anyway. I probably identify with both generations in different ways. I didn't really have much access to video games or the internet until I was about 8 years old (though the former isn't actually exclusive to Generation Z, or even Millenials for that matter). I never had a video game console until around 2007, and while my family has always had a computer(s) in the house as long as I've been alive, I never really knew that much about or utilized YouTube, Google Maps, and other parts of the internet until around 2009 or so. This means the larger part of my young childhood (the first decade of my life) was primarily characterized by toys, notebooks and magnadoodles (a device that has always been close to my heart for drawing roads, signs, and etc., erasing, then doing it all over again - though if I wanted permanent copies of this I would then utilize the notebooks for drawing), paper maps, books, watching TV, and more. Hell, I even grew up with VCR's and tapes for movies for the first several years of my life. It was actually my maternal grandfather who suggested to my parents that they should get a DVD player. My parents (born in the late 1960's) are members of Generation X, and all of my grandparents are part of the Silent Generation, being born in the late 1930's and early 1940's. Once reaching 21 years of age, I plan to have a drink every once in a while, but I'm not sure how it will compare to other generations' consumption patterns in that category, or how it would affect the booze market.

[bugo]

that someone born in 1999...

...making me unambiguously Generation X.

Nope. Not even close. The youngest Xer was born in 1981. You're 18 years off.

Nexus 5X

[bugo]

A-B and MCM spill more beer than all of these idiotic microbrewers sell. 

Why do you think craft breweries are "idiotic"? I thought conservatives worshipped small businesses. Or do you just have shitty taste in beer and you resent craft beer?

Nexus 5X

[bugo]

Even the trendiest flavored micro beers of today are ALL a 'Back to the Future' thing - they were the norm before Prohibition.

Not exactly.  Prior to, and since Prohibition, the dominant style of beer has been "American lager".   The difference that caused the number of breweries to decline is that beer used to be a highly regional product.  A brewer had a region in which it was very dominant (with an American style lager), and it was unknown elsewhere (similar to sliced bread or dairy today). 

As transportation improved, and the media became national (it is vastly less expensive to buy ads nationally than regionally).  Over time these beers lost out to nationally advertised brands who built duplicate breweries all over the country.  The list of fallen flags (or nearly fallen as a lot of the brand names are still made for novelty sake in small numbers) is very long, but all of them were only slightly distinguishable from Budweiser.

The "craft beer" fad is a new thing.  Founded, IMHO, by people who really don't like beer and think it would be cool to make something out of some odd ingredients. 

Not that there is anything "wrong" with liking pumpkin "beer" or whatever.  Just as there is nothing wrong with the 91% market share in the beer industry taken by people who make "the good stuff".  Budweiser, Miller, and Coors.

The "craft beer" fad is a new thing.  Founded, IMHO, by people who really don't like beer and think it would be cool to make something out of some odd ingredients. 

Actually, the styles made by craft breweries are often much older than the adjunct lager style (Budweiser, Miller, Coors). Adjunct lagers are made from corn or rice, which is cheaper than using real beer ingredients.

Bud Light is the king of "beer for those who don't like beer". It has very little flavor and tastes like skunky water. You have it backwards.

Not that there is anything "wrong" with liking pumpkin "beer" or whatever.  Just as there is nothing wrong with the 91% market share in the beer industry taken by people who make "the good stuff".  Budweiser, Miller, and Coors.

You have awful taste in beer if you think that swill is the "good stuff". Give me a Belgian Trappist ale or a German doppelbock over that horse piss.

Nexus 5X

[SP Cook]

You answer your own question.   If a person is in the tiny minority that likes odd styles of beer, great.  But 95% of people who do always have to throw shade on the vast majority that likes the Market chosen majority style.  Classic American lager. It is fine to be in a minority in tastes for anything, of course, but the "idiotic" part of it, to me, is the constant desire to look down on people that get what beer is supposed to taste like. 

"You are dumb" as a marketing strategy is really just faux-snob appeal and can only take things so far.  Which is why Bud Light's current medieval ad campaign is so good. 

And, dollars to donuts, in 10 years B-M-C will still be around, and 95% of the micros will be long forgotten and the "I'm smarter than you" crowd will have been guiled into the next fad.

[Takumi]

Even the trendiest flavored micro beers of today are ALL a 'Back to the Future' thing - they were the norm before Prohibition.

Not exactly.  Prior to, and since Prohibition, the dominant style of beer has been "American lager".   The difference that caused the number of breweries to decline is that beer used to be a highly regional product.  A brewer had a region in which it was very dominant (with an American style lager), and it was unknown elsewhere (similar to sliced bread or dairy today). 

As transportation improved, and the media became national (it is vastly less expensive to buy ads nationally than regionally).  Over time these beers lost out to nationally advertised brands who built duplicate breweries all over the country.  The list of fallen flags (or nearly fallen as a lot of the brand names are still made for novelty sake in small numbers) is very long, but all of them were only slightly distinguishable from Budweiser.

The "craft beer" fad is a new thing.  Founded, IMHO, by people who really don't like beer and think it would be cool to make something out of some odd ingredients. 

Not that there is anything "wrong" with liking pumpkin "beer" or whatever.  Just as there is nothing wrong with the 91% market share in the beer industry taken by people who make "the good stuff".  Budweiser, Miller, and Coors.

The "craft beer" fad is a new thing.  Founded, IMHO, by people who really don't like beer and think it would be cool to make something out of some odd ingredients. 

Actually, the styles made by craft breweries are often much older than the adjunct lager style (Budweiser, Miller, Coors). Adjunct lagers are made from corn or rice, which is cheaper than using real beer ingredients.

Bud Light is the king of "beer for those who don't like beer". It has very little flavor and tastes like skunky water. You have it backwards.

Not that there is anything "wrong" with liking pumpkin "beer" or whatever.  Just as there is nothing wrong with the 91% market share in the beer industry taken by people who make "the good stuff".  Budweiser, Miller, and Coors.

You have awful taste in beer if you think that swill is the "good stuff". Give me a Belgian Trappist ale or a German doppelbock over that horse piss.

Nexus 5X

https://youtu.be/yOOk_rIzcgo

Market chosen majority style

In other words, you like it because other people tell you it's what you're supposed to like. Got it. I'll stick with choosing things based my own taste buds, thanks.

what beer is supposed to taste like

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinheitsgebot
The Germans would like to have a word with you on that.

[kurumi]

From the Onion:



(also: best beer == Dragon's Milk, New Holland Brewing)

[SP Cook]

In other words, you like it because other people tell you it's what you're supposed to like. Got it. I'll stick with choosing things based my own taste buds, thanks.

No, in fact exactly the opposite.  I like regular beer because my tastes are ordinary.  91% of beer is classic American lager, because that is what most people, given the choice, prefer.  If most people preferred Oatmeal Pumpkin lemon IPAs, then that is what they would make.  They don't. 

As stated, there is nothing wrong with being in the tiny 9% minority that like other things.  In beer, or anything else. 

Its is just the pure arrogance and "I'm smart, you're dumb" and the need to describe what most people prefer, and the need to describe it as "skunky" or "horsepiss" and such.  Rather than just accepting you are a niche and outside the norm.  As if you choice of beer (and, to tell the truth, if the 91% liked a beer like the micros make, I suspect at least half the current micro crowd would decide it was "horsepiss" then) is anything other than a taste preference.

[webny99]

that someone born in 1999...
...making me unambiguously Generation X.

Nope. Not even close. The youngest Xer was born in 1981. You're 18 years off.

I said something similar upthread. His parents are baby boomers, though, so he is either the youngest of a big family, or just has old parents.

I was born in 1999, too, and my grandparents are baby boomers, so it just goes to show how messy it can get trying to sort the population into generations.

[hbelkins]

The only purpose of beer, in my opinion, is to consume it to become intoxicated.

I realize that some people like the taste of beer, be it the mass-produced stuff like Bud or Busch or Coors (which, itself, used to be a regional fad "status-symbol" product that spawned a decent movie that starred Reynolds, Reed, Field, Gleason and a black Trans-Am) or this micro-brewed flavored stuff.

I am not one of those people, and have no desire to drink beer with a pizza, drink beer for the taste, etc. I'm not a social drinker by any definition. If I purchase an alcoholic beverage, it's for the intoxication effect and no other reason. If I'm thirsty, or if I need something with which to wash down a meal, it will be a Diet Coke. If you ever invite me out for "drinks," don't be offended if I select a non-alcoholic product.

[kevinb1994]

The only purpose of beer, in my opinion, is to consume it to become intoxicated.

I realize that some people like the taste of beer, be it the mass-produced stuff like Bud or Busch or Coors (which, itself, used to be a regional fad "status-symbol" product that spawned a decent movie that starred Reynolds, Reed, Field, Gleason and a black Trans-Am) or this micro-brewed flavored stuff.

I am not one of those people, and have no desire to drink beer with a pizza, drink beer for the taste, etc. I'm not a social drinker by any definition. If I purchase an alcoholic beverage, it's for the intoxication effect and no other reason. If I'm thirsty, or if I need something with which to wash down a meal, it will be a Diet Coke. If you ever invite me out for "drinks," don't be offended if I select a non-alcoholic product.

I'm with you here, H.B. I'm not much of a drinker myself (nor is my family). Diet Coke isn't my favorite type of soda, however (that would be Dr. Pepper, Sprite, or any brand of root beer).

[abefroman329]

And, dollars to donuts, in 10 years B-M-C will still be around, and 95% of the micros will be long forgotten and the "I'm smarter than you" crowd will have been guiled into the next fad.

The micros will still be around. They're here to stay and the list of micros
that have disappeared over the past 20 or 30 years is short. What will probably disappear are the regional macros such as PBR and Schlitz, the ones on life support that are currently being propped up by the hipsters you enjoy sneering at as much as, well, all the other groups you enjoy sneering at.

[kphoger]

The only purpose of beer, in my opinion, is to consume it to become intoxicated.

I realize that some people like the taste of beer, be it the mass-produced stuff like Bud or Busch or Coors (which, itself, used to be a regional fad "status-symbol" product that spawned a decent movie that starred Reynolds, Reed, Field, Gleason and a black Trans-Am) or this micro-brewed flavored stuff.

I am not one of those people, and have no desire to drink beer with a pizza, drink beer for the taste, etc. I'm not a social drinker by any definition. If I purchase an alcoholic beverage, it's for the intoxication effect and no other reason. If I'm thirsty, or if I need something with which to wash down a meal, it will be a Diet Coke. If you ever invite me out for "drinks," don't be offended if I select a non-alcoholic product.

Beer is fairly filling but it has relatively low alcohol content compared to some other drinks.  So, in my opinion, it's a poor way to get drunk.  Of course, I dislike beer to begin with.  The only beer I've had that I actually liked was a "red beer" with almost no hops flavor, which I understand to mean it barely fits the definition of beer.

I'm more of a wine drinker and the occasional mixed drink or shot.  When I drink, I do so both for the flavor and the intoxicating effect.  I have no desire to get smashed, so that means no more than about three drinks at a time.  I'm not sure how well my take on wine can carry over into a conversation about beer, but here goes.  When I buy wine, my goal is a bottle no cheaper than $12 and no more expensive than $32–and the price point depends on the occasion.  The reason for that price range is this:  I can tell the difference between a cheap wine and an expensive wine, but the difference is small enough to only be worth a small amount of extra money.  Some of my favorite wines are fairly simple in flavor profile and might be looked down upon by wine snobs, but that's perfectly fine with me.  But I do try and branch out every so often in order to broaden my tastes.  I tend to trust the classic European wine regions (such as the Rhone and Rhine valleys) but I also like to give the relative newcomers a shot too (such as white wines from Chile).

This is all a bit different from buying beer, mainly because almost everything is micro.  There are winemakers you come to recognize, but they have only a small space at the liquor store, and the ones you've never heard of before have almost as much space.  You're constantly noticing new labels, and what was awesome three years ago might not be all that great this year.

[jon daly]

And, dollars to donuts, in 10 years B-M-C will still be around, and 95% of the micros will be long forgotten and the "I'm smarter than you" crowd will have been guiled into the next fad.

The micros will still be around. They're here to stay and the list of micros
that have disappeared over the past 20 or 30 years is short. What will probably disappear are the regional macros such as PBR and Schlitz, the ones on life support that are currently being propped up by the hipsters you enjoy sneering at as much as, well, all the other groups you enjoy sneering at.

I heard that PBR is going away soon. That's my go to beer when I drink it. I may have to switch to something like Naraggansett (sp.) They've improved it over the past few years. (I think they switched breweries.) Lately it's been merlot (and now eggnog) for me. I think I average 2 drinks a week, if that. I go through dry spells, so it may be less.

[abefroman329]

And, dollars to donuts, in 10 years B-M-C will still be around, and 95% of the micros will be long forgotten and the "I'm smarter than you" crowd will have been guiled into the next fad.

The micros will still be around. They're here to stay and the list of micros
that have disappeared over the past 20 or 30 years is short. What will probably disappear are the regional macros such as PBR and Schlitz, the ones on life support that are currently being propped up by the hipsters you enjoy sneering at as much as, well, all the other groups you enjoy sneering at.

I heard that PBR is going away soon. That's my go to beer when I drink it. I may have to switch to something like Naraggansett (sp.) They've improved it over the past few years. (I think they switched breweries.) Lately it's been merlot (and now eggnog) for me. I think I average 2 drinks a week, if that. I go through dry spells, so it may be less.

I enjoy the taste of Old Style, I haven't had a PBR in years. The characters in 11/22/63 call Narragansett "Nasty Gansett."

[abefroman329]

Beer and its low alcohol content are a good thing when you're drinking for several hours on a Saturday or Sunday - if you're drinking cocktails or, worse, liquor with no mixer(s), you'll never last the whole day. Wine just makes me sleepy, so it's no use there.

[SP Cook]

I heard that PBR is going away soon.

Here is the story on that.  As covered above, the beer industry used to be highly regionalized and there are lots of "fallen flag" brands.  Except they are not quite totally fallen.   A company named "Pabst" but with no relationship really to the actual brewer bought a lot of brand names up, Pabst, Jacob Best, Ballantine, Schlitz (including the still popular Schlitz Malt Liquor), Blatz, Old Milwaukee (still quite popular), Colt 45, St. Ides, Stroh, Old Style, Lone Star, Olympia, Rainier, Schmidt, National Bohemian, and many others. 

They own no breweries at all.  Back in the 90s, it closed all its breweries and signed a deal with Miller, which at the time had excess capacity because it had expanded too fast in an mostly failed attempt to overtake A-B, to make the brands for it.  Pabst is really just a marketing firm, selling nostalgia beers it does not really make.

Well, a lot has changed.  Millers has merged with Coors and then with Molson, and has no excess capacity.  MCM really does not want to build more breweries, and is seeking to recover capacity for its own brands by ending the deal with Pabst.  Which would make Pabst have to either go back to being an actual brewer, which it cannot afford; or find another contractor, which none are out there.  Or go out of business. 

Whole thing is tied up in court, with Pabst saying MCM has to keep making beer for it forever, because it would go out of business otherwise, and MCM taking the position that Lincoln freed the slaves.  Who knows.

[english si]

Beer is fairly filling but it has relatively low alcohol content compared to some other drinks.  So, in my opinion, it's a poor way to get drunk.  Of course, I dislike beer to begin with.  The only beer I've had that I actually liked was a "red beer" with almost no hops flavor, which I understand to mean it barely fits the definition of beer.

That's the kind of beer I like, especially this time of year, as it has an autumnal quality. It would have been pushing the malt flavours and perhaps using less floral/more earthy hops - nothing wrong with that.

It still has an reasonable amount of hops and bitterness (eg Marble Red Ale that talks about all the different hops it has has a high IBU of 70. Even something British like Hobgoblin's 32 isn't that low. However the flavours mentioned in the reviews leans a bit more on the malt side for both), but the seeking to balance the flavour by using more robust and darker malt (crystal, rather than pale - though then it's probably 90% the cheaper mass-produced pale malt) mellow that hop flavour out with sweetness. Aomething like an American Pale Ale could also have an IBU of 32 (which is at the low end of the 30-45 range for that style), but the malt flavours are less there, so it will taste more hoppy than Hobgoblin.

I only had a go at American Adjuncts for not pushing hops because many of them also don't push the malt (even adding rice or corn to dilute it), leading to a beer that doesn't taste strongly of either main flavouring ingredient - and then only as a point of order against the charge that "craft beer is for people who don't like the taste of beer".