What's Trending in Craft Beer this Season?
- Chris Lee
- Mar 16, 2016
- 4 min read
Session Beers:
Summer brings out session beers by the drove. Just about any beer can be dropped down to session strength by shedding a few pounds off the grain bill. Less fermentable sugars produce a leaner beer with less resulting alcohol. A great excuse to drink a little bit more in the summer sun.
Session styles are diverse. The genre tends to be dominated by IPAs, pale ales, blondes, and wheat beers. A good session IPA can still cram bold bitterness and aroma into a beer that comes in south of 4%. When it’s hot outside and you want a great craft beer, your friendly neighbourhood brewer has got your back. Indulge yourself, hang out on a patio, and feel free to down a few extra pints of slightly lighter craft beer.
Radlers
Last summer in Toronto, it seemed like every brewer and their Mothers were pumping out Radler’s like there was no tomorrow. It’s a perfect summer beer that is a blend of fruity soda and some form of light beer style. For those of you on this side of the pond (I currently reside in Scotland) this is essentially a Shandy. This beer is like shooting a craft beer fanatic fish in a shallow bucket with a double barrelled shotgun. Radlers are a home run style that could very easily make another comeback this summer. Check out Amsterdam Brewery’s Saltwater Squeeze for a great example of the style.
Nitrogen
Beers served on Nitrogen are something of interest. Nitrogen imparts an unmistakable smoothness that really compliments beer styles like Stouts. Think about the last time you had a pint of Guiness. Did it have a super smooth and creamy mouthfeel? That’s Nitrogen. My most recent notable example of a Nitrogen been would be Brewdog’s outstanding Prototype Milk Stout, now known as Jet Black Heart. I predict that the use of Nitrogen is going to become a common theme for breweries going forward, as they search for a means of distinction. This is a great time for brewers to steer into the skid and get a product served on Nitro while the iron is hot.
Experimental Hops
American style IPAs have almost single handedly revived beer in the last 20 years. Think of the last time you went out with your favourite beer geek friend and he popped the “What IPAs do you have?” question to your server. How can you not love the grapefuity, piney, earthy, dank, characteristic of big American hops like Amarillo, Cascade, and Chinook. These flavours have dominated the IPA style for a long time.
So what’s next? This is like being in a kitchen with the exact same spice rack as the guy next to you. There really are only so many combinations that you can come up with before everything starts to taste similar. I myself, want more.
The door is wide open right now for new hop varieties to introduce new untold flavours to our palettes. Unfortunately, one does not simply invent a new strain of hops. This takes time. Varieties of hops are usually created by cross breeding existing varieties or by off shooting generations and culturing them further. I don’t want to go too deep down this rabbit hole as I am not a scientist, but let’s have a quick lesson. Take a hop variety like Cascade. Cascade was taken and grown in different areas of the world and bred with native varieties producing two distinct daughter hops. You may know these as Mandarina and Huell Melon. These have roots in Cascade but they produce a varied size cone and the flavours shift to accent a different aroma.
A smart brewer should realize that his spice rack could be a lot larger. There are some seriously new and undiscovered flavours waiting to be tapped into. I myself have been utilizing lots of New Zealand hops like Nelson Sauvin and Motueka in my beers recently. They tend to be more tropical fruity than bitter, but induce my Pale Ales and IPAs with a newfound zeal. Imagine only having salt and someone discovers pepper? Your entire existence as you know it is about to change.
Craft Soda
This is an interesting one. Soda and beer are cousins. They both use a sugary “wort” and yeast to achieve carbonation via fermentation. As the Craft Beer movement continues to surge, other crafty movements like coffee tend to get pulled along with it. Why not diversify the portfolio and introduce a Craft Soda? It makes sense when you think about it: the creation process is nearly identical, you don’t need any additional equipment, and people drinking craft beer love variety. Why not stick a craft soda in that flight? Something for the kids even. I personally think that craft soda will find demand with a main stream audience in a similar way as it happened with craft beer. Mark my words on this one.
Craft soda could be the wildcard trend of 2016. Check out the Appalachian Brewing Company - a craft beer brewery that also makes some notable craft sodas.
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